Category: Dog Photography

My Favorite Photography Gear

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If there’s something that makes a photographer tick (and drool), it’s looking at photography gear and gadgets, most of the time while online. Who doesn’t go ‘window-shopping’ online for their favorite hobby, obsession or lifelong pursuit? If there’s anything that the web has done, it has made clicking and shopping so easy, it’s scary. But it has to be said, that this ease has made it so that you can potentially get your hands on something that you actually need the very next day, if you wish…and so revolutionize your photographing power that much sooner!
Me and my fellow Clickin Moms photograp(her)s somehow always manage to mention photography gear and tools at every photowalk or meetup, so I love hearing about others’ fun purchases too. I don’t have much extra money, and nor am I a spendthrift, so my shopping usually goes along with a lot of deliberating and comparing, and this usually means I’m a happy customer. There is now a huge market for women photographers out there, so I have featured a number of items here that reflect that.

Thanks to Pinterest (and sites like Amazon and Etsy), many of us probably spend entirely too much time gawking at things we can’t afford or don’t need, but here are a few choice photog purchases I have made, that I love, love, love. This one is for the lady photographers!
*Note: I have not been asked or paid to write about these products by the business owners, so they really are things I love enough to write about…

1) Custom camera strap – Something Strappy, $28

Camera Strap, Something Strappy

Camera Strap, Something Strappy

Now maybe I should join the Black Rapid gang and get one of their straps, but I like to be more unique than that, getting something that says me a lot better. The strap on my main camera, my Nikon D7000, is a custom strap by Something Strappy on Etsy. I spent hours ogling straps, deciding a camera strap cover wasn’t for me; although I like the idea of changing designs more easily, they never stay in one spot and bunch up, making my strap not looking as awesome as it could. My custom strap does have different prints on the two sides, as well as my photography business name embroidered on it (marketing tool!), so I at least fulfilled two design choices with it. Kimberly K was easy to chat online with to get the strap as I would like it, and I can tell great care was taken in making it just as I wanted.
It can be attached to the camera just as any strap would, but I use a Strap Buddy on the base of my camera, so that it can hang more easily on my side (take that, Black Rapid) and so far, it has been the perfect combo. The Strap Buddy was bought on Photojojo‘s site; quite possibly having the coolest collection of fabulous photography gadgets anywhere on the web. But naturally, many many things on there that I don’t actually need, alas.

*Baby Crown prop: JBPLove, also on Etsy

2) Lens cap keeper strap – Everlee Designs, $5 (CAD)

Owl Lens Cap Keeper, Everlee Designs

Owl Lens Cap Keeper, Everlee Designs

This little handy dandy gadget is also the cutest little gadget, thanks to Megan Lee, based up in Ottawa, Canada. Also bought on Etsy. And I kind of fib here by putting this in the singular, because I have kept on going back to Everlee Designs to buy these for all my lenses and have just bought myself a backup. Having your lens cap staying attached to your camera instead of setting it down somewhere or putting it in your pocket (for it to fall out) is more than handy. That’s one less thing to worry about when you’re shooting a session. I suppose this is unabashedly one for the girls, because I have a couple of owls, a ladybug/bird, a flower and I have a pink mushroom coming. Beyond cute, and also serves to help capture the attention of many a photographed cat with the dangling of my camera cap.
Megan also includes with my purchase, the cutest notes to me and some blank tags that I use on client packaging.

*On the above photo of my camera with the strap and crown, you can see another of the owl lens cap keepers!

3) Rose Bronze camera bag – Jo Totes, $89, and Urban Photo sling bag – Lowepro, $76

Rose Bronze camera bag, Jo Totes

Rose Bronze camera bag, Jo Totes

Now these are two things, yes, but one can’t go anywhere without a bag to carry everything in, and these two serve different purposes. I’m actually cheating here, because these were both bought as gifts for me (although I picked them out).

