This year, I wanted to do something fun for our Christmas card. We always plan out one but never follow through with it. So this year I had to go all out. What better way to start, than with a crude 1st grader like drawing that took about a minute. Then we add the models. This was a tough one because peanuts (our dog) schedule is very full and doesn’t like to be photographed and Rachel gets tired of me taking pictures of her almost immediately after I start.First we started with peanut. To get this amazing poise Rachel held a treat above her head to make her stand up. The vicious craze in her face was just a bonus.Then we added us. I had to place my camera on a tripod and use remote to trigger the camera. To light it, I used 4 alien bees, a large soft box for the main light , 2 lights behind to give some highlights, and one on the background.I then took the photos and cut them out using OnOne’s Mask Pro 4.1 (free trial!) This is a really cool program and a huge time saver. I toned the images together and gave our legs shadows under to make the photos blend together better. I then took the head of Peanut and rotated it down. Then I put it on a green background (using a new layer and paint bucket) to clean up the rest of the pic.Then I needed a background. So I found a sky picture on a free stock photo page on the internet.We just moved to Los Angeles this year from Washington so what better way to show that than the Hollywood sign. (courtesy of my friend and his point and shot camera) I obviously took the liberty of making the hill the sign sits on a little more rounded. I did this by taking the left side and pasting it at an angle on the side, then blended it.I added some palm trees to make it more california like and birds cause we were flying and needed company.Finally I changed peanuts paws in the rear to look more like she is not standing on something. I did this by copying her front paws and then transforming them and blending them in. Then I put a motion blur on us and peanut to make it look like we are going fast (and cause its fun)Thats it! If you have any specific questions leave me a comment.Thanks for looking! Special thanks to our dog for being a trooper.

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