Black Friday

My Black Friday consists of staying far away from any stores.  One year I went to Natick Mall and although I had fun (and a good deal) I vowed not to do that again.  Instead, for the last several years, I spend the day after Thanksgiving wrangling guinea pigs, making toffee and cookie dough and then go to the Rehoboth Contra dance in the evening.  It's a good way to spend a day.

This morning was the shortest pig-shoot we've ever had.  Especially with these three.  In one hour we shot 130 photos in two short sessions and from that bunch found a few decent Christmas photos.  By comparison, the normal Christmas photo shoot requires at least 400 photos in four sessions to get a decent photo.  And the winning photo?  The second one taken of the whole shoot.  Figures.  I didn't even need to Photoshop out any hay, fur or poo.  Amazing!

Could you please identify the creature that stole your carrot?

I end up with several cute photos that can't be used for the card because it didn't crop well, it's missing a pig or two, or it's out of focus.  Often, we've caught some pig being bad.  The best outtakes tend to happen at the end of a session, when we're all a bit frazzled.  We had piggy porn and snowman taste-testing and goofy expressions.  My favorite non-contender was this photo of pigs and props in a row.  It was too wide to put on the card and Pinni was a little hard to see.  What a long lineup of pigs, snowmen and a penguin. 

As you can see, we managed to snap several cute shots where one or two pigs were behaving and the others were MIA.

Best of cropped shots

Every year I learn a bit more on what to do and not do.  Using grids to hold up the backdrop was a big success.  I also discovered by doing that, I could stand behind the whole setup, which means I was less likely to get myself in a photo, and yet still could wrangle the pigs.  However, the light blue background was not good for photographing Pinni.  As contrary as it seems (I thought a high contrast would help), Pinni photographs best against a dark green or red.  Black pigs are tough to photograph!

Meanwhile, toffee is cooling in preparation for tomorrow's dipping.  Cookie dough is chilling, to be rolled and baked.  Pigs are sacked out after a grueling morning of making love to the camera.  And the Thanksgiving Rehoboth dance is only an hour or two away!  All in all, a very successful Black Friday.