Miss Lola

A month or so ago I took on a commission of an artist’s dog, a miniature schnauzer, named Lola. It was a strange and enlightening experience working with someone else’s dog that was not family or close friends, and I was not sure how it would go. The dog was a love to work with–very easy going and willing to just sit and take it all in. My first efforts were more along the lines of what looked like high school senior portraits as you can see here-and it just did not feel or look right-

High School Lola

In a light-bulb moment, I realized that what I needed to do was what I would do with my own dogs and that is to find the right set of things/props and background that would fit.  And so off I went. This is what I ended up calling “Busy Bee Lola” because I found myself falling into the trap of “oh, let’s try just one more thing” which has doomed many a collage and composite effort-

Busy Bee Lola

Back to the drawing board. This time I pared back the elements, and although the artist/client liked it, she felt it more appropriate for the time when Lola was no longer with them-

Heavenly Lola

Back to the drawing board again-and I stripped everything down that I could. The client mentioned that Lola loves flowers so that gave me a starting point. Hubble has cornered the chicken market, so I went for a crow-and the pennant the crow is holding is from an installation art piece that the client had created the previous month. I really liked the pennant and took a picture of it, not knowing exactly what I would do, but I was happy to have had it. So, this is Lola’s finished portrait and I am hoping that the client will be pleased with it too. Would I do it again? At first, I thought not, but I am slowly coming around to the idea that it might not be such a bad idea. It forces you to stretch and look for things that you might not otherwise.

And so presenting Miss Lola-a composite image taken with iPhone 7 and processed using iColorama, Snapseed, Distressed Fx, Hipstamatic, and LightBrush-

Miss Lola

Today’s Dog Quote:

“Why does watching a dog be a dog fill one with happiness?”
—Jonathan Safran Foer

And if you have gotten this far, this was the song dancing in my head throughout this entire time-

Tags: dog photography, dog quotes, dogs, phoneography, photography, Portraits, Snappy H'appy Photo Challenge

• June 30, 2017
• Dog Quotes, Dogs, Phoneography
• 22 Comments