A visit to the PepsiCo Playground, I mean, Gardens!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of working with a black lab named Molly. Molly is a 5 year old sweetheart who not only has the looks, but the brains as well ;) Her Mom wanted to get some photographs of her to show the world just how fantastic a pup she's got.

To add to the excitement of the shoot, I got to leave the buzzing city and photograph Molly against the background of the PepsiCo gardens. These gardens, surrounding the PepsiCo Headquarters, cover 168 acres of land. Within the gardens are enormous sculptures including ones done by Henry Moore and Alexander Calder. The day of the shoot the sky was perfectly clear, the birds were chirping and the breeze was warm.

We started off in Molly's beautiful condo where I got to see that little "thing" she does that makes her Mom melt. Molly has been in love with this "blankie" since she was a tiny little pup. She picks it up and makes herself a little bed! Is there anything cuter than those puppy eyes?!


The bond these two share is amazing. Nose kisses are the best without a doubt!



Once we got to PepsiCo, Molly knew it was time to show off her stuff! But that means some very deserving water breaks.


The greenery in the gardens was outrageous. I couldn't get over how lush and soft everything looked. Maybe I've been surrounded by the concrete city too long? It still sure makes you appreciate the fresh air and great outdoors even more!

I had such a great time photographing Molly and her Mom!

Perspective

Perspective is such a powerful thing to be aware of. It gives me a sense of freedom to know everything we do, say, see, or experience is always interpreted by the way we perceive it. I try to always evaluate situations a second time because the other amazing thing about perspective is it has the ability to change. So I dedicate this entry to a week of rethinking and trying to see my life in a different light. My glass that was half empty is starting to look half full. cheers to perspective!

On Saturday I met a group of photographers to walk along the super trendy High Line park. This is an old railroad line that ran above ground on the west side of Chelsea that was used from the mid 30 until 1980 when the last train ran (transporting a bunch of frozen turkeys!). It was closed down since and there was a whole ton of debate on whether the city should tear it down or reuse the space. They finally decided in 2002 to preserve the High Line and just about a year ago it opened as a garden/park to the public. My favorite part about this park (besides the fact that it is a great example of recyling, taking advantage of green space and preserving a pretty historical train line!) is that they reinstalled some of the original tracks. The grasses grow all around the rusted metal and it creates this really beautiful juxtaposition of the two forces we are preserving here. Here are some images from my photography walk :)

Possibly my favorite image from the walk!


The park just said no dogs.

In a Past Life

Bear with me for just a moment...

I am convinced that every pet I have ever had/met/encountered/photographed must have been a human in a past life. It is one of my all time favorite things to image what they would be like: their occupation, how they must have dressed, what their voice sounded like, etc. My childhood dog, Squirt, we all imagined to have been a gentle giant.(He was 140lbs...not much of a squirt!) He was the guy always in the "friend" zone, but the best friend anyone could ask for: loyal, loving, and sweet as anything.

My sister's cat is definitely a sassy teenager, with a knack for getting away with anything. He is sneeky, but at the end of the day all he wants is to curl up next to mom.

So when I met my roommates cat, Zoe, (or monsterface as she has been dubbed) I couldn't help but see the 'human' in her. She wore narrow glasses that she placed strategically on the bridge of her nose. She had a single beauty mark slightly above her right lip and she just might have been a librarian.

Just a thought... ;)

Dog Park Visits

As if I did not get enough interaction with dogs, I sometimes like to spend my free time at the Clinton Dog Park. This last visit was so enjoyable and I got to meet some really beautiful, unusual and adorable new friends!
This little English Bulldog could not have been over a year, so sweet and just wanted to play! MY favorite part of this shot though, is how Vonya, in the background, is so content with her ball.

There was such a diverse group there that night and they all got along so well. I never thought I would have stayed so long, but all these pups were so enjoyable to watch and play with.



This is a beautiful dog, called a Eurohound. It is a cross breed between an Alaskan Husky and a Pointer! Tons of energy and the Dad was telling me he goes dog sled racing with her and her sister, an Alaskan Husky. I will have to get some shots of her the next time I stop in.

