groomed my pups myself!!

[spoospirit]

Well, I finally got up enough nerve to try clipping my two pups myself.  It was pretty scary but went better than I had hoped for.  It isn't the best cut by no means but at least I got my feet wet.

Everyone is welcome here!



Billy backlit by the setting sun



Carly's pretty little face



Carly is getting bigger!



Mom, what are you doing??



Carly framed



Mommmm!  Look what Billy did to me.  He rolled me in the snow!!



Watching the snow melt.  Yippee!!



Ok!  Enough pictures...my toes are cold.

[Michael]

Good start if this is your first time grooming the pups! With four poodles you'll get plenty of experience in no time! I love that tipped quizzical head look in the one picture....poodles have such wonderful expression when they do that! Thanks for sharing the pics....don't stop.....we love seeing great poodle pics!

[zefi]

Great photos yet again. You do so well with the blacks.... Any tips? I'm good at taking photos usually, but photographing blacks is a new challenge for me! LOL I know the basics.... preferably not in full sun, no flash, natural light... anything else?

[spoospirit]

Actually, you pretty much said it all.  What type of camera are you using?  Do you have an on-camera flash or one that is attached on a hot shoe?  You can use flash but how you do it depends on what type of flash your camera has.  Try taking your natural light photos in the morning or later in the evening.  You will have the best light at those times.  A light overcast sky acts like a huge soft box and can give you a really nice light on them without blowing them out.

[zefi]

I dont have a great camera. I have two digital cameras. One is a kodak with a dock, 3x optical zoom, a pretty simple camera. The other is something else, cant remember offhand what brand it is and its in the car and I'm too lazy to go get it. LOL It has a higher zoom but I dont really like the colour in the photos. When I compare the cameras the older Kodak is much better. One day I'll get a decent camera...

[spoospirit]

FYI...If you ever get one with the pop-up flash, there is an attachment made for it now by Gary Fong that diffuses the flash and makes much nicer images.

[Michael]

I think your new camera is a 4x Canon, Zefi....at least that's what I'm thinking you told me it was. The Kodak did take nice pics when I was there and from other pics I've seen from it. But a hot shoe digital camera would be a big step up for taking any photos I'd assume. I've got an older Fuji that is ok, but I need to upgrade bigtime before long. I haven't had it with black poodles until Dahlia came along, and have only gotten one quick session with her and it was in the house in poor lighting one night....so I have to see if I can do better later on. I wasn't very good with a normal SLR and that even had a hot shoe with aimable flash, so not sure how good I'll do. But always worth learning more and the tips here are good. At least with digital cameras you can *practice* a lot more easily to get the hang of things. Thanks for sharing more great pics!

[spoospirit]

You're welcome.  And, you're right.  It doesn't cost much of anything to take as many pictures as you want and throw away the ones you don't like.  One of the really fine things about digital photography.  Happy shooting!   

[Michael]

Exactly, Debbie....so keep on sharing those great pics