Photography | biscuit's space | The blog of photographer Katherine Carver

Feb 4

Victory: Photography Project — Part 4

“You can always find hope in a dog’s eyes.” ~Unknown

I have recently begun a weekly photography project with my muse, Victory! I will continue to share this project on the blog! I have also been documenting Victory’s milestones so to speak each month — you can read these here! I think that it is fun to document all of Victory’s changes, while preserving fleeting moments and memories.

Victory loves being in our bed and she loves to sit with us and eat her dinner on the sofa! The third place that Victory loves to be in our house is in her ‘hut!’ When we adopted Victory in October 2013, she was used to having access to her crate, her safe place. Thus, Doug and I purchased a fabric type crate, her ‘hut,’ and she loves it! Even a few friends we know have seen Victory’s ‘hut’ and decided to get one for their furry family members — Victory is such a trend setter!

Victory is spending less time in her ‘hut.’ She does, however, like having her own “safe place” in the house, in her ‘hut.’ The front is always unzipped and open so she can come and go as she pleases. Also, the top of her crate is unzipped and open — her sun roof! We put Biscuit’s Eco Nap Mat at the bottom of her ‘hut’ for comfort along with a few blankets, including the light blue blanket from Victory’s foster Mom. We also keep her water dish and a few of her toys, including shoe laces in her ‘hut!’ I wash her blankets that say in her ‘hut’ weekly!

So, it seemed fitting to capture a few photographs documenting this time that Victory likes to spend in her little ‘hut!’ She loves to nap and lay down in her ‘hut!’ In time, we are sure that she will not need her ‘hut’ as much! Victory is also getting used to my camera and she is just as patient as our beloved Biscuit. Enjoy!

Happy Tuesday!

Jan 27

Victory: Photography Project — Part 3

“Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them, filling an emptiness we don’t even know we have.” ~Thom Jones

I have recently begun a weekly photography project with my muse, Victory! I will continue to share this project on the blog! I have also been documenting Victory’s milestones so to speak each month — you can read these here! I think that it is fun to document all of Victory’s changes, while preserving fleeting moments and memories.

Since Victory loves being in our bed so much, I captured a few images of her getting ready to take a nap! She loves to be between the pillows up against the headboard! Each night, she takes turns on each of our pillows during the night! Victory looks very beautiful and she got a bath recently and she is looking fluffy and clean! Victory’s sheltie furs are really starting to come in — her coat is going to be gorgeous! She is our little golden rod!

Happy Monday!

Jan 22

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Victory: Photography Project — Part 2

“If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.” ~Will Rogers

I have recently begun a weekly photography project with my muse, Victory! I will share this project on the blog! I have also been documenting Victory’s milestones so to speak each month — you can read these here, here, and here! I think that it is fun to document all of Victory’s changes, while preserving fleeting moments and memories.

The images shown below were taken this past weekend, before the snow. These images remind me of these images of our little Biscuit. Victory looks gorgeous! I especially like the one where she squinted her little eyes shut!

Happy Wednesday!

Jan 21

Victory: Snow Day!

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ~John Steinbeck

Today we have been enjoying a snow day with our little Victory! We are glad to be home in this weather. The snow is coming down in all directions attempting to blot out the neighborhood colors. Isn’t it amazing how the snow blankets the other noise in your life and you become grateful to be tucked in and witness winter’s beauty?

We put Victory’s pink coat on her and we took her outside for her afternoon walk. As you can see in the images below, the snow is really coming down here! Little Victory was a little trooper in the snow! Here is a link to Victory’s first snow! After her walk in the snow, Victory took a long nap with her Daddy!

Today is also special because it is the 500th post on the blog!

Happy Tuesday!

Jan 15

Critiques

I very much miss the classroom based critiques from college. It was always nice to put up my work and receive feedback from peers and my professor on my work.

However, since I am not currently in a traditional classroom setting, I find the following helpful in terms of obtaining feedback on my work — projects.

1. Critique Partner: Find a critique partner in order to help give each other feedback on your respective work to help ensure that you are making ‘strong work.’ I believe having a critique partner or regular critiques, with people you trust is a nice way to receive feedback on my work.

2. Artists You Admire: Contact artists whose work you admire to see if he/she will provide you with feedback on your work. Most people are happy to help. I have reached out to photographers whose work I admire, and I have formed some nice relationships with other photographers and artists who have provided feedback on my work, which has been very helpful.

3. Former Professor(s): If you still have relationships with former professors, you can reach out to him/her and request feedback on your work.

4. Photography Conference: Attend photography conferences such as the Society for Photographic Education, where you can have access to many artists in one location to receive feedback on your work.

5. Galleries: Contact Galleries and determine whether you can pay for a consult to have a gallery review your work.

6. Organizations: If the intent of your work is to communicate for a specific cause, belief, political issue, etc., you can reach out to organizations who might be able to put you in touch with someone like-minded who can also provide feedback on your work.