My Rose is the larger bag as well as the prettier one, and holds a good load of gear safely: camera body with lens attached, 2 lenses, external flash and some other gubbins like an extra battery, filters, cell phone, etc. Sometimes it feels a bit too bulky and pretty to take along to a shoot, so I often use my Urban Sling instead (photos below). It’s boring black, but sometimes inconspicuous is good. It’s also very easy to pull round to my front to change out lenses and so forth, is very comfy and light, and I stuff a fair amount in: camera plus lens or two (depending on lens size) and my flash-gun.

I have many other bits and bobs that I use and love, aside from my actual kit, but these are things that I get asked about when people see them, so I thought I’d share. I definitely support the little businesses I find on Etsy for buying unique custom items and there’s a plethora of cool photography products out there that aren’t just black and grey and advertising your camera brand. If you buy through Etsy, tell them I sent you, and get customizing!

Photos on the blog soon of my recent wedding photography session. Excited to get them done! Catch up with me on Facebook too: K.A.Moore Photography on Facebook

xo ~ K

PS. Follow me on Pinterest here: kamoorephoto

Everlee Designs Owl Lens Cap Keeper
Lowepro Urban Photo Sling
Lowepro Urban Photo Sling (inside)
Jo Totes Rose Bronze Camera Bag
Strap Buddy – Photojojo

Photo Session Blog: Growth

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I have finally wrapped up my biggest session yet that involved both the growth of a lovely family, as well as growth in terms of myself as a photographer, and I’d love to share.

What started with a grandmother-to-be of a friend asking me to take some candid baby shower photos, this ‘session’ turned into a several months-long photography journey for me, following the family from the baby shower through to photos of twin boys at a few months old. Basically a total of five separate sessions, which covered the shower, a maternity session, a couple’s session and two separate baby sessions of twin boys. And among all that I also took photos of their 4 cats and their dog!! The journey allowed me to explore my strengths as a photographer and presented me with new challenges and types of photography that I had hoped to explore. I also discovered the areas where I need to learn more and improve. Ultimately I feel so grateful to have had this opportunity, and I feel so proud to now have all the prints and products to turn over to the new parents.

When a photographer is invited in to take photos during times like this, it’s not just an experience for the client or family, it is also a journey for the photog. I’ve seen (and personally experienced) the joy and hope that comes with expecting a baby; it was enlightening to see it all from the outside, as I documented it all. I still regret not having my own maternity photos done when I was expecting (or a proper newborn session), so this story unfolding gave me much to reflect on, and it became very important to me to make sure I treated it with the same care and hope as if it were my own photos being done. When I went through my own pregnancy and labor/delivery, I also didn’t have the fortune of having family here, so I was also in awe of this loving, supportive family being a part of it all (and thank goodness, since it’s twin boys!).

A few things that I think are worth sharing:

  • Having maternity photos done is an intimate experience, and one where you are asking the expectant mama to share herself with you and the camera, to capture a time in her life that may only happen one time. I found it to be more fulfilling than I expected, and I appreciated the openness of someone willing to let me in to experience that. It’s a time when you feel vulnerable but there is something so beautiful and amazing about it, it’s just hard for that beauty to not show through in the photos. Plus this was the part where all the animals ended up being models too!! Their intuition about the changes to come was pretty obvious!
  • Taking photos of a loving happy couple about to have a baby (wait, two!!) brings an infectious enthusiasm for life and was a reminder to me of how precious that time is for a couple together before babies take over! The love they have for each other just shone through. Being that I have sadly few couple’s photos of my own (pre-baby and otherwise), I can’t think of a better time to capture that connection and excitement and love on camera.
  • Taking photos of twins babies is quite the bigger challenge than taking them of one, but can be twice as cute. Quite predictably, when one baby was asleep, the other was wide awake, crying or feeding (and then repeat with other baby!). This also was partly why I scheduled two sessions to do baby photos (with one being about a month later) so as to get enough of each twin being a happy, quiet, sleeping baby as opposed to being crying and fussy. As you know, we do like to pretend that they are always quiet little angels and preserve our memories of them like that! The twins are fraternal, so this also means they look different and are quite feasibly running on separate clock, and they also conspired to have ‘baby acne’ at different times to make my editing work ‘interesting’. It made for long sessions and required a lot of patience, but hearing mama ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over the proofs has already made it worth it. Just wait until she sees her finished prints, wraps and large collage standouts for their walls! Patches (the dog) made sure he continued to be in the baby photos…as if they could possibly show him up, eh?! Piha Babies 69
  • Extra notes: thank goodness the internet makes global communication easy these days. We were able to stay in constant contact about editing and ordering choices while I was overseas in England. Although the process may have gone quicker without a vacation, illness, indecision over which images are favorites, being busy with the twins now that they were born (that’s a lot of work!), but since hundreds of photos were taken over all these sessions, I think extra time made the anticipation greater, my work more thorough, and I think I feel more accomplished with the results.

