STEADFAST AS A STAFFIE

It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie

The moment I walked onto the patio, she began showing off and acting like a clown.  When I paid no heed to her mad antics, she rewarded me with incessant barking; “Look at me!  Look at me!  Do you like my basket?  I have a chew-toy!  What’s in your bag?  Mmm, you smell like liver treats!  Can I lick your face?”

In the first ten minutes of arriving at a home for a photo session, I normally like to avoid eye contact and ignore the dogs.  First off, I let them have a good sniff of me and my camera bag, this works well with very excitable dogs and helps to calm them down.  It works equally well with timid, shy dogs who, when they realise there is no imminent threat, come forward to inspect me and my camera bag, but…

It was almost impossible to ignore Tigger.  Her exuberance for life and desire to make a new friend were irresistible.

Built like a brick out-house and making goofy faces, she thunders around in a most unladylike manner bouncing here, there and everywhere.  It’s easy to see how she acquired her name!

I wasn’t even officially there to take photographs of her, but Nandi, her partner, an ageing staffie who had just turned 13.  Nevertheless, taking photographs of Ms Tigger, a natural model, was a joy; she adored the camera and all the attention.

What a fabulous, funny, stocky little girl with a huge personality she is.  Staffordshire bull terriers do not deserve the bad rap they often get.

They are intelligent, loyal, loving, steadfast dogs who make wonderful family pets.

Speaking of steadfast, I’ve been pretty steadfast myself over the past 8 months; head down, not looking left or right and only coming up for air when it was time to walk the dogs in the evening. What have I been working on you ask?  Why, creating online digital photography training, of course.

Seriously folks, I have new respect and awe for anyone who has tried to do something similar; in my innocence, I thought it would be a doddle, I’d whip this thing into shape in no time. Naive fool that I was, I had absolutely no idea the amount of time, effort, sheer hard work and tears, real salty tears it would take to turn this 5 week class into something I am proud of.  Nonetheless, I am delighted with the result and happy to share it with the world.

I was prompted by my own experiences to put the class together, because when I began my photographic journey, I was completely overwhelmed by the complexity of my camera and frustrated with getting a “lucky shot” only now and then.  I longed desperately to be able to take consistently beautiful images.

With no mentor to guide me and being unable to find a comprehensive, affordable, easy to understand course, I was forced to embark on a journey of discovery that entailed lots of research and hours of practice.  All of the hard work was definitely worth it though and I would do it over again in a heartbeat, in fact I’m still doing it because photographers never stop learning.  Photography is more of a journey than a destination.

Happily, all the effort has resulted in this online course that condenses the essentials needed to produce consistently beautiful images in a format that is easy to understand, affordable but above all, is coached every step of the way.

I intend to run this training at least twice a year but there are only 10 seats available per course. Keeping the classes small means I can give each student my individual attention.  In honour of this being the very first class, I am offering it at a special discounted launch price.  More information will be available shortly and registration opens soon but if you want to get on the inside track and be notified 24 hours before anyone else when registration opens, then sign up to my VIP early bird list below.

Can you tell I’m excited?  Stay tuned for more information soon.

Yours ’til the cat meows

Moira