December 30, 2016

Whiteout


We started our walk this morning in a calm quiet setting. About half way around we all of a sudden found ourselves in a serious snowstorm.  Thought we might try for a portrait under the beautiful conditions. There are a bunch of dogs and people behind me so I had trouble getting Choco to pay attention to me. Not Blanca.


Moxie surveying one of my favorite fields. Over the years I have had many favorite fields at Norms, but slowly with the increased traffic they have been in one way or another diminished. I am not saying where this is. 


The famous view down the Slough, with lots of snow. Not much water flowing today. Not much water flowing for a couple of years now, not since the big flood filled it withe stones and gravel.

Chilly Walkin at Norm's Island

Our great friend Michael E Garcia and his best bud Diego, with Mike modeling his new Outback hat. Quite a nice hat. The cane prop is mine, he is holding it for me while I slip and slide around on the snow.


Our new friend Moxie, who walks with her friend Susan at Norm's most mornings lately.  I am still working on getting the definitive photograph of Moxie. She is a mover, so one has to be quick. I have not been quick enough yet.

December 12, 2016

Major Cold Spell Means Major Napping


Norm's? No way. Every morning when we get up the thermometer says something close to 0. Today the high is 8. So Nina Blanca has the right idea, stretch out on a comfy fleece blanket on the cozy soft bed. Softer anyway. She likes to stay in the basement, and gets annoyed when I wrap myself in a blanket on the couch upstairs. She hits me than runs downstairs. She thinks we are supposed to be in the basement. We usually are, but the cold drives me upstairs.

Lest You Think all We Do, Chocolate, Blanca and I, is lay about and Sleep, I shall attempt to dispel this idea by posting one of my very favorite photos of Blanca. Action, Outside, Beauty, Cold Hands.


December 2, 2016

Keller, Braille and friend Ozzie, the Double Merles


Photos by Rose Adler Photography
I stumbled across a page today on Facebook about a woman that is trying to educate the world, and breeders, about the issue of mating merle to merle. My Nina Blanca is white, deaf, and vision impaired because both of her parents were blue merle. Any merle coloring will do the same, so red merle to red merle is a no no also. My boy Chocolate is a red merle.
Here is the link to their website if you are interested in this issue.
http://www.kellerscause.com

Well, curses. I just was told that the photo above is Keller and Ozzie. So I will put a photo of Braille.


This is Braille. Braille is both deaf and blind. Keller is vision impaired like my Blanca.
I thank kellerscause for letting me use their photographs. I love that they are educating the world about this issue. My Nina Blanca to me is the greatest dog in the world (you did not hear that Choco) but it would be great if all breeders would be aware of this issue and were responsible about it. Luckily for Keller, Braille and Ozzie, there are big hearted people in the world.

November 24, 2016

Thanksgiving Day 2016


Nina Blanca, Chocolate and I all hope everyone had a good day today. It was a beautiful day. We continue to have gorgeous wonderful weather, not so good if you think we need rain, but a pleasure to have for walking at Norm's Island.


I repeat this photo from a couple days ago. It just goes perfectly with the photo of Blanca.

November 21, 2016

Beautiful Bally


Walked with a large group of dogs today at Norm's. I got a many many blurry captures of running dogs. That's okay, I got this wonderful photo of one of my very favorite dogs, Beautiful Bally.

I will ad a blurry action photo. Let's call it "Arty"


The shepherd is Elsa and the healer mix is Moxie. We have been seeing them alot at Norm's the last week or two, and greatly enjoying their company. They are great pals and are very energetic. I wish I had my old D300 to track the action. I sold it. Looking for a new action camera. 

November 15, 2016

With Some Help From Friends


Meet Moxie. We have been fortunate to meet Moxie and her peep Susan walking at Norm's. Moxie is a very high energy and sweet girl. Loves her sticks. Some Heeler, some Aussie and some Pit Bull, maybe. I can see the Heeler in her energy and determination. Susan has done a wonderful job with her.
We have had weeks of gorgeous weather. It looks like tomorrow it will change. It's okay, we have had a glorious run.


With the help of our friends Susan and Kay we were able to get this great photo of my boy Chocolate.


I cannot let a walk at Norms pass without a photo of my beautiful girl

October 23, 2016

Best Yet! Guest Photographer Pat Davis Lee


I am always complaining that I never get good pictures of me and my kids. Well, this summer that has ended, my friend Mike got one that I loved, and this past friday my friend Pat took this one. I love this, it is the best yet. I love the expression on Choco's face. Nina Blanca is certainly smiling. She loves Pat, Pat is her favorite peep (after me)

October 20, 2016

Fun Day Friends Dogs



This is from yesterday, when it was pretty overcast. Today the sun was out, and it was warm and totally glorious.  But the overcast helps to bring out the colours in the trees, and the reflections.


Lou Shasta and Pat Davis Lee.  My kids and I came out earlier and were slowly making our way about the Island when we cross paths with my friends. Well it went something like that, there were texts involved.



