My Blog

This weekend we went back to the dog park and tried out the Fetch. Basically, it’s a harness with 2 attachments to mount the Go Pro. We set up Loki with the camera on his back and let him run wild at the dog park.

We had a terrible time getting it to stay put. Most of the footage was completely unusable. The harness kept sliding off to one side. Loki was running full-out and the rig was bouncing all over the place. The footage kind of reminded me of the view from inside the Tasmanian Devil whirlwind.

After my last post about using the Go Pro at the dog park I started thinking how I could use this to take still images? We always send out holiday cards and I decided this year we would use pictures from the dog park.

Before buying the Go Pro, pulling stills from video didn’t result in the best quality pictures. Especially if you are like me and try to do everything the hard way, rather than buying expensive software for something you rarely use.

One of the fun things about being a photographer today is all the new and creative devices you can use. I remember as a child getting my first film camera and waiting days to get my images back. I hoarded my film and only took a picture if the shot was just what I wanted.

Now I can literally take thousands of digital images and print them instantly on my very own photo printer. We were in the mall last weekend talking to a drone pilot who makes money shooting video. It really is amazing what you can do with cameras today.

Ok confession time, I am horrible when it comes to getting my picture taken. I’ve never liked the way I look in them and can pick them apart endlessly. Being able to post process them myself helps but I can’t help being uncomfortable when a camera is pointed my way. I think this makes me relate better to my subjects who are camera shy. Believe me when I say I feel your pain.

Knowing a few tricks can be empowering. I’ve noticed that my eyes look sleepy or heavy in photos and it’s harder and harder not to blink the longer the session goes on.

I’ve been tinkering with cameras and doodling in sketch books for as long as I can remember. I taught myself to draw by freezing my favorite Disney movies and sketching the characters on screen in one of my mothers’ old sketch books.

I devoured books on drawing and cartooning. Learning to draw forced me to pay attention to perspective and learn how to force perspective to make the images I was drawing more compelling. I learned to use the entire canvas instead of focusing on just the center of the frame.