Bubby and Girdy

Girdy relaxing at the end of the shoot.

Last week I was given the opportunity to work on some of my pet photography. An acquaintance who owns two little Yorkies allowed me over to their home. The two, Girdy and Bubby, were hysterical and it was great experience photographing them.

Girdy enjoying the outdoors.

Bubby hanging out in his corner.

We started off inside, using their favorite toys to try and get them to pose. Needless to say, they took that as us just wanting to play. So after a short time photographing them inside we moved outdoors to let them burn off all of the energy they were showing inside. However, our time outdoors was short as the heat wore them out faster than anything else. Once back inside I was able to snap a few shots of them just mellowing out. It was during this time, while I was laying on the floor taking photos of Girdy, that Bubby crept up on me and attacked me by relentlessly licking my ears. I guess it was his way of thanking me for snapping some shots of him.

Girdy perched on the couch.

Bubby outside with his favorite toy.

In the end, it was an extremely fun photo shoot. I have to thank Dorothy and Nick once again for inviting me over and allowing me to photograph Bubby and Girdy.

University of Phoenix Stadium

Hey guys. I have to say I've been really excited lately and last night added more to the excitement. So as my long term goal, I've decided to gear myself towards architectural and design photography. This in itself is motivating as I now have some direction with my work. But to add to this, last night I went out to start out and practice shooting the University of Phoenix Stadium and I am beyond happy with my results. The image seen above is the shot that I had in my head going into the shoot, so its exciting to actually see it as a work of my own.

This shot was something of a shock. Having never been to the stadium I had no idea that there was a fountain. Boy was I happy that they did. I had to take this shot several times however, as the shadows wreaked havok on the scene causing intermitant shade and sunlight. With some patience I was able to get the shot above though.

Finally, was the shot of the Pat Tillman statue. The whole thing was incredible, but both Samantha and myself were amazed at how the shadow played across the curved wall behind the sculpture. This was definitely a shoot that I am proud of.

I'm Back!!!

My goodness, it has been way too long since my last post. I've been busy reorganizing all of my photos and trying to gather a new direction for myself. As such, I haven't gotten out too much to photograph much of anything.

As I move forward however, I have realized that I need a good portfolio of work to showcase to potential clients. To do so, I've been working through the hundreds upon hundreds of photographs that I have, to narrow down some good sets in the different subject areas. I've decided that I would post some of my portraits that I've taken over the past several years (they can also be found at my new Flickr page as well http://www.flickr.com/photos/benelyphotography/).

Seaworld!!

Well, I'm back. After a couple of weeks off I've finally gotten back and have some new work to post. As the title says, this weeks post is on Seaworld, San Diego. This past week we took a trip out to California and one of the things that we did was to visit the park. I certainly had a blast and it was nice seeing the park since the last time was when I was a tiny little squirt.

This was my first attempt at photography in a zoo setting. Its tricky trying to make sure that things look natural, and in some cases (Shamu) you just have to accept that its all in a man made environment and just shoot what you can.

The sea lions were a riot to photograph. Of all the animals in the park, they definitely had the most personality. The best part was watching them go nuts when park visitors would feed them. Its a shame though that during the whole process I never got a shot of the birds attacking visitors for the fish meant for the sea lions. I chose to go for the black and white on these shots since the sea lions had very smooth features that when wet gave a great level of contrast to their features.

The hardest thing to photograph were all of the aquarium animals. I took tons of photos, but dealing with the glass distortion, glares, reflections, and the difficulty focusing left me with just a few good shots. Here is one shot that I was happy though of one of the many sharks.

Cactus Bloom and Idle Photo

Hey everyone. So I had quite a venture this past weekend. I made a trip down to Sierra Vista (way the heck out there) to observe the humming bird tagging along the San Pedro River. The trip had some hick-ups, Tucson road construction being one of the main culprits. Anyways, while on our trip, during lunch, I noticed a saguaro that was blooming. Now I've seen some here and there, but I never quite found the one I wanted to photograph. This guy was amazing though. The buds and flowers were arranged perfectly and I was even lucky enough to climb up on a rock to get a straight on shot rather than shoot looking up towards the cactus. Anywho, here is the shot that I got.

To keep this post from getting short and also that I am super excited about this photo, I've decided to start a little bit of what I will call "Idle Photo." Basically, I will always have photos that weren't posted as they might not quite fit the subject of the post, but are worthy of being posted. So after sitting idle, I will find ways to squeeze them into small posts or posts of their own. To start this off, there is no other photo than one of the first that I ever took. This photo was taken with my first camera (Canon Digital Rebel), literally a month after I got it. I was on a family vacation in Boston and while there we made a trip to Lexington. While there I took this photo which has hung out on my hard drive now for the last 5+ years. I brought it back to life this past week as I was looking for a colorful photo to fill an empty frame in my home. So without further ado....

Desert Botanical Gardens - Butterfly Pavilion

Hey there everyone. I should start off by saying that I'm real excited about this weeks post. This past weekend was my wife's and my anniversary. One of the things we did was to go to Phoenix's, Desert Botanical Gardens. While there we stopped by the butterfly pavilion and I went crazy with my camera. It was kinda nice to challenge myself by shooting the butterflies. Where the past several weeks I've felt that I've been doing a lot of flower photography with my macro lens, it was a nice change of pace to actually have to photograph something alive and moving.

It was a really crazy experience too. This was due to the fact that the number of photographers not only in the DBG, but specifically the butterfly pavilion was mind boggling. There were tripods, monopods, reflectors and everything else floating around. The funny thing is that where most were using telephoto lenses, I had my face in the bushes to make use of my macro lens. That's definitely the way to stand out from the crowd.

All in all it was a very exciting trip and I was extremely happy with the photos that I got.

Now I must throw out my teaser. While in Sedona for our anniversary, I came up with and partially started a new project. I'm excited to get working on it and see what I can do. For now you have to just wait and ponder. But I'm hoping to have enough soon so that I can give you a sample. It will most definitely be a long project, expect 1-2 years.

Gabe and Jessica Thiel Wedding

A couple months back, I had been asked to photograph a wedding for some family friends. I have to say, it was definitely a learning experience as it was my first wedding. It made it nice though knowing the bride (Jessica) and groom (Gabe). Wedding's are definitely fast paced and in a much different setting than I am used to. It was fun and I'm glad that I had the chance to do this job. I wanted to say thanks to both Jessica and Gabe for the opportunity. Here are a handful of photos from what I have.