A mulligan is a second chance at doing something and I thought it the perfect title for this week's prompt for the 52 Weeks Pet Photography Project of "Revise - Re-edit" where the participants were asked if our style had changed, or our skills improved? Or would we like to be more creative with some past images? This week it's all about taking a look at our past work and taking on an old image and editing it to your current skill set. I knew exactly the session I wanted to pull from; a pet photography session in the Texas bluebonnets around Dallas. 

These beautiful pups belong to a friend and yes, you don't see any leashes in the "SOOC" (straight out of the camera) image because they are that well trained! We got together late in the bluebonnet season last year so I could get in a bit of practice with different techniques while shooting in a field in the middle of the day. That's the problem with bluebonnets; they're rarely found in open shade where we photographers love to shoot because of the beautiful lighting found there. This particular method involved a large scrim (something to filter the sunlight) along with a small flash to fill in the shadows and put a sparkle in the dog's eyes.  

Yes the scrim softened the hard midday sun, and yes I got the sparkle in the eyes, but I also got a large shadow patch on the grass.  That, and the sky was BORING! A plain blue sky does nothing for an image. I've been sitting on these images for a few months not knowing how to get them to the next level that would satisfy me (luckily my friend is very patient!). I had gotten the image cleaned up to the point where I could share it with her, but I wasn't fully satisfied with it.  

Power lines and telephone poles are gone, as well as the assistant, but the boring sky and shadow patch remain (slide the bar to see the difference).