Dash for Dog Parks - 2010

I posted 25 photos I took last August on my Facebook page. Pretty Cool. Here is the link;  Dog Portrait Photography  Above we have Susan with her friend Daisy wanting to get to the treats quick. No need to cross the finish line says Daisy.
I have also added a page with the Dash for Dog Park 2010 photos to this weblog, the link is in the menu above. Same photos.

Dogs, Fun, Sun . . .

I am just going to post these photos, at least for now, they speak for themselves. I got carried away and picked to many, but there are some good ones.  The location is High Sierra Park.
Later.  I will try to add some names. I got some help from Kelley. Thanks Kelley.

This I needed not help with. This ball boy is Buddy. He is VERY attached to his ball
.

Circling about each other we have Buddy, Remy on the right, and the smaller feisty boy is Kingston.

My Nina Blanca liked this girl, Clover. Clover was having the time of her life this morning. She is a very beautiful girl.

Well, Remy got Buddy's ball, so he is going to be the object of Buddy's attention for awhile.

My kids Nina Blanca and Chocolate keeping an eye on the action.

 

Remy on the left, getting acquainted with Jake. Jake comes to the park with his friends Buddy and Vita.

We have two Jakes. Signaling his desire to play here is the other Jake we had at High Sierra today.

Kingston and Jake.  They are great buddies. Kingston is much bigger than he looks.

Buddy giving chase on Jake.  They are a good match. Everybody was simply having a ball, it was great, so much fun to watch. Thanks everybody.

See Daisy Run

Daisy is definitely a ball dog.

I have a feeling she would do this all day, but it was hot today so Kelley held her back, forced rests.

The great thing about High Sierra is that there definitely is room to run.

Got it!

Daisy & Friends at High Sierra

This morning was a special morning at High Sierra Park. I met Daisy. I see Daisy and Kingston at Norms regularly.  Kingston always runs up to me and jumps up, but I never thought Daisy even saw me.  Today she came over and slid up next to me so I could pet her head and sat down next to me. I was surprised. A new dog.  Blanca was not too excited about this development though.
Above we have Daisy and Kingston with their walking friend Jake in the back.
The sun is so hard, the light so overwhelmingly bright, so pictures are difficult. I exposed the photo above reading off Daisy, but I still had to tweek it radically to get it to look like anything. Bigger than this it would not work. I am enjoying my new world of outdoor dog photographpy, but oh, I miss the studio sometimes, especially on bright summer days.
It was beautiful this morning at High Sierra, a slight breeze kept it from being unbearably hot.

This beautiful girl is Dagny. I wonder what his mix is. She sure has a chow nose and tail. There is some feathering on her front legs. She is a very happy friendly girl. She photographs well. Could have some Australian (Spanish) Shepherd in her, what with the color and the stance. Anyway, I like her.

Nice picture of Dagny cutting across in front of us. High Sierra Park is a good spot for dogs to run, it is open and expansive.
We were wondering why, instead of a spending so much money on a dog park, High Sierra Park couldn't be designated an off leash area.  I have been going often, and have only seen a couple people jogging.  I guess that is the reason for a dog park, because many dogs, especially young ones, chase joggers. Much to the joggers understandable dismay. Well, then, how about a fence set 10 feet in from the current fence to create a jogging trail, joggers only.  Hey! Not likely is it. Then there are the Frisbee Golf people.

 A couple more dogs enjoying the open space to run free. Had to get my kids in here somewhere.

 Exposure is way off but it is such a great photo I tried to salvage it. Need to work on the colour still.

One more.  Dagny says "look at this beautiful place we have to play"  I think where Dagny is standing is the proposed dog park. From the mowed area down to the telephone and fence line. We think. Don't really know. 11 acres I heard the other day, from someone apparently more informed than me.

