February 25, 2011

Penny & Ms. Mel

Beautiful Photo of Penny. Her Ridgeback shows quite well. Great attitude. Both Penny and Ms Mel are Rhodesian Ridgebacks. I love their colour. Color, I mean. Both Penny and Mel were rescued by their friend Cathy.  Penny used to be so difficultly shy, but Cathy has done such a great job with her that she now comes up to me and nudges my hand. They get to go to the Island everyday, which is great for them. They are very lucky dogs to have Cathy to care for and love them. 
I am going to post a copy of Penny alone on SmugMug, it will make a great solo portrait.
I took this picture a couple of days ago, but I have held back posting it because I knew I was not going to be able to walk at the Island for a couple of days.  The thermometer out my back window now reads -10°. We are not going anywhere.  Hopefully tomorrow, Saturday will be a little warmer.  My kids are being very patient.

February 24, 2011

Compare Chocolate to Papa

I took this picture a couple of days ago, shows Chocolate in the same pose as his dad in the previous post. They are very similar.  They both have wide spaced, large eyes and big bone structure. Of course I like Chocolate's colour better, but I am biased. Choco is even of a heavier set than his dad. Chocolates eyes are marbled amber. His dads if I remember are mostly amber.
It is below zero outside, so I will be sitting in front of the computer most of the day with the kids at my feet.  Brrr.

February 23, 2011

Beau - Choco and Blanca's Daddy

This is Winslide's Texas Beau, Chocolate and Blanca's daddy.  He is about 7 months in this picture. Beau is an offspring of HOF WTCH HTCH Twin Oaks Winslow Breeze - Winslow's website - http://www.winslide.net/winslow.htm.   He was about a year and a half when Chocolate Blanca were born. He is a beauty. Chocolate's full name is TRose's Chocolate Dulce de Leche.  Blanca is just Niña Blanca, I like that. White Girl. Tootin the pedigree horn there, but my kids don't have any herding in them, Choco says "herd cows, you must be kidding" and Blanca would herd to her own horn, being deaf.

Today was too cold for me, plus I had stuff I had to get done, so we did not go to the Island.  Boooo say the kids. Unfortunately it is going to be worse tomorrow and Friday.  We may have to brave the cold one of those days, even for just a short while.

Belgian Malinois/German Shepherd Wins

Okay Diego, I got this great photo of you, just after you won the game of stick.  Tail up, ears alert, black tipped mahogany coat glowing with pride.  Good looking Belgian Malinois/German Shepherd. Nice stick too, by the way.

February 22, 2011

Diego

Your not going to be mad at me, are you Diego, for putting this picture up, are you?  It shows off your beautiful black on brown coloring, your great tail, your wonderful trim build, and your very charming left ear.  But I keep seeing in your expression "your not really going to take my picture when I have a snow nose, are you mister?"  I think it is a great picture of you, though I admit it does not capture your usual carefree happy Diego attitude.  I will work on trying to capture that Diego. Didn't get it today.

Correction: Diego's colours are black-tipped mahogany, and also I forgot to mention that he is a Belgian Malinois/German Shepherd designer canine dog. Sorry Diego, no slight intended - actually I did not know how to spell Malinois.

Choco says "you had better get a better picture of Diego pronto, friend"

Finally Foxy

If you look reeeeaaaaal close right in the middle, you can see our friend, checking us out.  He is probably a quarter of a mile away, and I did not have a very long lens, so this is what we got. Still is pretty cool, because he is just sitting and casually watching us.  I took three photos and in the third he is laying down, very confident.  I was walking with eagle eye Mike, I would have never caught this, and he saw the red brown color, which was out of place. I have pictures taken at a shorter distance, but they are not as good as this. Thanks Foxy.  Nice cockle burr picture too.  Click on the photo to make it bigger.

February 21, 2011

Studio Dog Simon Ball Boy

This is Simon.  He is quite young in this photo, maybe 8 weeks. He is my best model to date, being used on my business card and as the logo on this blog. This obviously is a studio photo, I have a bunch of photos of this photogenic boy which I will post when times are slow for new photos.
It has been very cold, so I have not gotten any photos for several days.  I met a beautiful dog today named Beau, but he was black and the light was too contrasty, so no pictures.  I hope to get another chance to photograph Beau.

February 19, 2011

Brrrr, A Cold Saturday

No pictures today, yet.  I will look in my archives and see if I can find something appropriate.  We are not going to the Island today, too cold.  You are a wimp, my kids Choco and Blanca are saying.

February 18, 2011

Rosy on a Chilly Day

Despite a thermometer reading of 20° it was cold cold today.  But we were lucky to be able to walk with Rosy and her friend Emily anyway.  Rosy seems a mix, Border Collie ears but Aussie coloring and feathering. Maybe just a different Australian.  We had met her before and she had not been so friendly, but today all was well.  She played with Chocolate and Blanca. I think she is liking coming to the Island.
Look what I found.  Finders Keepers, I think she would be saying.  Blanca is interested, but who will be reeeeally interested is coming up behind.  Chocolate likes to play keep away.  I think Rosy has the same idea.
 Thanks Rosy.  It was nice walking with you and talking with your friend Emily.

Chocolate Mi Hombre

I don't catch as many good photos of my Choco as I do of Niña, but I like this one. Of course he is chasing  Niña Blanca.  I discovered a setting on my camera I was not aware of before.  Deep down in the menus one can designate the center of the control button to bring the focus point back to the middle of the frame. Duh.  This has improved my ability to capture action immensely.  Everytime I read the book I find something I had missed.  Cameras have become complicated.  The manual I use is from Thom Hogan.  He writes mainly about Nikon, and publishes ebooks on their operation. http://www.bythom.com

February 16, 2011

Today We Met Pepper

We walked for a ways today with Pepper and her friend Rob.  Not too sure what Pepper is, but it looks like maybe Border Collie, Spanish Shepherd, maybe some Healer.  She is a very sweet girl.  She was not too sure about the camera though.
She was hard to get a picture of because if her face was in shadow it would disappear, and the brown of her eyes would be gone. But, we got these two fair pics.  Pepper is beautiful.