I also made friends with the sweetest German Shepherd, Saddie (so cute!) and a beautiful long-haired Akita. Such an unusual and gorgeous dog. I'm still working on the images so check back in later to see these two. They are just adorable!!

Old lense, but a whole new view.

I have to be brief, since I am out the door, but I wanted to share with everyone that I am now the proud owner of a 5D Mark II. I took it out last night to see what it could do in the low light and of course it did amazing things! The dog park was my first stop and I met some wonderful pooches and the dogs that own them ;) Stay posted to see some of the photos from that shoot! Today is the first night of Passover and I am very thankful I will get to spend it with my whole family as we gather around for the first seder. Until I return, here is one of my first shot with my new camera of my roommates stunning calico cat!

I'm in Miami!

So the week of Christmas I went with my big sis to South Beach. The trip was a Chanukah gift from my parents for me and a 'get-your-ex-off-your-mind' gift for my sister. (She recently split up with her 3 yr long relationship..so she deserved it!) The trip was super fun and we had a blast doing our best to keep up with the crazy nightlife scene. Our days were filled with visits to family relatives, beach excursions, good (and way over priced) food, gallery hopping on Lincoln and, of course, some photo shoots I has scheduled prior to the visit!

One session was with a woman and her beautiful rescue boxer. I always love photograping these dogs because it brings me such joy to see another pup out of the shelter system.

The other session was with the sweetest woman, who fosters about 22 terrier mixes as she works day to day to find homes for them. I photographed about 15 of them and what a crazy fun time it was! (and a little french bulldog pup that showed up in the park as well) Hopfully my photographs can help to find these little guys their forever home!

Everything New

So, after a long...long..time of not coming to this page, (mainly in hopes of setting up a new and fancier blog) I decided, while waiting to get that going I might as well blog here. I have been craving to write about everything I have been up to for the last seven months and it is time to finally lay it all out.

So the best way to tell everyone what I have been up to is through a bunch of long, run on sentence. Follow if you can!

Last May I graduated college (woo). Finished the semester off with my 'Four to Five Million' shelter dog project I wrote about prior to today. It was so much fun and it made me realize again the passion I have for photographing animals. So after a great exhibition of my thesis, a front page article in the Springfield Republican featuring my photo work, a video posted on the website of the work as well, and a great last semester, I said goodbye to my life in MA and move home to CT. My goal was to find a job with a magazine doing fashion photography (what was I thinking?!) and move straight from Amherst to NYC. Big fail. I searched and searched for a job and there was nothing. So back to my parents house it was. I began interning for a wonderful wedding photographer, Carlos Varela, (this is really where I learned how to be a good photographer) in NYC, but it was still a 2 hour commute 3 days a week. While home I started photographing my pets. Mickey, a mixed terrier, who I have had since I was 9, my two little mixed chihuahua rescues that inhabit my parents home and my two kitties quickly became the direction I was pointing my lens. Why it took me this long to figure it out, I don't know, but it hit me (with my parents help) that this was really my true calling. I decided to start up my own pet photography business. It happened quickly and once I got going I really go into it. I completely love what I am doing now and have started working really hard to get my name out there. So after 6 long, socially deprived months, I made it!! I have officially move to NYC. I got a job working at a Veterinary Hospital in the East Village and found a nice little place in Midtown. I have one roommate who is fantastic and super sweet and I can now work, in the meantime, on building my business up. So, this is the begining of my journey. A journey exploring my passion and absolute obsession and love of animals combined with my overwhelming desire to capture them in a creative and contemporary ways through my lens. I feel determined to make people smile and give my clients a photograph that speaks more as a special memory and moment rather than a stuffy staged portrait. (I refer to this as 'cat in the boot' photography!) I hope you follow along in my new and exciting chapter. Here is to 2010, a year of everything new: new friends, new pets, and new york! I hope we can enjoy it together!!

Rachel :)