DISCLAIMER: To be honest, just because I've been posting a lot of composites on the blog lately doesn't mean I like the regular pet photography sessions any less. I love them, I really do. I assure you, I love it. It's just when you have a chance to create something out of your own imagination in collaboration with a client, there's a certain magic that can happen.With that in mind, I wanted to show you a composite that a client wanted created for her company's holiday card. They are talent scouts and the previous year, we took the three of them against a gray backdrop and planted them in a jungle scene. Now because there were only people involved that year, I didn't post the image on my ...

Never let it be said that I won't try to photograph a dog in unusual spots. OK, maybe a dance studio isn't that unusual... after all, it is very much like a photo studio except with mirrored walls. My friend Chris Nguyen, a dancer AND dog trainer, came up with a shoot at Millennium Dance Complex in North Hollywood and we photographed nine dogs.To mix it up a bit from just regal portraits, which we still did, the dogs caught treats and balls during our sessions and that was a lot of fun. You really have to throw it properly and time it just so to get a good photo and I would say we were ultimately successful. We tried out two colors of seamless paper for the backdrop, one called baby ...

You know I love Luna. That little border collie has been my muse through many photo composites. She had the trial lens glasses on, she rocked a fez in my Moroccan image, she was very wary in the woods. I specifically photographed her in order to do some composites and so every now and then, I leaf through the Luna library, see an expression I like, and create a composite.So I sometimes spend a little too much time on Facebook and I came upon a fantastic composite of a young boy on a wooden boat at sea in the fog. The wooden boat was actually a model. The fog was created from dry ice. I thought, I can do that. Now my image was inspired by that photographer's, it really looks nothing at all ...

Now, what's all that jibbah-jabbah about artistically edited? Isn't that pretty high falutin'? I just want to show you something. I have a beautiful image of a dog. Dog is gorgeous. Background has potential.But the colors are just slightly off. They aren't coherent. There is a blue pipe going up the dog's head. There is a blue pillow but the blue on that doesn't match the pipe. The greens on the door in the back and one of the pillows almost match... but are just off enough to cause this Virgo's brain to revolt.So into Photoshop it goes.We completely removed the pipe and extended the green door. Now we have no blue elements except that pillow. So let's change the blue pillow to green. By ...