February 15, 2011

Sammy's Day - Finally

I have been trying to get a picture of Sammy for a long time, he is Max's friend, ( Max, January 28 ) he runs point for the old fella. Every time I try to get a picture of Sammy he squares off to me when I point the camera at him.  Today he relaxed.  Squared off would be just okay, but I wanted a great shot of Sammy.  He has a lot of personality, this boy. He has a takes care of business attitude. He might be a Red Healer.

February 12, 2011

Saturday - Surprisingly Few Dogs, Or Humans.

We did not see very many people, or dogs, today.  I expect I was just at the Island at the wrong time, because it was a beautiful day.  Nice even light, and it was warm, relatively.  Of course most people prefer sunny.  I did get a couple of photos though. 
This is Marnie, which Island regulars know as a regular, she walks with her friend Rick. One beautiful dog.  Weimaraner owners almost always do a good job of not feeding their dogs too much.  Makes for a great dog model. Thanks Marnie.
 I do not get as many pics of my Chocolate boy as I do of Blanca.  Here is a good one. He photographs better in profile than straight on. He is looking at Blanca.
 

February 11, 2011

Today was One Beautiful Day

Another Blanca Picture, but it cannot be helped, I absolutely love this one. Strong diagonal composition, great action, good juxtaposition of light and dark - just as I visualized it - HaHa!

 Here's another photo I like.  A happy girl here.  Milly is an English Shepherd rescue, she walks most days at the Island with three other friends. She is running up to meet a group of dogs.

 We met another Griffon today, this boy with the nice bandanna.  This is obviously an vigorous energetic breed, as this boy, whose name we did not get, was as eager to keep on the move as our other Griffon friend Guinness.

February 10, 2011

A Good Day - Good Light, Great Dogs . . .

. . . . only a Little Cold
Winny and Blanca are Great friends.  I am very happy that Blanca is very gentle with the smaller dog.

A good photo of Winny by himself.  He is a very energetic fella.  Have I said any dogs are low energy?

This is Shelby, Winny's friend.  Shelby is a stick junky.  Ball junky.  Nice Dog.  Check out the beautiful feet on the boy.

The Wild Man Runneth -  This is Guinness, who I posted a good standing portrait of a few days ago. Hard to get a pic of those eyes.  He is beautiful.  Today was a great day for photographs.

February 5, 2011

Full Tilt

I know, I know, I sure have a lot of pictures of my dogs.  But I get some great ones of them.  I love these chase photos.  Here I got Blanca running full tilt.  Great expressions of joy on their faces.  Very satisfying photograph.

Big Dog

Today we met Marti and her Labradoddle Bejou.  We were beginning to despair because there were few dogs at the Island today, the weather was dreary, light rain and some snow, and contrary to the weather report it was kinda cold, but! alas we found Bejou.  I have a whole great series of him running and playing with Blanca which I will work on and put up. Bejou plays hard, and he found his playmate with Blanca.
Get Ready, Get Set . . .
Go!
and Go . . .
 and Go . . .
and Go . . .
Phew! That was Fun!

February 4, 2011

Sizing Up The Situation

This picture I think speaks for itself, but then . . .
. . . we could turn the tables on Chocolate, see how he feels about the situation.  Not so good, judging from that expression on his face and his body language. He seems more intimidated than the little guy in the top photo. But, Choco is a softy, no fighting blood in him, which is good.

February 3, 2011

Energetic Girl

We have been seeing Kenny and her friend Ashley at the Island on occasion, but it is hard to get a picture of this energetic girl.  I have a bunch of blurry ones, no good.  But today we got lucky and Kenny decided to seek a vantage point, stop, and take a look around. 
It was cold today, no where near the projected high, plus it was windy. But on the south side of Norms it was not bad, so we hung around hoping to get some pictures, maybe even one of the elusive foxes.  No luck with the fox, but thanks to Kenny we got this great picture.  
 I wanted an action photo of Kenny, and I found this really cool, almost abstract take.  Look at the ears fly. Good.

Guiness is One Beautiful Griffon

I need more photos of this boy, he is gorgeous, and full of energy, I was lucky to get this stationary picture of him.  Unfortunately I left my notebook at home, and my mind leaked the info containing his name.  I see him often, I will get it next time.  ( Got It! )  This is an on going problem for me, remembering names. Thanks for standing still a moment buddy.

February 1, 2011

It's Cold Cold Cold

Noon, February 1st, 2011 and it is -5 degrees outside, so we are going nowhere.  Chocolate and Blanca are wrestling about the house, they are no dummies, they know it is too cold to be outside.
This is the coldest picture I could find.  It is my friend BooBoo, and we are playing frisbee.  Frisbee in one hand Nikon Coolpix 995 in the other.  This is an old picture, maybe 8 years old, long before I found my love of dog portraits. The Nikon995 was an early best performer in the realm of compact digital cameras, though not so compact by current standards.  At the end of my product photography career I actually was using this camera for product shots.  The clients insisted because of the economy after the dotcom bust, to save on film costs. From 4x5 View Camera to Mamiya 645 to Compact Digital, times they were a changing.
BooBoo was close by my side for 10 years.  She was the most wonderful dog in the world, a Border Collie Lab mix. People thought she was a Lab puppy right up till the end. She died May 10, 2009.    
Brrrrr.