The First Annual Durham CT Pet Fair!

The Morning:
Saturday May 16th started off cold, rainy, gray and wet... we certainly did not feel like standing around outside all day on a day like this and we were 99.99% positive the First Annual Durham Pet Fair would be called off due to the weather… WRONG!!!! Mark and company of
of Help Willies Friends decided to roll the bones and jump off at full power and go ahead with the plans. On the surface I didn’t want to go out in the drizzle and be cold all day but, Secretly I was glad; I had been looking forward to having fun spending a day taking photos of a subject I love… and helping out the Animal Haven in a way that makes me feel good and just might help a
Dog get adopted!

Enjoy the Photos and as always, see more at www.brokenfencephotography.com
(Click on each Image to view full size)






The Day:
The day actually turned out to be a great one, the weather had cleared up by noon, the sun actually came out, and the air dried up. The vendors and shelters were certainly glad the day warmed up as were the attendees... despite the mud and the soggy field, the day was great. The food vendors kept busy keeping everyone full and happy and the line for the free Kettle Corn looked at times like rush hour on I95!!



The Event:
Mark from help willys friends had sent out a flyer advertising this event and the Animal Haven didn’t even have to think twice about getting a space there to help spread the word about pet adoption and make a few new contacts while possibly adopting out a dog or two. Well, we took three with us, Cheyenne, one of the puppies we recently acquired, and, Freddy and Ernie, two best friends who came up together from Georgia. At the end of the day, all three had been adopted by lucky families who got to adopt some really great
Dogs!


Freddy:


Ernie:


Cheyenne:



Things to do:
There were plenty of things going on and the crowd turned out in droves, most folks took their dogs with them so not only were there tons of people there, there were tons of beautiful dogs too! There were quite a few Rescues and shelters there as well as folks selling any and everything that had to do with pets.. There was even a “Rabbit” rescue there.

The CT state police were on hand with three of their K-9 officers, a very pretty Bloodhound girl, a good looking Black Lab (at least it looked like a Black Lab) and a really great German Shepherd Dog. There was a short agility demo and the State Police did another one with the GSD.




CT State police:








One of the more “Funny” moments came at the beginning of the first Agility demo, when the dog who looked like an Italian Grey Hound, ran through the barrel obstacle and tried to go through the collapsed
tube on the other end but instead, got tangled up in it and ran forward, crashing right through the plastic netting that served as a fence, all the while rolling about in the giant canvas tube.

After that little set back, he showed us what he was made of by running and jumping and racing around having the time of his life.

Caught in tube:






Jumping Through:



Jumping over:







There was also a live band that was playing to entertain the crowd, $35.00 Computer chipping of the dogs, free nail cutting, and free doggy portraits and so much more. A great time was had by all.

The Band:





Some of the "Attendees"...









So a big "Thanks" goes to the folks at Help Willys Friends for a great day with lots of fun!!
See you there next year!

The Animal Haven's Annual Wine Tasting / Silent Auction

Back in March of 09, The Animal Haven held their annual Wine tasting / Silent Auction at Aunt Chilidas in Hamden CT.

The turn out was amazing, the place was packed to the gills, all in support of the many wonderfull pets who live at the Animal Haven shelter. We sold lots of great items, gave away a ton more and got to tatse (drink) some great wines and some great Beer. The evening was hosted by Long time CT DJ, Pam Landry.. We had a great time and cant wait for next year to get here to do it all again!

New Art and Animal shots!

I know, It's been months since my last post here.. Well, I have been kinda busy but also, I have been very lazy..

Winter to me means it's time to hibernate as much as possible (funny, Summer means the same thing to me too) so I really have not been out shooting very much at all.. What I did do though, was go out to the shelter www.theanimalhaven.com and shoot some photos of some of the resident cats and dogs, for both advertising posters and auctionable art. Seeing these poor animals in their pens and then seeing the absolute joy they have at getting out for awhile just breaks your heart and makes you smile all at the same time... even just walking across the hall to the tiny "Get aquainted" room makes them all excited and happy.. and they almost all get to go for at least one walk daily around the Shelter's 3 acre property.. thanks to the many volunteers.

Please, if your in the area and looking for a great dog or cat, stop by and meet some of the animals here at the Haven.. they and you will be glad you did.

Here are a few of what I was working on... and as usual, go to my site to see more of my work. Click the pics for a larger view
The Art:










And Here are the posters:

Lucis Arts Discount Code.........

First, let me start by saying.. I do not work for, own, run or am involved with Image Content . com in any way, shape or, form. I just love the Lucis Arts plug-in for Photoshop. I don’t think I could be without it.