I always love this when the seagulls rise up. There must be an official name for this phenomena. There were two eagles circling above, and the gulls always take flight when there are eagles. I got a couple reasonable photos of the eagles, but they are just small specks on the file, not very interesting.



This is Simon. That is Simon at the top of the blog with the red ball. He was I think six months when we took the top photo, and is seven and a half years in this one. He is the most energetic dog I have ever seen. He is a Blue Heeler Brittany Spaniel mix, his peep is Pat. She is pretty dedicated to keep him walkin.


It is seldom I am able to get good pictures of dogs in the water, just too many negative elements. But these came out really swell. I love the waves moving away from Simon in the first picture. The him looking directly into the light with the light side of his face showing, wow! As a rule Simon is not a water dog. But if it is not too deep he obviously has no objections to it. Blanca will not go in this far.






Finnegan. Seldom do I get a side view of the boy. Looks like we started to get some cloud cover, compared to the next photo of my boy Choco.


Chocolate trying to decide if he is up for another swim. He will not go into the water except to fetch. Even then he has to be encouraged strongly the first few times, but then he doesn't wanna stop.
Beautiful wonderful day at Norm Schoenthal Island.




October 19, 2016

October 18, 2016

Stunning Fall Day


We four went late to Norm's today. I have been having trouble getting up early. Early being 8. Not so early.  I really enjoy staying in bed late, but this is not the time of year to be doing it. Soon going late will be a good idea because it will be cold at 8. 



It is only October, but the shadows feel long. It is beautiful. My kids seem to have passed a point in a dogs life where the most important thing to them is to be with me, they are by my side almost constantly. Wonderful.








This is a picture of Blanca and Finny. Choco refused to cooperate. I need a new technique for him. I should have begun it today.  Blanca is great. She just drills me with those eyes when I tell them to stay, I think she has got it that when I point the camera she looks.




I like this picture of Blanca. I also like the focus aid on the Olympus OM-D e10.  This is the one feature that could possibly make me a complete convert to Electronic Viewfinders.










Of course, since I have eyes only for Blanca, this is how I see the top photo. Pretty cool. I am using here a set of actions that I downloaded from Google, Nik Filters I guess they are called. Google bought Nik several years ago, before that they were highly regarded and expensive. You can now download them for free from Google. There are some useful ones. I have been using the sharpening actions.  They really are sets of recorded actions.



October 1, 2016

Sunning Heron


Eagle eye Mike spotted this wonderful phenomena. It is a Great Heron sunning himself. This particular Heron calls this limb home apparently. We see him there quite often.
There have been a great number of Herons on the river this year. In one day last week Mike and I spotted six, including this one sitting on his limb.
Not much of a photo, it is just a small section of the film, and that was at 300mm. But, it is cool anyway. I have never seen such a thing with a big bird.

September 18, 2016

Red


Bally. She is one of my very favorite dogs that we have met at Norm's Island. She thinks I am one of her favorite people she has met at Norm's, so it works out. She is very sweet. Blanca likes her, but she will not  let her come near me, so Bally and I have to sneak pets and wiggles. Nice dog girl Bally is.


More red. Virginia Creeper I am always assuming.

September 14, 2016

Guest Photographer: Michael E Garcia


Our good friend Michael E Garcia finally today got a photograph of me and my kids that I like. It has been a long time coming. I applied a filter to this, I have been playing around with Nik filters that Google recently started giving away for free. I find that Chocolate especially looks so much better with this filter Detail Extractor applied. Of course this calls into question . . .
Finally my feet are in the right proportion to my head.



Great photo of my Nina Blanca.

September 9, 2016

Pelicans & Herons

It has been so long since I have been here that they have changed the look of the blogger software. I think I can work through it though.

Our official Fall 2016 Family Portrait. 
Finn just insists on being a bit off


 Profile Please! 


Our good buddy and fellow Norm's Island aficionado, and Mr Ever Ready, Michael E Garcia.  He has been getting me and my gang out to Norms at least weekly since mid-August. Now that things are cooling off and the bugs are gone we are trying to work up to being out, oh, let's say 4 times a week. Never set your goals so high you cannot reach them, is that not what they say?
The current program for us, led my Mr. Ever Ready, is to Meander Norm's, looking for any visually interesting diversions. 
Pelicans & Herons are coming.


April 5, 2016

Absent

I was sick for most of March. I had a cold and the flu both at the same time. While neither alone was very severe, together they sure took it out of me. I was very weak and tired for almost a month. I am back up and about now, and gaining strength.
I would like to get back to posting on this blog on a daily, or at least weekly schedule. We will see.

January 20, 2016

My Websites

My website situation is pretty jumbled up since I closed Blackdoggie and moved most of my studio portraits to my broader website. So;
I invite everyone to visit my other website; kenjamesphotography.com
Blackdoggie.com will take you to the same place.