Monday, February 9, 2009

one hen, one chick, one barking dog

Yesterday I discovered that two models are much more difficult than one. Especially when one is a rambunctious hen and the other a giggly girl. On the up side, unlike Wynonna, Nelly thoroughly enjoys scratching around inside the house. She never fails to take advantage of an opportunity to let herself in anytime she sees an open door. Yesterday when it was time for her photo session, was no exception. She was waiting at the back door as though she had a scheduled appointment.

nelly

This shot was not at all what I was going for. My husband was giving my human model some proper chicken handling instructions. I took the opportunity to snap a few and got this one.

I have a vision of how I want these photos to look, and I'm still in the process of working out some of the details. The process involves a large colored background, positioning several different types of lights just so and set at just the right power, getting the subjects in interesting poses, and capturing their perfect expressions, all within the rather small space I have to work in. I set up a mini studio, this time in the living room, mainly so I would have enough space to shoot two subjects at the same time.

girl and chicken

girl and chicken

Bailey got wind that one of the girls was out of her environment, cackling with the humans. She was less than thrilled. I had to ban her to the basement for the duration of the shoot, so it was only fair that she get her chance in front of the camera.

bailey

bailey

4 comments:

Susan said...

Cindy, such beautiful photos! I love the way the light is coming through Nelly's wings. Just perfect. And the blue background sets it off wonderfully.

Isabel is adorable, as usual. Love the way she's holding Nelly in the second pic. Cute girls!

Cindy said...

Thanks Susan! I'm recruiting people and their chickens (this may expand since I have an interested duck owner), so I can do more with this series. If you lived closer, I'd be setting up a session.

Any suggestions for the title? so far a friend submitted 'Poultry Peeps'...

Susan said...

Cindy, I'm so bad at thinking up titles. They just have to hit me. If one pops in my head, I'll let you know.

'Poultry Peeps' is good. Nice little play on words.

Unknown said...

Cindy,

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Being from a small town I took the opportunity to raise chickens during my high school years and became so enthralled with them! Now that I'm away at college we don't have them anymore and I miss them!

Your blog fuses two of my favorite things, photography and chickens! So I had to become a follower!

Awesome work!