I am taking a portrait lighting class from the photographer extraordinaire Don Giannatti -- known to his disciples as WizWow -- and this is the first week. We are studying master photographers each week, then doing portraits that we submit for critique and review. Now you know I love me the animals but I also photograph people (what? You didn't know that? Check out the last two galleries on my site, they'll take you right to where the people live).  

Our first photographer is the Chicago photographer Victor Skrebneski. His work is interesting, certainly not a lighting style I've ever achieved on purpose. I'm sure he does many different kinds of lighting but the work we are studying is predominately black and white and very contrasty with a noticeable lack of catchlights in the eyes. In fact, most of the eyes just look hollowed out. It's a hard style to love because I love light in the eyes. In a pullback of his lighting style, you can see he actually he has a silver umbrella pointed so that the light comes straight down over the subject. Never would I think to do that. 

I had a headshot shoot on Tuesday and my partner Vicki helped me arrange our living room into a portrait studio so that my client, Xenia, whom I've photographed many times before, could pose for me at the end of our headshot session for the Skrebneski lighting.

I took a few portraits of Vicki and once I got them out of the ghastly setting into something usable, I ended up with some pretty good portraits. Xenia knocked it out of the park when it was her turn and suddenly I'm at a quandry as to which of the two sets of portraits I should submit to Don's class.

And then yesterday, before dismantling the studio, Vicki wrangled Kiwi and Mango, our gentlemen house cats, for some Skrebneski. Now Kiwi is pretty amenable to the whole photography thing. Put a feather in his general direction and he's good to go. Mango is a bit of a fraidy cat but you know what? The boy pulled through. In fact, of the four subjects I photographed, my boy Mango is the one I like best. Shhh, don't tell anyone. 

I'm looking forward to applying unique portrait lighting to pets as I go through the class. In the end, maybe I'll have a little gallery of all the styles with pets!