# Funnest weekend ever!   (Large share)



## tirediron (Dec 4, 2017)

Just finished my favorite weekend of the year; "Pets with Santa".  This year we were supporting Vancouver Island Compassion Dogs, an organization which specializes in providing service dogs to Veterans.  We went five hours each on Saturday & Sunday, and shot just short of 250 sessions.  For those of you doing the math at home, that's an average of roughly two minutes and 25 seconds per session.  All in all, it was a frantic weekend, and great fun and we raised over $4000 for an outstanding cause.

As always, comments, critique and suggestions always appreciated.

1.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





2.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




3.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




4.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




5.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




6.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




7.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




8.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




9.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




10.  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




11.


----------



## Derrel (Dec 4, 2017)

O_M_G, #2 for the win! That CAT! Priceless!


----------



## baturn (Dec 5, 2017)

Very nice, John! BZ to all involved.


----------



## jcdeboever (Dec 5, 2017)

#7, cat is not digging the session. Lol


----------



## Braineack (Dec 5, 2017)

I'm going to PM you my mailing address, please put princess butterface into a box and mail her overnight.  thanks.


----------



## smoke665 (Dec 5, 2017)

Anything with a pet in it is great in my book but I have to agree with Darrel that #2 shot is the winner of the set.


----------



## Gary A. (Dec 5, 2017)

God Bless You John.


----------



## tirediron (Dec 5, 2017)

Derrel said:


> O_M_G, #2 for the win! That CAT! Priceless!


Disapproving cat disproves.  Strongly! 



baturn said:


> Very nice, John! BZ to all involved.


Thanks Brian! 



jcdeboever said:


> #7, cat is not digging the session. Lol


Nope... I'm guessing someone found half a mouse in their slipper the next morning!



Braineack said:


> I'm going to PM you my mailing address, please put princess butterface into a box and mail her overnight.  thanks.


  Sure!



smoke665 said:


> Anything with a pet in it is great in my book but I have to agree with Darrel that #2 shot is the winner of the set.


Cheers!



Gary A. said:


> God Bless You John.


Thanks Gary... I suspect I've still got a way to go before I'm out of the red though!


----------



## Gary A. (Dec 5, 2017)

'Tis the Season for Red.


----------



## zulu42 (Dec 5, 2017)

Such a wonderful thing you folks do there, and we benefit by seeing these great photos!
Must be exhausting. Who works harder, the photographer or Santa?

I love many of these. #2 FTW!


----------



## tirediron (Dec 5, 2017)

For those interested in quick BTS..  This is the way the lobby looked when I arrived for my recce a couple of days before:





and this is the way it looked when I had things where I wanted them:





Most of the people from this group had never done this sort of thing before, so I took on most of the set-up & arrangement.  Because this is high-volume shooting, the key is a streamlined path for the clients and their humans.  They come in, register, "donate", walk by the swag table and then on to the set.  Once the shoot is done, "Thanks for coming, next!" and off we go again; for most of Saturday, it was normal to have anywhere from 8 - 10 clients waiting.


----------



## tirediron (Dec 5, 2017)

zulu42 said:


> Such a wonderful thing you folks do there, and we benefit by seeing these great photos!
> Must be exhausting. Who works harder, the photographer or Santa?
> 
> I love many of these. #2 FTW!


Probably about 50/50...  he's done at 4.00pm, and I have to work another 6-8 hours on process, but he gets more bumps & bruises...


----------



## zulu42 (Dec 5, 2017)

Re #4,  it's so hard for me to pull detail out of black dogs like that. I usually end up pushing the shadows to the point it looks unnatural. Any tips?


----------



## pjaye (Dec 5, 2017)

LOVE these. Especially the crooked santa glasses in the iguana shot. Just seems so appropriate. Job well done!


----------



## tirediron (Dec 5, 2017)

zulu42 said:


> Re #4,  it's so hard for me to pull detail out of black dogs like that. I usually end up pushing the shadows to the point it looks unnatural. Any tips?