High Sierra Park

Since Norm's is out of commission, what with the river rushing over it, and now ExxonMobile's oil fouling the edges, we hope just the edges, we have been walking at High Sierra Park.  It has been really hot, so it is more sitting and waiting for dogs to come along to play with. We do not see may people or dogs out there. Maybe I go too late in the day.

But, we do see this beautiful girl most days with her friends Zoe and Bruce. This is Lucy, and she loves her frisbee.

She is really good at catching it.  I need to get further out so I can catch her face better, but . . .

She did want to show me she caught it, or is she showing Chocolate?  Lucy has the most beautiful tail. She has long hair but currently she is sporting her "summer cut"

This is Remy doing the chasing. He still is a pup, as is the youngster leading the way.

I see Remy at Norms quite often but I have never gotten a good photo of him. I did a little better out here way above Billings.

Remy is a  . . . . I know, I will replace the dots when I remember.  This photo is a good test of my len's bokey (the rendering of out of focus areas) Not too good I would say. Looks blocky to me.

 

One beautiful boy here. A Belgian Shepherd Malinois.  Be right back, I must go check that spelling. I unfortunately do not have his name. I should.

Dash for Dog Parks - Last Year!

Looking for dog portraits to post, I found this great one from last years Dash for Dog Parks.  I see this boy regularly at Norm's Island but he is always on the move. I do not have his name. Someone post a comment and let's get his name.  I see another Island regular in the background, Zapata, who I have not been able to get a good photo of at Norm's either.

This reminds me that this years Dash for Dog Parks is coming up soon, in August.

Yellowstone River Overwhelms Norm's Island

I quote Michael E Garcia;
"Unless you're wearing hip waders, getting completely around the island is most likely out of the question, because irrigation boots will not even get you to the middle of some of these water pools that block the trail.  And let's not forget the swarming, take-no-prisoner mosquitoes who are looking to eat you alive as you stand there."

I quote Michael E Garcia, again;
"From what I hear in the forecast, the waters are just going to get deeper for the next few days.  I'd stay clear of the island for awhile.  Although the off-island outside trail is a pretty nice place to walk the dogs."

I have been posting pictures taken from this spot for several days now, this it the southwest corner by the logjam, and the water is higher than ever.  I have never seen the water come even close to coming this high up on the bank at this location. I have never seen this much water on Norm's Island, needless to say, we will not be walking Norm's for some time to come.
I promise DOG pictures again soon. I will try now to get my weblog back to pictures of dogs instead of being a report on the conditions at Norm Schoenthal Island.
I had thought that we were through with tick season, but Nina Blanca picked a bunch today. She likes to scurry through the brush on the side of the trail. Chocolate, who stays by my side most of the time,  does not seem to have any.

Great Day For Photographs

A Grey Overcast Day, and we got to walk with Cathy, Penny and Ms.Mel. Cathy said she likes overcast days, and today we agree with her. The colors were just great, saturated. And the dogs were all happy. Great combination.  Great photo of Penny. I like Penny. Yeah, I know, I say that about most dogs.

We met this youngster, Angel, walking on the outer trail. Beautiful energetic dog. Love this picture.

Today I make an exception and include a peep. It is because I like this picture. It feels really good. The road is on a curvy diagonal, the peep, Cathy, has a great smile and is standing at one third position and Penny and Ms Mel fill the foreground perfectly. Thanks girls.

Not what it looks like. The cold and wet Blanca looks to be saying "I wanna go home". But I know from experience that she is just taking a short break, looking to see what is going to happen next. She is an EverReady dog.

After walking with Cathy, Penny and Ms Mel we walked across the bridge to see what it looked like on the Island. I had not expected to walk it, but the water was down by quite a bit so we ventured forth. I had to wade most of the usual high water spots, it was higher than last time I was there, but not as high as it was reported on Saturday. I was last there Friday, I think. This is where the path meets the canal, irregation channel.  We have lost a good foot of land here, though the great folks that keep Norm's maintained had anticipated this and the path has been moved inland several feet.

