Last Class

So we had our last photography class last night and we just went over a few more features of our cameras and some computer stuff. It turns out my camera is lacking some features. :( Ah well, what I have can keep me busy for quite a while. It was a really fun class and I learned a lot! I loved seeing the pictures from the other students and hearing her thoughts on what could have made a photo go from good to great. I struggle with the compositional side of things. I understand (and agree with) what she is saying but it isn't something I actually think about while I'm taking pictures. I don't have time to think about the different lines and angles and stuff. Hopefully that gets easier with practice.

Blog Obsession

So lately I've been doing a lot of browsing for Pet Photography Blogs. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.:

Cowbelly Pet Photography - old blog New Blog

Smile like a Dog

Shine Pet Photos

And last but not least... Erin Vey Photography

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Singing Her Heart Out

Indoor Fetch

With all the rain, we didn't take the girls out for much exercise this weekend. Coulee did her best to make up for it with indoor fetch.

It is not quite the same as the real thing but she'll take what she can get.
I love her ears in this last shot, you can tell she is concentrating hard.

Left Out

Lu has apparently been feeling left out lately with all the picture taking going on. With the crappy weather outside, I spent a lot more time taking pictures inside this weekend. Lu was happy to ham it up for the camera.

Who me? You want to take a picture of me?

I can be cute too you know!

Would you quit stopping in the middle of our photo shoot to throw the dang ball for Coulee! Posing for the camera is hard work you know. I better go back to bed. Does Lacey really think a few toys would keep me from her bed. Silly girl!

Business Taxes

Sounds thrilling doesn't it? Don't worry, I won't bore you with the details. Instead I'll leave you with a couple of pictures!

Oh the horror

Coulee says she doesn't like to be groomed.

Fierce

Jackson is one of Lacey's best friends at daycare. He is an amazing dog. He loves to play with everyone but especially the small ones. He lets them crawl all over him, pull his tail and hang off his neck scruff. If we put a bunch of small dogs into a seperate play area, Jackson hangs out near the fence hoping to find a way in.

Don't you love the look on his face?

I wonder if his owners would notice if one day he came home with me?

Night Vision

So last night after agility class, I went out to take some night photos of car lights. It was past my bedtime so I didn't hang around too long but I managed to get a few. I was thrilled when the train started to cross the bridge but it was still a little too light out unfortunately.

On Assignment

Have I mentioned how much I've struggled with this week's photo class assignment? I thought it would be so much fun, but it has been a lot of hard work and practice, practice, practice. I still haven't come anywhere close to panning well...I keep meaning to practice with cars going by but haven't had a chance. I also still need to take some low light pictures. I've taken pictures is lower lighting than I've ever done before (i.e. in the house with just natural lighting) but I think she means "in the dark". So I guess that will be on tonight's to do list after agility class.

Wild Woman

Photo by Kristy!

Lacey was just wild last night at agility. I guess that is what 3 days of no daycare does for you. When we got home, she spent about a half hour "puppy spazzing". She was racing around in circles and jumping on and off furniture. At one point she launched herself off the bed, ran downstairs at breakneck speeds and then we could hear her racing around the kitchen and livingroom all by herself. Coulee just sat on the bed waiting for her to race back upstairs again.

This was the kids earlier in the day...

Lacey had lots of fun at agility. She went over the wall and the bridge (which we had already practiced on the weekend - shhh - don't tell anyone!) and we even practiced the table while waiting for our turn. She quite liked the table...I'm not sure why I'm surprised. It is the only stationary piece of equipment!

Blurry Motion

I finally figured out how to take a picture of blurry motion and not have it hard on the eyes! I was really struggling with this. All the blurry pictures looked like it wasn't done on purpose. But look!

These are of my spinning wheel in action!

Kristy has posted pictures from our agility session on her flickr site. She took some GREAT photos! I think my favorite is of Jetta licking in preparation of getting a treat. But you'll have to visit her site to see it!

Photo by Kristy

Sammers

Sam spent the weekend at our home while Amanda was off in Medicine Hat at an agility trial. He is a very photogenic little dude and I had a great time taking pictures of him.

