Mug Shots

But It Moves...

Coulee really doesn't like it when I stand in the river.

She hates dropping the frisbee down in the current as she knows it isn't going to stay where she put it.  She wanders in and out a few times before working up the nerve to leave it with me.

She looks so uncomfortable it makes me laugh.

Tumblr

Every few months, I take a peek at my Flickr stats.  I usually think to look at the stats when an older picture starts to receive attention.  People who regularly look at my photos aren't going to go back months and months and start commenting or favouriting old photos so I start to wonder what's up.

So while looking through my stats at what sites have referred people to my photos (and marvelling again at how many people are googling "golden border collie"), I discovered one of my pictures up on someone's Tumblr "blog".

I'm not on Tumblr.  To be honest I don't really get it or have time for it, but like any other blog-like thing, you'd think you would blog your OWN content, not someone else's (that in itself is a whole other blog post).  Although that doesn't seem to be the Tumblr mindset as there is a re-blog button where people can take your post and post it on their own Tumblr blog - essentially stealing/borrowing the original blogger's content.

The neat thing about Tumblr (or so I've discovered) is that it tracks how quickly and easily information is spread far and wide.  At the time of posting this post, my picture has 3,463 notes - which I think means 3,463 people have either "Liked" it, or reblogged it and who knows how many people have looked at it.  And as far as I can figure out from Flickr, it was originally posted on Tumblr on July 15.  Some people reblogged it from the original blogger and others have reblogged it from someone who had reblogged it first.  Tumblr keeps track of all of it.

Flickr keeps track of the number of people who look at the picture on your flickr site.  In this case, it is telling me 274 people (at the time of posting) have looked at this picture, which is a far cry from the stats on Tumblr.

Whenever you share something on-line it can literally end up anywhere.  It is amazing and frightening all at the same time.  I realize 3,463 "notes" is pretty minor. Think of those YouTube videos that get 100,000's of views. Could you imagine if it was an embarrassing or unflattering video of yourself that was going viral? Ugh. I feel sorry for those people.  It really makes you want to pay attention to what you post on-line and make sure that you aren't afraid to share it with the world because really, that is what you are doing every time you send something out on blogs, flickr, Facebook and every other social network site.

Living Up to Her Name

One of Lacey's nicknames is Savage.  Hard to believe with a cute face like this eh?

I think she got it while she was still coming to daycare.  When she was about a year old (?) she started to guard me from dogs that jumped or even just came over for a scratch. It was cute (in a not so funny way) to watch this little pip squeak lip curl and snarl at other dogs.  Hence the nickname Lacey Savage.  It didn't take long before she was too busy protecting to play and frankly wasn't welcome anymore.

Since then we've been going to the dog park almost every day.  The dog park we go to is never very busy but we usually run into a dog or two and Lacey was always the one who would want to play.

This past month, that has changed.  She has started to get snarky with other dogs.  It is at the point where I can't trust her around them.  She even snarked at my sister's dog Micah the other day and Micah LIVED with us for months just this past winter.  They used to play together on every walk and they had spent the previous four days before this recent incident happily co-existing.

I'm not sure what to think or do.  I don't think it is a physical problem manifesting as a behavioural one.  She never acts out at home, she isn't short tempered even when Jack is biting her head, she eats well, she poops well and she is her same old self... except when meeting dogs.

At the moment, I'm going to the dog park when it won't be crowded and I can easily avoid running into people, and on weekends, we are sticking to the unofficial dog run near our house where everyone leashes their dogs when you see other people.

But just to cover my bases, I've made a vet appointment for her later today to rule out anything physical and I guess we'll go from there. Maybe she is just a bitch but I want to make sure something isn't making her act out.

Another nickname of hers is Swamp Thing. I can't for the life of me remember how she ended up with that one!  ;) 

She Wouldn't Dare

This first picture of Lacey peeking over Coulee's back made me smile.

Then I saw the next photo in the series and I laughed.

She didn't do what it looks like she was thinking of doing.  She wouldn't dare.  If it had been Vito maybe, but not to Coulee.  LOL

Hipster Art

Every once in a while I get the urge to shoot from the hip (aka holding the camera without looking to see what you are shooting at).  This usually happens if there is a situation where it is impossible or difficult to get my face where I want the camera to be.

I am rarely disappointed with the results even though the focus and composition is a complete crap shoot.

These were all taken with my 70-200 at a pretty close distance (hence the super narrow depth of field).  I haven't cropped or changed the composition of these in anyway.

I wanted the camera down at the level of the water but I didn't want to dunk down myself and get soaking wet.  (The first one in this post was taken from above without looking because I wasn't ready.  She started to shake and I knew if I took the time to look through the camera and then take the shot I would have missed it completely.)

If you've never tried shooting from the hip, you should!  Expect lots and lots of crappy photos but there will be a few gems.  And you do get better with practice at pointing your camera at things without looking. I'd recommend a wider angle to start as it is easier to get your subject in the photo.

Crazy Face

Nothing like a little ball time to bring out the crazy in Coulee.