Rain's Family + Kiona

One of my favorite things to do with Rain is to visit her mom and dad and photograph them as they all play together.  Taking pictures of them is 50% anticipation, 50% luck, and 100% just enjoying the time.

This time though, there was an addition to the pack: Kiona.  She's a silver lab.  Quite rare, and quite beautiful as you'll see in the pictures.  Kiona is only 9 months old but already bigger than Rain.

Their owners are planning on having a litter next year with Kiona and Koda (Rain's dad).  Perhaps Rain will get a sister or brother?  Lol, I wish...

(All the shots were taken on my D7000 + f1.4 35mm at 1.4 and a varying shutter speed of 1/1000 or more.)

Thanksgiving Back Home

The past week and a half was spent back home.  Family, food and photography.  Hard to beat that combo.  The only thing that was missing was Rain.  Hawaii has pretty strict policies about animals flying in, so she stayed with her mom and dad.  I missed that dog like she was family because, well, she is family.

I took a good number of pictures back home.  I really am loving photography more and more.  And I dare say that I am improving bit by bit.  It really is all about getting out and using your camera.  No substitute for personal experience.  Not just in terms of learning how to use a camera, but also being able to get to a point where the camera is no longer there, and you can connect to the subject in front of you, whatever it may be.  Still working to get there.  But part of the fun is in the process.

Been contemplating getting more into dog photography...

Now that I'm back in Utah, I have a pile of pictures to go through and edit.  I'll post them as I go along, but here are a few.

Lanikai Beach.  All my years living in Hawaii, and can you believe I've never been here till now?  Thanks to Tyler and Alana Yates for taking me here.  Awesome little piece of paradise, and this canoe just happened to be at the waters edge at sunrise.  How lucky can you get.  This picture was about a 2-3 second shutter at f16(ish).  It was about 7am just as the sun was coming up.  I had to boost the colors in post.  The lighting was actually a bit dull, but there were hints of color that I was able to utilize.  I also cropped out some of the sky to make the composition a little more tight.  The pano-ish feel works with the long canoe, IMO.  I do wish there was some point of interest on the left hand side though.  Maybe Rain.  Overall, I'd give it maybe a 6/10.