Since I purchased the Lucis Arts plug-in sometime last year, I have literally run every photo I have taken since then through it – it’s that good. I push some photos really hard for the “Lucis” look, but others just get a touch, a hint, a whisper, if you will – just enough to help with the contrast and to bring out the minute details that would otherwise be hidden within many shots.

Before running through the Lucis Arts filter




After the Lucis Arts filter was applied.



I first heard of this wonderfully awesome plug-in while researching the “Dave Hill Look.” I kept hearing about “Lucis Arts, Lucis Arts,” so, naturally, I had to see it for myself. Although I didn’t feel that it resembled the “Hill” Look very much, I did think it was a neat little plug-in, and before I knew it, I was hooked. It, along with HDR (I will get into that at another time) has opened a lot of creative doors for myself both as a photographer and as (what I like to refer to myself as) an artist. I know that many folks say, “it’s ugly,” “it looks fake,” and “it doesn’t look like a photograph anymore,” but I say, “so what? I love it!” I love the look and many of my customers love it, too … so I use it!

If you want to save $50 on Lucis Arts 3 and/or $70 on Lucis Pro 6.0, use this Lucis Arts discount coupon code, BAW1234 That Barbra was nice enough let me post here.. at time of checkout.

Now for the "Gotcha's"

1. This coupon code is subject to change or cancellation without notice.
2. This coupon code must be used at the time of purchase – it cannot be applied retroactively
3. Only one discount per purchase.

Good luck and happy enhancing!

Hyper Editing

I get asked allot "Did you do something to these photos?" or "How do you edit your Photos?" so here is somewhat of a breakdown on what I do in Photoshop to get this look.
(Click on Photo to view large)


Hyper Editing
I like my photos to take on a sort of “Painted” or “Cartoonish” look so I edit them using what I call “Hyper Editing” A lot of folks, Purists mostly, don’t like this type of editing and some will even say it goes beyond being a photograph and becomes an illustration, I say, Whoop-dee friggin do, So What! Photography is an art form; an illustration is also an art form, what’s your point? Besides you need a good photo to start with. I took it with a camera, there for it is a photo.
But as it seems, it is starting to become more and more popular thanks to pros like Dave Hill and Jill “The Manipulator” Greenberg, They have been at this for some time, in fact, a lot of folks mistakenly call this the “Dave Hill” or “Jill Greenberg” look, they couldn't be more wrong, They are using a lot of expensive lighting and helpers, I use the resources I have at hand, I have to… I'm broke!

Shooting for Effect
It helps to have some type of Idea before you shoot... Sometimes its off the cuff but most times I know what I want and how I will go about getting it, you could say I have a plan... at least I try to, I cant tell you how many hours or gallons of liquid gold I have used, driving around looking for that perfect subject.. BORING!! So try to envision the shot before you take it, after awhile, you will be able to “See” the finished Photo in your head well before the scene is captured.

Now, onto the actual shooting, Most times, I try to shoot in RAW capture mode only, on my Canon 30D. A lot of times I will shoot in brackets of three shots for effect in HDR (one shot at -2 stops, one shot at 0 and the last shot at +2 stops), knowing full well I will be manipulating the files later in HDR Software and Photoshop to get what I envisioned before the shutter button was ever pressed. Sometimes I will “Force” an HDR by using only 1 RAW file instead of three RAW files, this way if I don’t have a tripod or monopod with me I can still “shoot for effect” sometimes I will also shoot in RAW + Large / Fine JPEG mode so I will have both a JPEG and RAW file to work with and not have to deal with camera shake or lens blur. Shooting this way is always best for People, moving subjects or windy days, But, I try to carry my tripod and monopod in my truck at all times because you’ll never know when you might need it.

Processing for Effect
Ok, now that all that’s out of the way, we can roll up our sleeves and dig into the sweet, juicy innards of Processing for Effect with digital photography. Now, how the pros go about getting their images I can’t say for sure, I do know they shoot using some serious lighting, great equipment and maybe even do some of the stuff I do, they are pretty tight lipped about this style so, who knows!
Be that as it may, this is how I do it and besides, most of my subjects aren’t human thus, I can’t use big lights.