Jan 14

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Preveal: Hanging Images at Home

Doug and I have just about finished hanging all of our art and photographs on the walls of our new home. However, there is still space to hang more images and art in our home! I came across this neat program, Preveal, an ipad app. As shown below, Preveal allows you to take a photo of your living room, bedroom, or any room in your home — wherever you would like to hang your images and display accurately sized renditions of various wall displays! I am very visual, and this app makes it easy to see what a framed image will look like prior to actually hanging it!

I am a strong proponent of making physical copies of my images versus having them sit on my computer and external drives. Images make a nice addition to any home! Plus, it is a ‘happiness boost’ for most people, including myself, to view their images regularly — this is why Biscuit and Victory are shown throughout our home so that we can enjoy them everyday!

1. First, take a photo of your wall with a letter sized piece of paper on it.

2. Then, select what combination of framed and matted images that you want to see in that spot.

3. Then choose which photos you want to see to help you decide which images to hang and where to hang them!

Happy Tuesday!

Jan 13

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Victory: Photography Project – Part 1

“Happiness is a warm puppy.” ~Charles Shultz

In addition to my long-term dog photography project, I have decided to photograph our little Victory on a weekly basis, if not more! I will share these weekly photographs of Victory here on the blog! I have also been documenting Victory’s milestones so to speak each month — you can read these here, here, and here! I want to document her story and chronicle how Victory changes, since she is, after all, still a puppy (and my muse)! I think that this will be fun to literally see the changes and how Victory develops over this year!

We had gorgeous weather yesterday! Victory was looking mighty pretty during her long walk yesterday!

Happy Monday!

Jan 10

Victory: Three Months In

“All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” ~Charles Schulz

This Sunday, January 12, 2014, marks three months since we adopted our little Victory! Victory had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Below are some things that we learned about Victory this month:

She loves to chew. Each morning, we wake up to our pillow cases having more holes and teeth marks! Luckily, I purchased some inexpensive pillow cases and a back up of our nice sheets and pillow cases! We also purchased some chew toys and shoe laces, which she loves — it is just teaching her the difference between what she can and cannot chew!
She travels well. Victory did really well in the car during our holiday travels. She sat on my lap in the car during the duration of our trip!
She is still very quite. Victory has not ‘talked’ to us yet — she has not yet barked or made any vocal noises. We hope that, in time, this will change.
She is spending more time on the floor in our home instead of being on furniture or in her crate, which we have coined her ‘hut!’ (Victory’s crate is always open for her to go in and out of as she wishes — she likes having her ‘safe place.’)
She still prefers not to share the sidewalk with any other pedestrians! We are not sure how much time Victory spent outside while she lived in the horrendous hording situation. We are going to start training very shortly to help us!
She still likes to wake us up during the night to have a drink of water. We are working on teaching Victory where her water bowl is located a short distance away in the bathroom attached to our bedroom!
She still loves to cuddle and give us loads of kisses!
She is beginning to blossom — her fur coat is coming in more each day!
Finally, we learned that Victory might have a sister or cousin — Chrissy, who has been adopted — you can see the resemblance in their size and coloring. Chrissy also came from the same horrendous hording situation that Victory also experienced.

We love our little beautiful Victory and look forward to the spring and warmer temperatures to go on some outings together!

Enjoy the images of Victory, shown below, taken just before the really cold temperatures hit our area — she looks absolutely beautiful!

Happy Friday!

Dec 27

Victory: Illuminated

Victory has been having a great Pawliday! On our drive to see family, the idea came to me that it would be fun to wrap Victory in white lights and photograph her. Victory is so tolerant and she indulges me with my ideas — she is my muse! Since we are out-of-town, Doug was kind enough to purchase a strand of 100 white lights to wrap around our beloved Victory! It was quite a comical process, but Victory cooperated as always! Victory sat atop her Grandma’s sofa in the living room while I photographed away! Victory hopped off the sofa when she was done, but she gave me a good ten minutes to photograph her! Shown below is an illuminated Victory! Perhaps this is the first of many experiments to come!

Happy Friday!

Dec 26

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Victory: First Christmas

Victory had a wonderful Christmas! A few photographs are shown below of Victory on her first Christmas! The first image is one of my favorites of Victory sitting by the Christmas tree! I think that we will get a photo ornament made for our Christmas tree next year!

On Christmas we took Victory to go see a light display and she loved the car ride and the lights! A photo from the Christmas light display is shown below!

Victory also has received some very nice gifts shown below! It was a nice surprise to receive some gifts from a blog reader! Thank you!

On another note, anyone who has been to our home knows that Doug has a menagerie of “friends” (stuffed cheetahs and pandas). We have more “friends” than we know what to do with. Our entire guest room has hundreds of “friends” all of whom have names! However, while we were visiting family this past week, in a moment of weakness, we rescued a friend named “Buddy,” pictured below! Buddy is a 4.5 foot tall panda, our largest friend yet! Victory even posed with Buddy, shown below!

Happy Pawlidays!