A Special Kind of Beauty

And faded beauty lingers still,

Lost forever to the world

But not to we whose hearts will fill

With what our eyes no longer see,

 A memory our thoughts will cherish

Of the beauty that will never perish.

The inevitable has happened, and a hard frost has put a sudden end to the gardening season.  All my lovely dahlias, who stood so tall and proud just a day ago, have turned brown and limp, their stems and foliage black and lifeless.  I gathered a great handful of the fading blooms, and headed inside to photograph their special kind of beauty, so that it will fade no more.

I set up my shooting table very simply.  A large black Bristol board (large sheet of cardboard) makes an excellent base, and my light was a small LED ring light plus a little ambient light from overhead.  I was going for extreme closeups and macros, looking for details and abstracts.  I added a handful of autumn leaves to balance out the flowers, selected my Nikkor 28-80 mm lens to go on my Nikon D7000 and, with my extension tubes on standby, I was ready to shoot.

Dogs and other people

Last week, I had an opportunity, through the PetValu pet food store in Thorold, to put my hard-earned photography skills to good use - doing a fund-raiser for the Niagara Falls Humane Society.  People were invited to bring in their pets, in a costume for Hallowe'en if they wanted to, and I would take their portrait.  For a donation to the Humane Society, they received a 5x7 print.

What great fun it was!  I had dogs and cats, a rat, and a lizard.  I had a set with a black backdrop, pumpkins, colourful leaves and corn stalks, arranged in a corner of the store, and a table ready for the smaller pets.  All the pets were very well behaved, and I was delighted with the results.

I delivered the photos on Friday evening (a day ahead of schedule) and many people have picked up already.  I have a few shots here to show you, of the ones who have signed their model releases, and I hope to have a few more in the next week.  I'm already looking forward to the Christmas shoot!