Project 52: Week 1 - "Shiny"

I decided for 2019 I really want to work on my camera skills. I have fairly decent abilities and understanding of my equipment already but you can always learn more and take it to the next level. I figured a 52 week pet photography challenge would be the perfect opportunity for this (as well as getting my lazy butt into gear with my girls instagram account. Flick them a follow @thekodaco ;)

I really had to scratch my brain for what I could photograph for “Shiny”. I can already tell the 51 tasks to come will be challenging if I don't start getting creative!

I managed to snag these awesome custom Disney Ears for myself at a bargain price and during the long drive home it came to me - Star Wars themed photo using the two Star Wars ears that had shiny elements to them. One of the biggest things I want to work on is my indoor photography. I much prefer to work in an outdoor setting and am not particularly drawn to indoor photos of pets, however, on more than one occasion I have had a concept in mind that required photos to be done inside and I have never been satisfied with the quality of the end result...

I felt pretty disappointed with the fact that yet again the concept in my mind and what I was producing had a very clear disconnect. If I had more planning and preparation time I may have been able to fine tune it, but as it is I am already starting this project late. Whoopsies. Only a small handful of images turned out somewhat useable but nothing that I would feel comfortable presenting a client, however, I was able to salvage this image which I kind of fell in love with.

Kimba has never been a fan of dress ups and especially hates things on her head, I am surprised that I managed to get a photo of her that was sharp as she is a total wiggle butt! She is particularly challenging to capture when costuming is involved but luckily yoghurt drops are her kryptonite so she braved the ears for just under 60 seconds. I played around a lot with the manual settings earlier in the session and ended up shooting with F7, ISO 8000 using the standard kit lens at 18mm and natural light. The images ended up being around about this bright but in post production I noticed that my images were not quite as sharp as I would have liked. To shoot Kimba at the very end of my session I ended up just capturing this image using AUTO.

It was good to finally play around with indoor images again but if anything, this was a massive lesson in planning and preparation. Once I have played catch up for the first few weeks I am sure I will see a massive improvement in that aspect.

~Lilakian~

What are your thoughts on how we incorporated 'Shiny'? What would you have done to fit the theme and how much are you loving the BB-8 ears?