Evolution of Puppy Photos

It was brought to my attention this week that out puppy photos have really changed over the years. Every week I used to post to this blog with my favorite photos, bloopers and fun facts. Then life happened and the weekly blog posts stopped happening.

I am not going to promise to do blog posts every week again, but I would like to start posting more often.

Colorado Puppy Rescue has given me a gift that I want to share. The last 3 years I have immersed myself in learning photography. It was a rough start, but luckily puppies are cute not matter who is behind the lens.

You can see many examples of photos a few years back in the previous blog post. If nothing else scanning through them gave me a real laugh.

We were taking photos outside and this time of year was rough - shooting in the dark was a way of life, and what was in the background was anyone's guess:


I was also learning photo editing software and spent HOURS on getting just the right affect.

Not to shock you but the puppy above was not at the beach.


Again....I know this is really fantastic editing, but this puppy was not looking in through a car window!!!

The photos that we are doing today are simple, but I hope that the love that I pour into it still shines through. The one thing that hasn't changed over the years...........puppies are still adorable.



Thanks,
Christy Hess

Friday Fix - 6-27-2014 - Professional Photos

I am an amateur photographer who is always looking for new ways to raise funds for Colorado Puppy Rescue and have fun at the same time.

I found a fundraiser for another rescue where a professional photographer was donating all of the money paid for photo sessions to the rescue. I thought I would go check it out. I paid $75 for 1/2 hour session for my dog and myself. There was an option of $120 for an hour for multiple dogs/family members. What I found out after the session is that this photographer is charging a ton of money for the resulting photos and because I was only booked for 1/2 hour my dog didn't really have time to settle down. I bought an adorable pink pearl necklace and I had to ask over and over and over again to be able to put it on. To top it all off, I have to setup another session to "view" the resulting photos at the photographers studio.

I really want to do a photo session for Colorado Puppy Rescue, but would like to schedule hour long sessions (so we can have some fun) and include two digital or printed photos. All photos from the shoot would be available on the website and could be purchased separately. Would you be willing to pay $75 for a photo session with me? Let me know by leaving a comment or emailing me at funds@coloradopuppy.org! If I get enough interest I will work on getting it scheduled in August.

OK - onto other fun things. If you can't already tell, puppy/dog photos are my obsession lately. Everywhere I look I see photo props. One of my friends told me about a Groupon - of course I jumped on it.

Used it in a couple of photos this week and think it is going to be a great photo prop.

If you come across anything that would make a great prop for puppy photos, please let me know! I am constantly in search of capturing the perfect puppy photo. Here is my favorite from this week:

Have a great Friday and I look forward to hearing from you. If you ever want to take a look at all of our puppy photos, they are available along with our alumni and before/after photo albums. Please check them out at http://coloradopuppyrescue.zenfolio.com/

Different Perspective (10/11/2013)

Last week we had a fall theme for our puppy photos. It worked pretty well, considering that all of the photos were taken inside.

A few months ago the photo below was posted on facebook - stating what an incredible photo.

It is outstanding, and it got me to thinking. What if we posted "alternative" photos of our puppies? Would photos like these have adopters flocking to our event?

Or these?

This perspective is always a good one in my opinion.

Maybe I will stick with the cute puppy with the props.

I also got this one from one of the fosters - the two headed dog!

Had to look twice on that one didn't you :) Hope you enjoyed the photos from a little different perspective.

Friday Fix (8/9/2013) - Help!

By Christy Hess

The last few months we have been busy at Colorado Puppy Rescue (in a great way). Every other week we have a longer/bigger intake that starts later in the evening. This week we found out that we definitely need more than one photographer at an event. I was the bottleneck. But my wrangler hung in there for me and we ended up with some great photos!

48 pups + 630 photos + 3 hours + 3 hours cropping photos for website = 1 late night

We had the Sears Portrait studio for puppies going this week, because as we started pictures, the sky opened up and it started pouring rain. The great thing - the puppies are so darn cute this week that they will have no problem finding homes.

There were some bloopers though - enjoy.

Not looking!

Not looking!

Not Looking - see a pattern here?

Might have overdone it with the props on this one - my fault.

Needed to stretch his legs during the photo shoot

Fetch please!

What's happening over there?

What's happening over there?

Gottal love a shar pei shake

...and the other way.

Work it! The camera loves you!

How's this for a picture for the website.

Looks like the same dog as above - but they were two different dogs, just the same pose.

Watch out, if you don't pose for a picture I am going to make you pose in this bucket

Have a great weekend.

Friday Fix (5/31/2013) - Awkward

By Christy Hess

I want to start by saying thank you to Andrea, Kristen, Tyler and Kari for helping capture great photos of this week's puppies.

Puppy photography is an obsession with me! I think that getting the right photo is just so important for these puppies to catch the eye of their new family, but.....it doesn't always work that way.

Wanted to share some awkward puppy photos - first installment.

Lap shots are always challenging.

Let me get comfortable for this photo shoot.

Ummm....I don't want to touch it.

Watch the finger.

Another lap shot.

This is just embarrassing.

Please call on my - I am raising my paw.

Something is right over there.....

Don't worry - I got her. You are now safe.

Help me...I can't get up.

We try to get natural poses, but this one didn't work so well.

Gotta pay attention to the shadows and what/who is in the background.

Lap shot....

Excuse me - can you move?

But......

But......

I got nothing.....

I am putting one foot over the line.

Hope you enjoy your weekend. If you have any awkward puppy/dog photos that you want to share, please email them to me: mcshess@gmail.com.