Lost a big piece here. This is right next to the trail on the south side of the Island, directly on the river. Sorry to see the trees go. Must remember, change is good.

Whoa! be careful boy. Another tree down. There were several trees lost to the erosion. The Island lost a good piece of real estate at this location.

Just had to add one more. Days when it is overcast are the only days I can get good pictures of Blanca. She is a happy girl in this picture. Dogs are such a joy to watch run. They love it so much.

Highwater

Hello. Not much of a picture here, but to those of you that walk at Norms Island as a regular thing it will be interesting.  This is a picture of the very southwest corner of Norm's, known usually as the LogJam, you know, where every dog that comes to Norm's goes down for a drink of water after walking the hot and dry stretch along the irrigation channel.  You can just make out the bench in the shade of the tree.  I really needed to make a video of this because this still photo does not show how amazingly fast the water is moving. It is roaring past. The water is about to consume this corner of the Island. It is the best photo I could get to show how high the water is. Sorry for not doing better.  It was taken from the outer trail, which is west of the ditch. This certainly should clear out the logjam. Or bring in more. Who knows.
We did not walk on the Island today (Saturday), the water was up to the billboard and I figured it would be over my knees in several places, based on previous experience, so no go.  It may be awhile before we can go back. Then the mosquitoes will be there.

Blanca running to catch up. This is where we walked, west of the Island. High and dry as you can see.  Thanks to the owners of this land for allowing access, for not posting keep out and other such things. I expect it is owned by McCall Homes. I wonder who maintains the trail, it is nicely maintained. Thanks to them also.

Wet Places

There are many wet places at Norm's currently. This is the place I call the froggy spot, it is about 50 yards east of where the path comes up to the irrigation canal, walking counter clockwise. On the west side of the Island. There is water at this spot quite often, thus its name,  but it does not usually cover the path. Now it come half way up to the knee if you walk in the middle of the path.

The Green Green Grass is Growing

Monday. We walked, and partly waded, Norm's Island today. It was spectacular. Spectacular, with capitals. There are many areas under water, but it is doable if you do not mind getting your feet wet. In a few places the water was almost knee deep. It felt good ;-)

The grass is growing fast. It is beautiful. Also growing is the poison oak. We saw a lot of it. We do not seem to have gotten any ticks, and we only experienced a couple mosquitoes. They will be there soon enough though, I am sure. There is a lot of standing water on the Island.

 Proof that dogs smile. Hugely! Go Chocolate, Go!

Am I getting carried away with so many green photos. I am simply loving this green, and I am especially loving the openness of this photograph. I love this beautiful, special, happy dog.

 I guess it was Blanca's day.

I will post pictures of the water later (tomorrow by now), I must go outside and be in this beautiful weather. bye bye.

Tilly

We are going to go see what it is like at the Island, so maybe we will have something new from Norm's later today, but for now here we have Tilly. In this photo she is about 8 weeks, I do believe.  The photo was taken in September of 2008. Wow! it seems like just a few months ago. Time flies.

Studio Portraits of Chocolate and Pals

We have Daryl, Ace, Chocolate, and Little Girl. Not shown is White Girl(Blanca)

In looking through my files looking for studio photos to post, (we are not walking at Norm's, too wet yet, the river is supposed to peak today) I find to my amazement that I have never shown these two wonderful photographs of Chocolate and his siblings.  It was when I was taking these photographs that I met my true dog love Nina Blanca.  The breeder, Rose, did not want her in the photographs because she was not, uh, well, she is deaf, hardly up to breed standard. They did not know what to do with her, and so I heard coming out of my mouth "I will take her"

I love this photo. I am never certain who is who between Daryl and Little Girl, but I will guess that we have Daryl, Ace in the back with Little Girl below and Chocolate on the right.
Cannot believe I have never posted these before. Keyword Studio Dogs. Thanks for looking.