Dogs truly are a man’s best friend. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a client who was looking for some pet portraits of his gorgeous Great Dane, named Cabo. Having only ever photographed pet portraits of my own Siberian Husky, I was happy to take on the challenge of working with this gigantic animal. Cabo was a delight to work with and co-operated well with the various lighting setups and poses I had arranged for him.

The Great Dane is one of the world’s tallest dog breeds. Males in this particular breed when full grown can weigh up to 200lbs. As described by the American Kennel Club, “The Great Dane combines, in its regal appearance, dignity, strength and elegance with grand size and a well-formed body. One of the largest working breeds, it never appears ugly.”

This photograph a photo of me, shot over 9 years ago at age 17 (2001) while churning through another portrait drawing. The photograph I am drawing from was an original portrait of a child from my Mom’s home daycare service. The camera used to take the shot was a Pentax MX film body. It took additional time to have your work processed the “old-fashioned” chemical way. Until I found this photograph, I had lost memory of ever having created this piece.

Give or take ten years ago, I went through a phase of  drawing human figures. As a right-handed artist myself, my left hand would sit day by day, just begging to be recognized. One day the light caught my hand in the most perfect way, so I took the opportunity to record it.

I grabbed a nearby charcoal and drew every shadow and highlight detail I saw. The drawing was completed using black and white charcoal pencils.

Handling life in your own hands? This painting brings me back to the year 2000 in my own high school art class. Our project involved completion of a large-scale mural with the ability to choose our own subject matter. Upon completion, the size measurements of the piece estimated 6″ by 3″. If you look closely, you will notice that the light and shadow highlights on the hand actually indicate that this particular hand composition is virtually impossible to actually make in real life.

This original composition balances the complimentary colours, yellow and purple and is painted in acrylic paint. Many areas of the piece are actually painted using my fingers, while using a paint brush to finish off the edges.

In 2005, I Sandra Howard, shot my first digital SLR photograph on the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. Remember theses? I do! Over the past 6 years, I have been through a variety of learning phases and an equally wide variety of camera bodies.

Proceeding in order, my first film body camera was a Pentax MX. Upon moving to a digital body, I bought a Canon PowerShot S500 point and shoot, followed by a more advanced point and shoot, the Canon PowerShot S50. I then went with a more advanced lens system on the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. My passion for the hobby had me craving for more each day, eventually I treated myself by upgrading to the Canon EOS 20D. Today, I use both a Canon EOS 5D and a Canon EOS 5D Mark II in my work-flow.

During the final photo-shoot, 7-month old Sophia appeared delighted being set into a brown bum-sized bucket, especially upon our offering her a gorgeous single pink rose to hold. While having the opportunity to be so close to such a beautiful flower, Sophia never took her eyes off it. Judging by the expression in her eyes, Sophia had fallen in love.

As their baby photographer for this and the previous few sets, I want to leave warm thank you to Sophia’s parents and especially the adorable Miss Sophia herself.

Following the bathing of 7-month old Sophia, I bundled her up into one of her Daddy’s favourite brown blankets for the first set of photographs, followed by one of my favourite multi-coloured wool blankets for the second set. I am pleased with the series, especially the way the girl kept looking up into my camera with those perfect, glass-like, doll-like eyes for the entire shoot.

Sophia quickly became comfortable with the camera in her face, eventually reaching to grab my lens! I managed to sneak in silly faces while photographing Sophia to keep those beautiful smiles glowing over and over again. I’m delighted with the results of the beautiful set.

A mid baby photo-shoot nap is one of the best pieces of advice I would give any baby photographer. During this sessions our baby model, Sophia, became clingy to her parents. This is where my advice kicks in… the following shots were taken after setting Sophia down for a quick 30-minute nap. Upon awakening, Sophia was the happiest I had ever seen!

I love the purple and black striped background in this shots as they suggest a fun, magical and castle-like atmosphere.

Imagine the smell of fresh blossoms peaking through the tired winter soil early into each spring season. 7-month old Sophia has yet to experience the season’s true beauties. Don’t worry though because Mom has her ready to play in this gorgeous new polka-dot dress. This dress was so adorable that I wanted one on my size! In the final shots, Mom changed Sophia into an Easter Buddy outfit, complete with a bunny tail!

During this session, Sophia kept tilting her head up at me, almost as if she knew exactly was was going on in each tiny pose she managed to wiggle herself into.

In this series, I wanted to try to capture those split-second bonds that a parent feel when they look deep into their child’s eyes.

Sophia’s eyes lit up every time her parents were in her peripheral vision, she’s turn to them and her smile would break free over and over again. In this series, I captured the warm, love that each of us as children desire of their parents throughout their our entire lives.

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