Kelly Pettitt Photography / Speed Noodle Studio

08/10/2022

How glorious to see the sun and soak up some warmth after the last few somewhat nippy days! 😀

I'm sure I'm not the only one outside with their camera today... Show me what you've been snapping! 📸📱

25/09/2022

Celebrating Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day with a beautiful korimako/bellbird.

Until last week, I'd never seen a korimako around my place, so it's been a real treat having this one visit! 💚

18/09/2022

Winding up the weekend with a well deserved drink (or two!)...🍸

Have a great week everyone! 🤗

16/09/2022

It's been one hell of a year since I last posted.

We lost our beautiful Fury quite suddenly to osteosarcoma at the beginning of November last year. We were heartbroken and still miss her every single day. 💔

We fostered a young greyhound boy named Otis for six weeks over the Christmas holidays as company for Casey. She wasn't impressed and did not approve. 🫢

In January, we adopted a young greyhound girl we named Xandi. Casey did approve and they've since become great mates. 🤗

Late February, Casey was also diagnosed with osteosarcoma. She was given 8 weeks at best, and we're now coming up 30 weeks since diagnosis. We're still fighting and giving at all we've got. 💪🤞

Early February marked the beginning of Round Two of the Unleashed Education, Unleashed Challenges - Emerge. This followed on from last year's Embark Round and involved another six months of fortnightly challenges - a total of twelve. 😃

I'm very happy to say this second round was a lot more successful for me than the first and I ended this round with eight Top 10s and two Top 20s - winning one individual challenge overall. I also received a Highly Commended achievement for my completed portfolio at our awards ceremony. 🥳

Now we play a bit of a waiting game, as the third round, Empower, won't begin until early 2024. So, it looks like the birds may well take centre stage again! 🐦

Have a great weekend everyone! ☀️

31/10/2021

Goodness, where has the year gone?! 😳

It's been quite some time since I posted, although it's possible nobody noticed! 😆

Earlier this year I enrolled in a brand new course, from the also newly created online teaching platform, Unleashed Pet Photography Education (https://www.unleashed.education/), headed up by vastly talented duo - Charlotte Reeves from Charlotte Reeves Photography (Australia) and Craig Turner-Bullock from Furtography (New Zealand). 🐶🐕

The Embark Round is part one of four planned rounds comprising of 12 challenges each, to be completed over the course of six months, with a new challenge deadline every fortnight.

October 23rd marked the completion of the first ever Unleashed Education , and on Friday 29th October, the Unleashed Awards were held via Zoom. 48 out of approximately 116 students submitted their completed portfolios by the deadline, which is an achievement to be proud of! 👏👏

I was thrilled to have been chosen as the overall winner of the Front Runner challenge and to be included in the 12 'Highly Commended' portfolios submitted. Huge congratulations go out to the other 11 overall challenge winners, the 'Most Improved' winners, and the Third, Second and First place winners, it was an honour to be included amongst you! 🙏🏆

So, what's next? 🤔

In February 2022, the second round of challenges commences - the Emerge Round, which means a further six months and a new set of 12 challenges to complete! And while I'm looking forward to it, I'm also looking forward to perhaps photographing an uncomplicated bird or two for a change over the next three months! 🐦🦅😁

The images below make up my final submitted portfolio. At the end of each fortnightly challenge, a Top 20 was chosen, before the final Top 10 from those images were selected.

If you are interested in pet photography and want to learn more about how you could join the Unleashed Challenges, head over to https://www.unleashed.education/unleashed-challenges! 🤗

07/02/2021

What's better than a fresh new, enthusiastic model?? A new backdrop! 😁

You can never have too many I say! Besides, how many IS too many? 🤔🤷‍♀️

Model: Sophie (Princess Alea) 🧡

28/01/2021

Enjoyed a lovely 5km walk around Lake Rotopounamu in Turangi this afternoon and although there were an assortment of birds about, it was only the adorable little toutouwai or North Island Robin that gave me a chance of a photo or two (dozen 🤭)! 💛

25/01/2021

My girl Fury - winner of last week's photography challenge - Black. 🤩

Thanks Excio Photo Community!

Congratulations to Kelly Pettitt (Kelly Pettitt Photography), last week's winner.

Photographing a black dog on a black background is a very bold choice. Kelly managed to not only photograph the dog in perfect detail but also to leave the viewer wondering what is going on in the shot.

If you haven't yet, submit your photo this week into our "Triangles" challenge.

Don't forget - as a member you have full access to take part in any of our challenges as well as learn more about the certain aspects of photography and why they are important to help you grow your skills.

Submit your photo here: www.excio.io/challenges

13/01/2021

What a truly wonderful experience spending time with these magnificent raptors - Arohaki, Ribbon, Star and Jarli as well as their handlers Heidi, Noel and Debbie. The connection between the handlers and their birds is a delight to witness. 🦅💙

I took a ridiculous number of photos and had to share a few of them with you! 😁

My only disappointment is I don't live close enough to visit as often as I'd like!!

If you're in Rotorua these holidays, or indeed at any time - do make the effort to visit Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust and support the incredible work they do, I'm sure you won't regret it!

08/01/2021

Had a wonderful first visit to Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust in Rotorua today, despite the heavy shower of rain that put a real dampener on the end of the show! ☔️

The Wingspan team are friendly, welcoming and are a wealth of knowledge about our wonderful birds of prey. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. 👌

This is the stunning Star. She's a juvenile kārearea or NZ falcon. 💜