In honor of John, I eschewed my hefty Nikon and armed myself with my little Lumix, which I've neglected for way too long. Fortunately, the software prompted me to set the time/date when I turned it on, or I'd have taken an image in the waaaaay past. Also, I shot with whatever settings were already set. I must have been taking night shots because the ISO was 800 and all my images turned out VERY grainy. Which would certainly have been an issue for any other challenge...
John's imagery is SO vested in his charming French village that I didn't think it would be possible to replicate his work here in LA. Fortunately, I remembered St. Vincent's court in downtown LA, which is this absurdly little European-looking courtyard tucked away in the courtyard of an old office building. Not wanting to deal with traffic and parking, I took the metro downtown, which helped put me in a European mood. The court is lined with little Italian, Greek, and French eateries, and I took only about 2 dozen images while the shop owners watched, both mildly curious and cautious. They kept crossing in front of me, and also behind, and I could tell they were trying to see the camera screen. I let them.
Just as I was leaving, this gentleman sat down with Chloe in tow, and I asked him if I could take their picture. He didn't want to be in the picture so I just took Chloe, who is seriously the cutest thing ever. She was just slightly bigger than his shoe, and very wiggly and kiss-y. I gave him my card before leaving, and by the time I got home, I'd received a message inquiring about doing my pet portraiture with his daughter and Chloe :-)
So, I went to this little European enclave to try and emulate John's hunting grounds, and came away with a pet portrait which could have been taken anywhere. I like to believe it's a happy marriage of my subject matter with John's editing style. I do have to say that I totally get the appeal of using this tiny camera; it is much less intimidating to strangers than my comparatively behemoth Nikon, and very liberating to use.
Thank you for such marvelous comments. Katie, you crack me up.
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lol .. this is so cute and funny ..
loved reading your story .. especially how you got an enquiry for a portrait of his daughter with chloe on the same day .. that's excellent ..
anyway .. i'm going for this in pick your fav pic today partly as little chloe reminds me so much of katee who is a miniature foxy which i believe were initially bred from chihuauas and either jack russells or chihuaua's and fox terriers .. and partly coz ITS SUCH A GREAT SHOT .. !!
ps .. the little lambs are now fully grown .. they were quadruplets .. two of them were kept by my brother and his wife as pets .. altho they are mostly in the paddock .. but like to say hello .. but they were hand reared as the mother would only accept one ..:)
My French is much too rusty to attempt an answer to that question LOL. Adorable dog, and I love the point of view and the perspective given by the bit of human legs. Looks like a pretty fancy leash; must be a special dog ;-)
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