Welcome to DelaFoto's Photography Blog. Look for Denver photographer, Ariane's latest images & personal stories about recent photo sessions and more.
Denver Dog Show 2014
On Valentine's Day, I thought it would be fun to go check out Denver's biggest annual dog show. The Denver Dog Show hosted by the Colorado Kennel Club, Plum Creek Kennel Club & Peak to Peak Working Dog Group.
The 5 day event features an impressive gathering of gorgeous dogs, dedicated breeders and handlers and much more. I only had a few hours to visit, but enjoyed meeting vendors and participants in the competition. I even ran into client, Michelle Ruark, who had the good news that her yellow lab "Murphy" won 2nd place in his competition, congratulations Michelle! See more event photos on DelaFoto's Facebook page and let us know if you visited the show too.
Days Off with Dogs: Indoor Swims
Coming up with fun and affordable things to do with athletic dogs can be challenging enough. Add the cold snap we've had this past week and it can be outright daunting.
Last week we took a ride to CRCG in Englewood for our first try at indoor swimming for E.K., our Aussie. We learned that even an experienced swimmer like our girl can be intimidated by the weirdness of swimming indoors.
With the qualified coaching and patience of CRCG staff, we had the pleasure of seeing our determined doggie overcome her hesitance in the pool. Within 1 hour E.K became a big fan of indoor swimming and got a to do one of her favorite activities in a safe & clean environment. We got so much joy from treating her to this outing and recording it in this video. I hope sharing this story will inspire more families to try this for their dogs. Seeing our girl so happy made our whole week!
The Full Spectrum: 3 Lovable Labs!
Last saturday I had a fun afternoon hosting a new special: "Show the Love", offering family & group photo sessions at the studio. It turned out to be an opportunity to shoot three beautiful labrador retrievers together, in their full range of colors.
With the help of extra hands on deck, they sat pretty for their mom, smiling and eager for treats. In the pet photography world, a challenge we often hear about is photographing white & black dogs. It's a difficult lighting scenario, especially with both in one composition. The chocolate lab with our "mocha" setting gleamed along side her "creamy" & "espresso" colored siblings. I'm very happy with the results of the sitting. This blog photo is a preview of the full image gallery the lab loving Ruark family will be seeing soon.
Days Off with Dogs: Geocaching
As a full time photographer, it's not unusual to find me glued to the computer for countless hours editing and working on DelaFoto. Our dogs have not been impressed, so we've made a resolution to take a full day off a week to enjoy dog friendly outings. We're in Denver after all, there are so many options!
This past weekend we kicked things off with a super fun outing to a local park for Geocaching. If you're not familiar with this activity, it's an outdoor form of recreation that's like treasure hunting, with the guidance of phone apps and/or GPS units. Caches are all over the world and luckily many are very close by.
A local park, like Horseshoe Park in Aurora, proved to be a great place for us newbies. Big open fields, long winding pathways made the outing fun for the dogs and easy for us to navigate. When searching for caches, you don't want anyone to see what your up to and spoil the hidden locations. A bonus to having your happy dog(s), with you is that it made our bizarre rummaging through bushes, etc. look pretty normal. Kidding aside, the dogs loved it, we were outside for hours, found 6 caches, logged our entries and are already planning our next outing!
Enjoy more photos of our happy dogs, EK & Ladybug at our Facebook "Fun Canine Outings" gallery.
Family Portraiture
Family portraiture is a great opportunity to go beyond capturing the beauty and spirit of our animal companions, by featuring the relationship of the whole family.
Last year, I photographed some lovely families, often with 2 or more pets. These sessions are fun but do offer their own unique challenges. Coordinating wardrobes, posing everyone, keeping them in position and getting them all to look at the camera at the same time (while looking relaxed and happy) can be a workout! I love the challenge and endless creative opportunities, and clients have enjoyed the unique experience and final results.
That's why I'm kicking off 2014 with showcasing these family images on Facebook to inspire. I'm also offering my very special event "Show the Love" on February 1st. These will be very affordable family sessions to encourage clients to take a leap of faith and try a family portraits! I can't wait to see the results.