Urban is our theme for week 14 of the 52 Week Dog Photography Project. I didn't know this was going to be the theme this week. For week 13 of the project, days before seeing the topic for this week, I wrote this on my blog:

I think one of our weekly topics for the 52 week project should be "urban" because I need more experience photographing in urban areas.

Since that happened last week, I'm just putting this out there....

I think I need to win the lottery because then I could spend all my time and effort on pursuing my photography education.

Okay universe.... I am waiting. :) As a side note, I suppose to win the lottery one must play the lottery.

Back to urban, I've been wanting to take Moose up to an area in town called Plaza Midwood. It's an up and coming neighborhood with a lot of cool old buildings that have been refurbished and it has lots of painted walls. It's also an area with a lot of people and a lot of dogs so I'd definitely need an assistant.

I took my 12 and 13 year old assistants to this neighborhood last year. We were photographing a dog outside of a store with a really colorful painted wall. The girls asked what the store is and it was then that I realized I was in trouble. The store is called The White Rabbit. I've never been in it but I am guessing some of the items in the store would make me blush. I'll leave it at that.

My goal of getting Moose to Plaza Midwood will have to wait until another time. (If anyone local reads this and wants to volunteer to be Moose's handler in Plaza Midwood while I photograph him, lemme know!)

My friend Courtney who lives in south Charlotte did volunteer to help me with the urban topic this week. Since she lives south and Plaza Midwood is north, we opted to meet in the quaint little town of Waxhaw, NC. Waxhaw looks just like it sounds. It has a cute main street complete with train tracks right through the town, several antique shops, a couple of churches, and one stoplight.

Here are the results from our 45 minutes in urban Waxhaw. That's a bit of an oxymoron. :)

The image above with Moose poking his head out from behind the column is one I've wanted to try and recreate since I was in Spain last year. I only took 2 or 3 shots here because I didn't think it was working at all. I wish I would've tried a few more because this one doesn't exactly nail it - I want to look for bigger columns. I think I need to head to one of the local universities to find them. I'll add that to my list of places to shoot.

We were walking through an alley and noticed the "brick door and doorknob." I'd love to know the story behind this. I actually googled it but didn't find anything. The old saying "if the walls could talk" seems appropriate here. I wonder how many people try to turn the doorknob?

Here's my takeaway for this week. Try new things. I enjoyed how the urban theme challenged me to really think about my composition. I shot a lot more "portrait/vertical" shots than landscape/horizontal than I usually do. I'm not used to photographing with so many elements in the background so that challenged me to think about my composition too.

This is a blog circle of photographers from around the world and next up is I Got The Shot Photography, Northeastern PA and surrounding areas. Click the link at the bottom of each post to see more Urban: Dog Photography 52 Week Project blogs. Bye from Waxhaw, NC!

URBAN: Dog Photography 52 Week Project - Week 14