So tomorrow I get to hand deliver prints, a gallery wrap, a flash drive of images, a couple of 10×20 triptych standouts, two 16×20 collage standouts, plus a few surprises, all in some fun hot pink wrapping and I am just so excited. I have learned so much from this, both personally and professionally (and photographically), and I am grateful. Many many thanks to the Piha/Amato family! I can’t wait to hopefully take more images of the beautiful family again.

xo ~ K

“Growth is the only evidence of life.” ~ John Henry Newman

Father’s Day Post: Real Men Love Cats

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First post since I came back from England; I’m a naughty girl for not posting anything sooner since I’ve been stateside! I have been busy wrapping up a mega session; that will be another post…

First of all, for Father’s Day, I want to say a big thank you to all the men out there who love cats, give cats wonderful homes, and especially who have come into Animal Talk to adopt one of our cats; many of those cats are adults and needed a home for a long time. I also always feel grateful to all the cat-loving folks out there like myself, who love their cats (and other pets) and give them safe and loving homes.

But the central point of my post here is that I’m a believer of the concept that real men are the ones who love cats!! (How dare she say that?!) I think there is a common (and I think silly) perception out there that cats often just make great pets for women, as opposed to men: that women are ‘cat-people’ and that dogs are MAN’s best friend. There are all sorts of quotes and opinions out there that perpetuate and demonstrate that stereotype, that women go with cats (and are likened to them, plus who can ignore the moniker “crazy cat lady”?), and men with dogs (and are likened to them!). Here’s a smattering:

“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein

“If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.” ~ Mark Twain

“I am not a cat man, but a dog man, and all felines can tell this at a glance – a sharp, vindictive glance.” ~James Thurber

“Cats are very independent animals. They’re very sexy, if you want. Dogs are different. They’re familiar. They’re obedient. You call a cat, you go, ‘Cat, come here.’ He doesn’t come to you unless you have something in your hand that he thinks might be food. They’re very free animals, and I like that.” ~ Antonio Banderas

“Guys are like dogs. They keep coming back. Ladies are like cats. Yell at a cat one time…they’re gone.” ~ Lenny Bruce

Some of you blokes out there do enjoy the company of kitties, despite the pervasive stereotypes that women are ‘cat-people’, and men are ‘dog-people’. Supposedly though, men like dogs because they are obedient and submissive (which makes them ‘easier to own’, so they say) and enjoy simple things like catching a ball; they are also generally not so graceful when it comes to ‘grooming habits’ or eating (case in point: compare a cat cleaning itself with a dog doing so – no contest here, I think). Cats are seen as more complicated, demanding, overly-sensitive, and how can you argue with the grace and beauty of felines? I also asked my test subject – my five year-old boy – if he thought dogs/cats were more like men/women, and he said “Men are like dogs. Girls are like cats.” Hmmm, maybe it is quite obvious then.
Despite the number of people who are afraid of dogs, there is quite the number of people who are ‘intimidated’ or freaked out by cats; isn’t it interesting how a cat usually spots the human in the room that is not a ‘cat person’ and tries to convert them?! This intelligence I tend to liken to female (feline) intuition. And why is there a ‘Cat Woman’ and then the werewolf (I’ve never heard much about female werewolves)? I think it’s even common place to call a cat you don’t know as being a ‘she’, and a dog is at first assumption a ‘he’.

