Good Bye 2011

Every New Year Eve we celebrating by making our own New Year hats and deciding what first place ribbon each should receive for their creation.  We are also the crazy-bang-pots-and-pans-outside-at-midnight people.  But before the celebrations begin, we usually have a quite day at home, planning our secret hat design for the hat contest, deciding on and preparing midnight snacks and enjoying each others company.  Today I decided it would be a good time to photograph Beacon.  Some things I learned (and I should have remembered these from trying to photograph Honey)

1.  Make certain your bedroom is clean before you start taking pictures

Emily, sitting on floor,
playing with Beacon in
her lap.  Jenny is sitting
on the bed.
My bedroom is a mess!

2.  Make certain you have some natural light in the room

Emily playing with Beacon.
It is a very dark picture.

3.  Make sure you have the correct camera settings

Emily playing tug-o-war
with Beacon.  Beacon is
a blur in the picture.

 4.  Make certain you are dressed appropriately in the pictures

Me telling Beacon to come.
Beacon is looking at me.
I am in pajamas!

 5.  Hand camera over to oldest child, Emily, and have her capture Beacon being adorable

Close up of Beacon looking
 into camera.  He looks soulful.

Beacon looking past camera
in a thoughtful pose

6.  Try not to take pictures of light colored dog on light colored carpeting

Beacon sitting on the light
 carpet with a
toy to his right paw.

7.  Place a dark blanket under light dog for better color definition

Beacon sitting on a red blanket
looking to the left of the camera.

 8.  Make certain blanket hides ugly things in the background

Beacon in a down on the red blanket.
You can see the desk chair
legs in the background

9.  Forget about trying to pose a puppy and just let him be him...