He even helped me with my motion homework.

I think he looks better stationary!

Unlike my dogs, he was happy all the way through the never ending picture taking.

Agility Practice

Coulee, Lacey and I met Deirdre, Cricket, Jetta, Kristy, Belle and Duke out at the agility field for a practice session in the heat! The dogs were pretty distractable and didn't really want to play too much...they were just hot. But we did get a few things done.

I think I can say that Coulee is definitely over her fear of the teeter. I wasn't going to put it in the sequence we ran but the first time I tried to run by it, she took it and did great. She probably went over it 8-10 times today and didn't baulk once. Her finishes weren't always great but at this point, I'm just thrilled she ran over the thing.

Her start lines were bad and her weaving wasn't great but we didn't weave until the end so I can hardly blame her. We are going back out tomorrow and I think I'll start with that.

Little Lacey got to come out and run through the shoot and the tunnel at the end. She was pretty revved up (or at least as revved up as she gets) to be out playing after spending an hour in the crate. I've discovered that blowing at her gets her very excited so I did that a few times to get her racing around.

Deirdre's and Kristy's dogs did great! Belle was really confident, Duke was enthusiastic, Cricket was speedy and Jetta was racing through the shoot all on her own. Kristy took some pictures of Coulee and Lacey and once I get them I'll share them with you.

Couple of Pictures

Marlin and I probably haven't had our picture taken together since our wedding...that was almost three years ago now! We were laying around, looking at pictures I'd taken on the back of the camera when I decided to try taking a few of us!

It is almost impossible to get Marlin to smile naturally for the camera and I had to keep adjusting the lighting as I wasn't getting it quite right so I had to keep working really hard to get him to continue to cooperate!

This is the look I got when I told him I wanted to take "just a few more".

Take 5

Blurry Motion

So Amanda and I went out to the Agility field so I could practice photography. Hmmm. I still suck. But don't Coulee's legs look hilareous?!

Coulee on the other hand ROCKS!!!! She got over her fear of the teeter which makes me really happy. She actually ran over it a few times all by her little lonesome! I'm thrilled. AND she was almost weaving! We only had 2 gates up and she was flying through the poles. Amanda got some great pictures of her.

Lacey didn't get to do any agility but she did get to have fun racing around the field eating gopher poop.

Practice Needed

This week's photography class was all about motion and low lighting (not necessarily the two of them together.

We need to:

1. Explore low light - take pictures inside and out in low light.
2. Create a sillouette
3. Explore motion - freeze it, blur it and pan it

Do you know the neat pictures where the car is speeding by and it is in focus but the background is blurry? That is done by panning. I've always wanted to know how to do that so I was pretty excited that this was part of our assignment. Apparently it isn't as easy as it looks. I tried to pan Coulee last night while she fetched a ball and the photos were so bad, I can't even post one here...they aren't worth looking at. Trust me on this. Amanda and I are going out to the agility field tonight so her dogs can run over, and over, and over, the dog walk or teeter or something to see if I can get anything decent. They will probably get bored silly before I get a decent picture. I might try doing some at the daycare today too but with lots of dogs running around, it can get kind of complicated.

Birds and Ghosts

On Saturday we went for a drive to see if we could find some old Ghost Towns. My mom found a book on Ghost Towns in Alberta and there were 4 in around the Vauxhall area. So off we went. The first one was a little deperessing as there were people living in homes that looked almost as old as the "ruins". We did see a great horned owl's nest though so it made the detour worth it.

Our next stop was Retlaw but on the way, we found a bunch of old abandoned farm buildings along the way. We spent some time exploring and photographing these and then hopped back in the car for the drive to Retlaw (which was named after some guy named Walter - get it?). Retlaw was a very cute little ghost town that someone had even put signs up explaining what the old ruins were! We explored to our hearts' content.

Then we definitely had to stop for lunch...and guess where we ended up!

The food was okay but be prepared to wait!

Even the dogs had fun...but I think they were scared by the ghosts in the church! :)