Every now and then when we're making location portraits, a corporate office area offers up a wonderful setting for an image. I knew when we entered the lobby of this particular office building we had to walk away with at least one shot from here, if not just to have that amazing green wallpaper as a background.

As an added bonus on this shot, we had our wonderful subject here take a seat, too, which let us use the table with the flowers in the composition. The only thing we needed to do to make this image as stunning as it is was to have our subject sit, pull a chair next to her out of the way, and trigger one strobe in a large softbox. About 90 seconds total, and voila. Love it when that happens!

We've been back to North Shore Animal League America (NSALA) a few times in the recent weeks, too, making some fun photos for potential use in their 2009 calendar and general stock usage.

I'm smiling here as I type, because we had more than a few laughs trying to get their dogs and cats to be especially cute - by putting on hats, placing them in baskets, and adding props that are appropriate for certain months on the calendar, such as Halloween, or the Fourth of July (aka Rebels' Day, as my Brit pal Alisdair refers to it. . .yeah yeah, ok, Cheers, mate!).

All the while, I'm contorting my 6'3" frame to ground level in a series of one-armed pushups to get to doggie-eye-level, and contorting into positions no Yoga master has dreamed of to keep the camera steady. It's a sweaty workout, this dog photography stuff! But, it all pays off when you view the fruits of your labors...and I think we did a great job, especially thanks to all the cooperative staff and crew at NSALA who stayed so late into the night as we made the photos.