Typist: Bethany
I love this time of year in Cascadia. I love the temperatures, the rain, the snow covered mountains, the stormy waters, the myriads of cloud types, and the light beaming through. What I do not love is being so sick that I cannot enjoy every second of my spectacular bioregion's winter beauty. But I accept that with the good comes the bad, and vice versa. I have endured fourteen days and counting of miserable head, throat, and lung congestion, all while still healing broken and separated ribs, but I have managed to enjoy a little storm watching with the dogs. And, of course, capture some fantastic photographs of our adventure.

Dogwood Photography Photo Challenge Week 5, Landscape: Black and White
Look for a scene with great contrast that will make a great black and white.

More difficult than bundling up and venturing out with dachshund Wilhelm, corgi Brychwyn, and collie Huxley between Pacific Northwest storms, has been choosing photos to post through blurry eyes and between sneezes. Thanks to the stark beauty of a storm looming over Puget Sound, the varied viewpoints at Emma Schmitz Park in West Seattle, and my three creative canine models, I had a large amount of heavily contrasted storm photos to choose from. I think I finally managed a clear enough head to choose the best of the black and white storm watching dogs bunch. We'll see what I think once I am 100% again but for now, I have to go back to using every bit of energy I have making sure the dogs keep being as happy as they are pictured above.

This post is a part of the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge. Please see more of our photo challenge posts here.

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Typist: Bethany
Photographing three dogs while out on dog friendly adventures is enough of a daily challenge. When I throw adventure cat Amelia and traveling cockatoo Leo into the pet friendly outing mix, I very rarely get a picture with all five pets in perfect photograph form. But I do get a variety of group pet photos that display each pets individuality, serve the "we were here together" purpose, and give me a good chuckle. Perhaps it is the togetherness aspect of our adventures or that I am a glutton for punishment but I rarely photograph any of the pets alone. Shooting headshots for the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity to see what I could do with only one pet at a time in front of my camera. Any change in routine can be difficult. In this case, moving from photographing multiple pets to just one was indeed a challenge.

Dogwood Photography Photo Challenge Week 4, Portrait: Headshot
"You shot a selfie, now shoot a 'selfie' of someone else!"

The first challenge for me this week was choosing the pet portrait location and best lighting. I toyed with the idea of shooting each pet in their favorite place but the lighting in some of those places would not make for the classy portrait the dogs, cat and cockatoo deserved. So upon settling on photographing the pet's headshots outdoors, it rained buckets for days. Then I got a cold. I also knew that getting the right angle and clarity in these photographs would take an extra set of human hands. And Jason did a lot of traveling for work last week. Photo challenge indeed! But at last, the sun came out, I was able to get out of bed, and the neighbor was kindly available to help pet wrangle. Like all challenges, the tougher it is, the greater the reward. And I absolutely love each headshot! Like an excellent portrait should do, these photos perfectly display the individual personalities of my beloved pets.

This post is a part of the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge. Please see more of our photo challenge posts here.

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Typist: Bethany
Ah, red. It's one of my favorite colors and a photo challenge theme like artistic photos with a color theme is exactly why I wanted to join another year long photographic journey. All week, I have been pondering "how can I shoot that?" every time something red catches my eye. As usual, it is the pets that not only inspire but guide my imagination. When Leo showed an interest in the red ribbon I was removing from the Christmas wreath, I decided to set up a creative photo shoot with a white cockatoo in red.

Dogwood Photography Photo Challenge Week 3, Artistic: Red
"Shoot whatever inspires you. Red should be the focus of the image. Don't be afraid to be creative."

Leo playing peek-a-boo with the ribbon, manipulating it with his beak, and enjoying the crimson sparkles was very entertaining. It was also excellent for my parrot to have a positive experience with red which has occasionally proven to be a color he doesn't like. Perhaps his instincts remind him that somewhere in the wilds of New Guinea, there is a Triton cockatoo predator flashing a subtle red warning. Soon after our staged shoot, we had an accidental red encounter with Jason wearing his headlamp in the driveway. I am sharing these photos as well because, first, I totally love them, and I also think this second red cockatoo shoot speaks volumes about a photographic journey. I pondered what red photo I would take all week, I set up a complex photo shoot, yet the perfect red artistic photo was just a step outside with what inspires me sitting on my hand.

This post is a part of the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge. Please see more of our photo challenge posts here.

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Typist: Bethany
When Tynan died, I realized that he and I had been on all kinds of amazing adventures together and I rarely ever took even one memorabilia photo. So when Wilhelm and I headed out on our first road trip together, my heart told me to do something to document it. But even I don't want to look at my boring photos of some place I visited. I was terrible at taking landscape photographs. The second day of our trip, as Wilhelm and I explored an interesting, random historic site we'd stopped at to stretch our legs, I had an epiphany; if Wilhelm is in the photo, he automatically makes it not boring! And so began my photographic journey of putting my pets in the foreground of landscapes that I wanted to remember in a picture.

Dogwood Photography Photo Challenge Week 2, Landscape: Traditional Landscape
"Shoot a beautiful landscape and share it with the world. Find a nice foreground and don't forget the sky."

I still take pretty bad, boring landscape photos. I can either never get the horizon straight, the depth depicted, the color like I want it, or the foreground interesting. Yes, even when the foreground is my adorable pets! Landscape photography reminds me of every other art form I have tried- painting, sculpting, drawing- it never turns out like I imagined it would. But I am much happier trying and failing at getting good landscape shots than having no tangible memory of where I have been and what I have seen. I do love to just enjoy the scenery yet it is nice to have a little souvenir once in a while. This weeks photo challenge shots are from Grandview Off-Leash Dog Park where the view is truly grand but I am not often able to enjoy it due to the chaos of dachshund, corgi, and collie off-leash shenanigans. Fortunately, Jason was with us when we went last weekend and we were there for this lovely Cascadian sunset.  I know that I'm no Ansel Adams, but I do know I have cute dogs and a lot of fun!

This post is a part of the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge. Please see more of our photo challenge posts here.

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