After running the RAW files through my HDR Software to get a nicely blended and tone mapped HDR Image, I will save the file then import it into Photoshop which is where I can really dig in and have fun... I do a few things... First, I will adjust the over all contrast by running a Curves adjustment layer, after that, I will make a new hue / Saturation layer and try to even out any rough spots in the colors.. Then I flatten the layers and make a new, duplicate layer. I then go to Image>adjust>black and white.. (The new black and white conversion tool in Photoshop CS3 is amazing and gives you greater control than ever in manipulating in black and whites..) Now I have two layers, one in color and one above it in Black and white.. next on the list is to hit the black and white layer with a bit of Noise reduction, you can use what ever Noise ware program you have at this point but I like to just use the Reduce noise filter in Photoshop… I just find it easier to use, that’s all.. Now I go to my filters palette and choose “Lucis Arts” this is the meat and potatoes’ of the whole process.. I run the photo through the filter in “Wyeth” mode and adjust to taste, sometimes I will mix Wyeth with Sculpter or some of the other modes, don’t be a slave to just one, I will usually use somewhere between 50% and 100% depending on the photo.. Most times, a little is all you need. After the “Lucis” layer is applied I will use blend mode “Luminosity” to bring the color back into the shot from the original layer below the top layer and then I adjust the opacity of the top layer until I am satisfied. Easy see?

But that's not all, Now that I have my basic photo down, its time to fine tune… Lets see, there’s noise grain, slightly over exposed areas, way to black shadow areas, colors are kinda iffy, some contrast missing or maybe even too much contrast, the trees now look funny, the grass in strange looking.. There could be a whole host of things wrong with the photo at this point.. Fun time is over, time to get to work, I wont go into it in too much detail as every photo is different but, I will use anything from the blur tool, the eraser (to expose parts of the original file below) Hand painting, to selective softening, dodging and burning layers, skin tone fixes, skin smoothing, add painterly effects, color gradient layers to all of the above... It’s all in the name of the game.
Here are a few examples.
(Click on Photo to view large)

Snow... Princes, Friend, Pet.

After loosing our beloved Bailey (seen here on left) to cancer, we really tried and tried NOT to rush out and get another dog..
A. Bailey can never ever be replaced
B. We didn't know if having another dog so soon was a good idea.

I believe we made it allmost 2 months before we started looking for a new dog.

My wife came across a Border Collie pup at the Animal Haven ( www.theanimalhaven.com ) on the net and went to see him, he was already taken.. Booo, so someone there suggested she look over the other dogs they had.. she came across a White beauty with black ears, one up, one down... the sign said 'Snow" she was told that snow was a double Merl Australian Shepherd thus making her deaf.. (now we are thinking she's a Border Collie / Aussie mix of some sort) So, They took her out and instantly, she clung to Christine like it was love at first site.. She walked her around the property and took her back in to her kennel.. Chris was in love with this white, deaf, disheveled girl who seemed to have a great personality.
We took her home the following Saturday and she fit right in our home. Deaf or not, training a dog is training a dog, thank god she was house broken already.. one thing we weren't ready for though was the fact that Snow is super, over protective of us meaning we need to walk her with a "Halti" so she doesn't bite strangers who she perceives as a threat if they come near us..also, we got allot of help from Mary Ellen and Lenny over at The Canine Cadre in Wallingford CT.. and we have to contend with her rushing from door to window to door when she things someone is out in front of the house. Even being deaf, she's an excellent watch dog! As usual, you can see more Pics HERE on my site.
Here she is.. SNOWY, SNOW, PRINCESS, QUEENIE, MOMMY..






she loves running and being chased, shes funny, as a herding breed, they don't usually wanna BE chased, they'd rather do the chasing!!

Sammy (sampson) Coon Hound

So after getting our Border Collie / Aussie mix "Snow", we decided she needed a playmate for:
Exersize.
Help for her ailing vision and someone to follow as she is also deaf.
A friend to keep her company when she is home alone.

So we looked and looked and looked on line for a few weeks and found out that the Connecticut SPCA was having an adoption weekend, they had recieved about 150 dogs from down south and Puerto Rico.. We went out to Monroe, CT. to their house / kennels and while we had no intention of getting a puppy, ended up with Sam. It seems my wife had remembered seeing a cute little Hound pup maned Sampson on Pet Finder so she asked to see him in person, The girl brought over this little frail, skinny coon hound pup that was just getting over a skin condition so he had alot of missing fur and he had double ear infections too but was totally thrilled to meet us.. that was when we decided that if Snow like him, he was leaving with us that day!!
Luckilly we had taken Snowy along, just in case.. So we took Sammy to meet her and they hit it off instantly! Snowy had a baby to love, as did we. HE has since gained about 15 or so pounds, has all his fur back, the ear infection has cleard up and he is growing fast.. he is so happy with his new life and Snow just adores him, treats him like he is her puppy..lol they love each other.

Here are some pics of Sammy, I will post another Blog about Snow in the next few days.
Here is Sampsons (Sammy) page on my site!

His first day home!



After a few weeks..






Most recent pics..