Recently I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing my first Rhodesian ridgeback, a breed which came into my radar only last year thanks to super talented Claire of Rouxby Photography and her BEAUTIFUL photos of her Rhodesians (all of her photos are wonderful). Since becoming a huge fan of Rouxby and following her love affair with her dogs, I have been intrigued by this breed and was super excited when Buddha’s owner called to schedule a session. Buddha! I asked his owner how she came about that name, and she said it’s because having a dog in her life has kept her well-being centered and healthy. I like that a lot. The name became even more fitting as the shoot went on. Though Buddha is only 10 months old, he was perfectly mellow, zen and stately throughout the entire shoot (except for the few minutes outdoors when he met his friend Sophie). Just a lovely, beautiful dog.
We meet Buddha at his house in Cambridge, MA.














Thank you Buddha for a wonderful shoot!
BEFORE and AFTERS!
With this beautiful dog in this beautiful light, we were having such a good time that I forgot to take behind-the-scenes shots again. So in lieu of that, I’ll include a few before-and-after shots.
Before (image on left) is straight out of the camera, after is with post-processing applied in Lightroom.
Below image taken in the living room. We started in the late afternoon and there was some very weak light coming in through the front door, which was facing north. I shot a few stops shy of wide-open (I’m trying to shoot between f/2.0 – f/2.8 these days), probably could have slowed the shutter speed down more since Buddha was so mellow. But instead of doing that I bumped the ISO super high to get more light.

RAW: 1/200 sec at f/2.0, ISO 2800 | 50 mm f/1.4 lens
Lightroom: WB adjustment, brightness increase, blacks increase
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Below image taken in the field out back. We had a nice, not-so-unobstructed view of the setting sun, which is rare in the city! We couldn’t have timed this better.

RAW: 1/250 sec at f/2.8, ISO 200 | 50 mm f/1.4 lens
Lightroom: WB adjustment, fill-light increase