Recently I had the good fortune of being invited to join a couple of other dog photographer friends in Asheville NC. Of course when dog photographer friends get together, we must find dogs to photograph. In a gorgeous setting, right?

Have you ever noticed how photographers like me blur out the background in their photos? If you look through the gallery photos on my page or on my Instagram page, you’ll notice most of the backgrounds are pretty blurry.

That’s intentional. I do it so that my subject stands out.

That blurry part of the photo actually has a name. It’s called “bokeh.”

I participate from time to time in a photography blog circle. Photographers from around the world participate. We are given a topic each week and we are to take photos about the subject and then write a blog about it. This week the topic is “Photographer’s Choice.” At the end of each post is a link to the next photographer’s blog. Keep reading and you’ll see the link at the bottom of this post.

My choice this week is Newman. I know I don’t need to explain why.

Have you heard the term natural light photography? I am a natural light photographer and if you keep reading and I’ll explain what this means.

Follow along as I show the progession of taking an average photo and making it look like this.

Keeping pets safe during a hurricane is something many people along the coast and even sometimes inland have to do. Even though I live 3.5 hours inland, #hurricaneflorence is going to dump a lot of rain in Charlotte and being prepared is important.