Mark Twain's cats "Wide Awake" photo by Elmira photographer Elisha M. VanAken, 1887 [Photos from the Dave Thomson collection] "He would call (the cats) to "come up" on the chair, and they would all jump up on the seat. He would tell them to "go to sleep," and instantly the group were all fast asleep, remaining so until he called "Wide awake!" when in a twinkling up would go their ears and wide open their eyes." - Anonymous article titled "The Funniest Writer on Earth. Some Anecdotes about Mark Twain," The Rambler, Dec. 24, 1898.

Mark Twain’s cats “Wide Awake”
photo by Elmira photographer
Elisha M. VanAken, 1887
[Photos from the Dave Thomson collection]
“He would call (the cats) to “come up” on the chair, and they would all jump up on the seat. He would tell them to “go to sleep,” and instantly the group were all fast asleep, remaining so until he called “Wide awake!” when in a twinkling up would go their ears and wide open their eyes.”
– Anonymous article titled “The Funniest Writer on Earth. Some Anecdotes about Mark Twain,” The Rambler, Dec. 24, 1898.

So here’s a list for you of some brilliant and famous men who were known to have many cats and/or were/are cat-lovers (and not afraid to say so). And my guess, with the writers listed, is that their cats were often found lying on their papers and manuscripts. It’s quite the interesting list:

Winston Churchill Charles Dickens

Albert Einstein T.S. Elliot

Ernest Hemingway John Lennon

Freddie Mercury Isaac Newton (he even invented the modern-day cat-flap for doors)

Mark Twain Edgar Allen Poe

Confuscious Franklin Roosevelt

H.G.Wells Marlon Brando

James Franco Jack Kerouac

Joey Ramone Kurt Cobain

Bill Clinton Jackson Galaxy (cat whisperer, host of ‘My Cat from Hell’: a show you HAVE to see)

Coincidentally, there are quite a number of cats that look like Hitler ('Kitler') as if to say 'stuff it'; enough for there to be the website http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

Coincidentally, there are quite a number of cats that look like Hitler (‘Kitler’) as if to say ‘stuff it’; enough for there to be the website catsthatlooklikehitler.com

*Now is a good time to point out that Adolf Hitler was well-known to despise cats. ‘Nuff said.

For any man who has been/is in my life, it has kind of been a personal requirement that they love animals, and that must include cats. I believe you possess considerable empathy and compassion to love animals (especially the aloof and complicated kitty), and that’s a biggie, at least for me. My man I think actually is truly jealous of the attention that my handsome Jeffers gets from me; maybe I should give him a kiss in the morning before the cat?!
So if you’re a guy who can unabashedly love the crazy ways of the feline: them being affectionate only when they want to, demanding and temperamental, thank goodness for you, and I think you’re in good company. Cats deserve to be worshipped like they expect to be!

So cheers and Happy Father’s Day to all you ‘cat-daddies’ out there – and here are some of the lucky Animal Talk cats that have been adopted by men from us recently. You rock!! And at least in my book, in case you didn’t know – yes, real men do love cats.

xo ~ K

PS. Our favorite male kitties though? They’ve been ‘fixed’…please spay and neuter!!

PPS. I love both dogs and cats…and I like that they are different. Suits me happily. But this tiger may well have been a cat in a former life.

Top L to R: MacDuff, Cami, Apache Middle L to R: Jaxyn, Squeaky,Poxie Bottom L to R: Lenny, Clara, Sookie

Top L to R: MacDuff, Cami, Apache
Middle L to R: Jaxyn, Squeaky,Poxie
Bottom L to R: Lenny, Clara, Sookie

HeARTs Speak | Seattle Rescue Pet Photography

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I am ecstatic to say that today my membership application for HeARTs Speak was approved! HeARTs Speak is a global network of artists that is dedicated to helping get homeless animals adopted through photography and art, and I am so humbled and pleased to become a part of the community. Be on the lookout for my new HeARTs Speak watermark on my images of the animals at Animal Talk looking for homes.

Please visit HeARTs Speak to find out more, and please click on my Giving Back page above to read more about the work that I do photographing rescue animals.

Thank you, HeARTs Speak!!  And thank you for all the work that you do to support the efforts of everyone involved in finding homes for abandoned, neglected and abused animals everywhere. xo ~ K