Kitty love FlashMan!

Kitty love FlashMan!, originally uploaded by RLHyde.

Tesla (the kitty) loves (as is his want)FlashMan. I'm glad he found a friend.

Down on the Farm

Milky Pastels, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

So as many of my friends here know, I'm a manny. At least during the summer, that is. What you may not know is that I basically work on a farm, this year more than ever. The boys are active in 4H this year, and one of them is raising steers. This is one of them: the feisty one.

Now the horses have always been there, and they have a lot of character. This one (can't remember his name) is super curious and wanted to know what we were doing in the chicken coop (taking pictures of rabbits was the answer, another 4H project).

Fun day.

Hello?, originally uploaded by Breathe in Digital.

Substitute Pets

So my apartment complex doesn't allow dogs, and I do so desperately want a dog. Thankfully, a colleague of mine, Wendy, asked me to dog sit last weekend while she and her husband went up north to play in the snow (heh). Anyway, I was finally able to use the AM "golden hour" (that sunrise/sunset light that makes everything look pretty) because these dogs are very used to being up and adventurous at an absurdly early hour. Ahem. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these shots as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Osgood (left) and Munster (right) love to fight for toys.

Here we can see Munster performing a sweet side kick.

While he's definitely a handful, this dog is absolutely gorgeous.

To round things off, I wanted to post this pic of Amber's cat, Kitty (I can't help but chuckle at the name every time). I took this while doing a follow up shoot for the rings-on-belly shot from the BW maternity series. Kitty happened to get up in my face as I was testing my flash, and this photo came out. I wish the left eye were more in focus, but I absolutely love how the whiskers appear as stark white due to the flash going off not six inches from them.

Be My Franken(VALEN)tine

First off, sorry about the delay in posts. The muse has not struck me? I've been under the weather? I dunno. I definitely missed an opportunity there when the weather was awesome. In any case, I'm back.

So, Valentine's Day happened recently. Being single, this day usually sucks. However, I decided to make the best of it by spending the weekend in Kalamazoo with my friend Kary. Among other things, we sang, we danced (to rave music at a Sushi bar in downtown Kalamazoo of all places . . .), we ate foods, we watched movies, and we made muffins. Also, I caught a cold that is currently kicking the ever living shit out of me. Sorry for not being as witty as usual.

This is Kary and her cat Max. I might come back and photoshop this one to recess the background a bit more and do some other color enhancements.

Max is a cuddle slut (quoth Kary). he also has green eyes. My green bag reflected in them was pretty cool.

This is her screen. It's pretty, especially from this angle.



There will be another post in Kalamazoo, taken the next day at a coffee shop. Look for it soon.

The Official Ryan of 2009

Late in 2008, after watching some asinine commercial claiming some product was the official "whatever" of 2008, I said, "Is that really how it works? If that's true, then as of right now, I'm the official Ryan of 2009!" Now you'll have to live with that fact all year long.

My New Year's Eve was somewhat different than I had expected it to be. Instead of getting to take shots at a show north of Detroit, I was honored to take shots (digitally and otherwise) at Rob and Cammila's apartment. It was a low key event, but it provided for a few nice pictures.

Cammila and Rob got a very pretty punch bowl for Christmas from Cammila's mother. Unfortunately, it was not filled with spiked punch.

At one point in the evening, we were visited by a ghost. He clearly just needed a snack.

Tesla was sick and tired of all these snakes photos.

And there were various sweet treats to eat.

Thanks for having me over, Rob and Cammila! I'm not sure what I would have done without you!