For week 9 of the 52 week Dog Photography Project and the theme "doorways," I was in Costa Rica. I attended #barkarica, a dog photography workshop hosted by Charlotte of Charlotte Reeves Photography, Kaylee Greer of Dog Breath Photography, and Nicole of Nicole Begley Photography. I was fortunate enough to attend their first workshop #barkelona in April 2016 and I can without a doubt say, if you are a dog photographer and you can possibly find a way to attend one of the "barka" workshops, I highly highly highly recommend it. I learn so much about every aspect of the photography business while I'm there and the private facebook group is awesome but do you know what the highlight is for me? The people. The people who attend are without a doubt my favorite part of the experience and it is just that, an experience. Sorry as I digressed and still haven't talked about doorways but I am still on a high from the workshop and can't stop spouting off about how great it was. 

For those of you who follow or know Kaylee Greer's work, she and her partner Sam are lighting geniuses. They brought some of their lighting equipment and during our workshop, we had an opportunity to work with both of them and use their equipment. Mind you, I know zero about lighting but with them giving direction, it was a little easier.  

We knew this landing with the doorway in the background would make a nice set up. Our model's name was Donna and we had her tethered to the railing. There was a small light on the ground facing towards her just in front of the door and Sam was holding a strobe just over my left shoulder. In retrospect, I really wish I would've stood right next to him whenever anyone else was photographing since we shot one at a time. I'd love to know what he was doing, how he was holding the light and the angle at which he was holding it.

Here is a behind the scenes shot of Kaylee photographing Donna. If you look over Donna's left hip where she is sitting, you can see the flash on the ground behind her.

The doorway behind Donna is one of the rooms that the attendees stayed in. This next photo is one I took of Coca and her new mom Christine. Coco is an entire story in itself and it will get its own blog post very soon. To take this photo, I am standing down by the pool and the doorway behind Coco leads to the room where we did a lot of our classroom work. Yes, the structure behind Coco and Christine is the house where we all stayed for the workshop. I'm telling you.... these Barka workshops are awesome. :)

This is a blog circle and next up is Jessica Wasik with Bark & Gold Photography, celebrating the joy and love between Pittsburgh pets and their people.  Keep clicking the link at the bottom of each post to see each photographer's take on doorways. 

PS I know I promised monkeys in this post. During class on afternoon, we were interrupted by a bunch of monkeys and three of them had babies on their backs. I have photos... I must make more time in the day (or night) for editing and writing blog posts!