Yep (and I sincerely do NOT mean this to sound belittling or rude), but the trick is to get the exposure right.  If you look at the right-hand C-stand in the BTS "after" photo, you can just make my light meter dangling from it.  Even though I've done this for probably ten years now, and it's a VERY simple light set-up, I still check the whole scene with my incident meter to ensure that I've got it within <1/3 stop across the whole thing.  That said, I still raise the blacks a hair and drop the whites about an equal amount (around 10 points on the LR slider).  



pjaye said:


> LOVE these. Especially the crooked santa glasses in the iguana shot. Just seems so appropriate. Job well done!


Thank-you!   The glasses weren't intentional, but a particularly rambunctious golden lab broke them about mid-afternoon!


----------



## zulu42 (Dec 5, 2017)

Thank you for the insight. I have a jet black short haired dog who shows up in my photos as an ink blot


----------



## smoke665 (Dec 5, 2017)

tirediron said:


> I still check the whole scene with my incident meter to ensure that I've got it within <1/3 stop across the whole thing. That said, I still raise the blacks a hair and drop the whites about an equal amount (around 10 points on the LR slider).



To clarify, you did mean you take and  "incident" reading and not "reflective" reading, and is that with strobe or without? A 1/3 stop difference is a pretty flat ratio?


----------



## CherylL (Dec 5, 2017)

The cat looks aloof and the pup in #11 is adorable.


----------



## tirediron (Dec 5, 2017)

smoke665 said:


> To clarify, you did mean you take and  "incident" reading and not "reflective" reading, and is that with strobe or without? A 1/3 stop difference is a pretty flat ratio?


Incident readings of the strobe exposure (you can't do a reflective reading of a strobe exposure).  By "1/3 stop", I mean that the overall exposure doesn't vary more than 1/3 stop from front to back and edge to edge of the "shooting box".  I do use a pretty flat lighting scheme (fill 1/2 stop below key), but that's because once the lights are in position, they stay there.  I don't have time to adjust lighting or exposure, as much as I would like to some times.


----------



## tirediron (Dec 5, 2017)

zulu42 said:


> Thank you for the insight. I have a jet black short haired dog who shows up in my photos as an ink blot


Try bleaching him?


----------



## DarkShadow (Dec 5, 2017)

Excellent work as always,I have to agree on the cat in #2 what a face priceless. The only thing missing is the Cigar from the cats mouth.


----------



## smoke665 (Dec 5, 2017)

tirediron said:


> Incident readings of the strobe exposure (you can't do a reflective reading of a strobe exposure). By "1/3 stop", I mean that the overall exposure doesn't vary more than 1/3 stop from front to back and edge to edge of the "shooting box". I do use a pretty flat lighting scheme (fill 1/2 stop below key), but that's because once the lights are in position, they stay there. I don't have time to adjust lighting or exposure, as much as I would like to some times.




I assumed you meant "incident", but thought you might be doing a reflective reading for ambient. As to the lighting scheme I keep forgetting you're in production mode, and I'm in play mode LOL


----------



## Dean_Gretsch (Dec 5, 2017)

Pets and Vets? Count me in! Awesome what you did. Thank you for serving those who served! I loved the pic with Santa's glasses all askew too. I noticed that right away, and the goofy looking dog in the last pic, great!


----------



## tirediron (Dec 6, 2017)

DarkShadow said:


> Excellent work as always,I have to agree on the cat in #2 what a face priceless. The only thing missing is the Cigar from the cats mouth.


Yep... someone's going to pay dearly for that photo! 



smoke665 said:


> I assumed you meant "incident", but thought you might be doing a reflective reading for ambient. As to the lighting scheme I keep forgetting you're in production mode, and I'm in play mode LOL


I would LOVE to be able to spend as much time as necessary with each one, but...  it really is production photography in every sense of the word!



Dean_Gretsch said:


> Pets and Vets? Count me in! Awesome what you did. Thank you for serving those who served! I loved the pic with Santa's glasses all askew too. I noticed that right away, and the goofy looking dog in the last pic, great!


Thanks Dean!


----------



## vintagesnaps (Dec 6, 2017)

Those iguanas must be tough subjects to handle! That's almost as funny as that cat, who should get some sort of award.


----------



## tirediron (Dec 6, 2017)

vintagesnaps said:


> Those iguanas must be tough subjects to handle! That's almost as funny as that cat, who should get some sort of award.


The iguana(?) was very docile and easy to handle.  The cat was relatively easy as well, but a lot less enthused!


----------

