Since my camera is in the shop this week I have no choice but to pull from my archives.  AND this is REALLY hard for me to do but I am going to do a dog post without any Sundogs for a change.  I have to refrain from naming ALL the breeds because I forget some breed names and that is not the point.  The point is………EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY.

I call this shot “Truck Dog”  The story behind this shot is that I risked my life or at least a limb getting this shot.  If you own a Queensland Healer or have owned one you know this look.  I maybe should have named it “Back Off” since I was getting a bit too close to HIS truck for comfort and he was serious about it.Here is another serious dog.  His name is Amos.  He was a pleasure to photograph being so smart and well trained by his physician owner.  This was one of my first canine photo shoots.  Lucky me.This is Molly who lives with Amos.  She is way too soft looking to look serious.  Is she a beauty or what?I thought I’d show you Amos and Molly posing happily together looking at their owner not the camera. These two German Shepherds were so well-trained it was difficult to get them to look at me.  I had to train their owner to come behind me.  They would make good subjects for a beginning canine photography workshop.  They behaved perfectly.  Not like some dogs I know. This is Benzy, my daughter’s little princess…..I mean puppy.  Are you scared?No need for fear.  Although she may lick your face until nothing is left.   I took these photo’s on a beautiful day at one of the best dog parks in the world.  The Del Mar Dog Park in So. Cal. right on the ocean.  Benzy loved playing in the warm sand and surf…..and so did some other dogs there.

In particular this little dude.  With all the dogs at the worlds best dog park for some reason this guy was the only other dog I took a photo of that day.  Have you ever seen a little white poodle swim in the ocean?  I missed it but I caught this guy drying his white hair with the windy effect.Here is another dog well know to the Sundogs.  This is Tess.  Intense Tess.  Tess does not care about hairdos.  This shot was taken when she stopped for a 1/4 of a second.   Her ears really are symmetrical.  The up flap is the windy effect.More windy effect.  Tess loving life on the way to dad’s afternoon hunting spot.  The story behind this photo is “Life is Good”   Life is good here too but no wind and plenty of mud.  The men ALLOWED me to go out to one of the river islands for the afternoon shoot.  Four years later I am still finding dried mud, black mud that has turned light brown, in the crevices of my old Nikon D40.  Tess could care less about the mud.  She had a one track mind……birds, ducks to be exact.And I can’t forget about Misty.  Misty came before Tess.  Although she is showing her years here ain’t she sweet?  As I recall she did not want to leave the boat until all the decoys were counted.  RIP Misty girl.Here is another dog I know.  This is cute little Marlie.  Marlie lives near Sundog but he has not met the Sundogs yet.  Lucky him.This is Marlie’s best friend Macie.  Marlie and Macie are owned by my good friend Carol.  Carol LOVES these black and white cutie pies like the sun, moon and stars. It was a little after New Years day when Carol had me come to photograph her new year triplet lambs.   After photographing the lambs,  I could not resist shooting her cutie pies who like to show the sheep what they can do.  This is momma sheep who is not happy about the cutie pies coming near her babies.When on vacation I am rarely without camera in hand when outside somewhere new.  Thank goodness or I would have not gotten this shot with major windy effect.  This little guy was being cradled in his fisherman owners arms.  They always teach you in photography class to shoot from different angles.  So I did.Whoa!  He was getting a little dizzy from above so dad put him down.  He immediately went into a sitting up snooze.And just as soon as I took my eyes off the wind-blown fisherman’s dog I turn around to see this fellow hanging out in the bed of a white truck.  I think this kind of lab is called a Duncan but I can’t be sure.  He looks nice huh?  Well no sooner that I inched a bit closer to take the next shot of him….when again I almost lost a limb.  Don’t mess with dogs in a truck bed or anywhere near THEIR truck.  There is a reason they are back there.This is Holly.  She lives on the Cimarron Skydog Wild Horse Reserve near Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Jackie her owner likes to hold her like this so down I go for the angled shot again.   And again I was supposed to be shooting horses but this little dog pulled me in and since she could not talk I had to tell her story with my picture.  Her story is “Life is Good with Jackie”This is not Holly but he kinda looks like Holly.  His name is Kona…. he has other names too.   He is waiting in the driveway for his mom and dad to go on a BIG trip across the whole USA.  The car is packed and he is making sure mom and dad don’t forget him.  If he knew how long he was going to have to stay in the car for the trip he may have not been so eager to go.  Here is another little dog in a BIG field.  This shot was taken on a ranch shoot I did near by Sundog Ranch here in Northern California.  Here we go back to the serious look.  It is hard to make a Boston Terrier smile.  More serious look.  I think he was tired of the photo shoot.This is Raven.  She is my sisters dog and lives up here in the mountains near Sundog.  She is in her favorite place in the world.  Even though she has acres to play on and miles of trails around the house, the pond is where she prefers to spend time. Of course!  She has to live up to her reputation as a lab by spending time in the water, searching for fish.  Raven has a  friend named Sadie who comes to visit sometimes.  Here is Raven teaching Sadie how swimming is done.Since we are on the subject of Labs I can’t forget Twist.  You can see the love in her eyes can’t you?  That is a “good dog” look.  Twist has what you call a snow nose….a nice cold snow nose.  RIP Twist. Twist had a little friend later in life.  This is Reba my other sisters dog.  She is a little ball crazy.  When she comes to Sundog she rules the roost.  The Sundogs have to do as she tells then.  What else can you expect from a Jack Russell?I feel awful for forgetting this guys name.  He lives at the Wild Horse Sanctuary in Shingletown a couple of hours from Sundog.  As usual I was on a equine shoot when he pulled me in to tell his story.  His story was “I’m really cute” This is another pointer whose story I told.  I forget his name too.  It was years ago on a ranch shoot.   He stood still for maybe a 1/2 a second for this shot.He was very busy.But he knows how to conserve his energy too.I said I was not going to post any Sundog photos this time.  This is not a Sundog.  This is Harley.  I am convinced he has some Sundog blood in him though.  Harley is lucky because he is owned by my good friend Deni who is a horse trainer hence my savior.  Harley gets to go everywhere with Deni since she goes all over the valley giving riding lessons at different ranches.  Here again I was shooting horses and Harley pulled me in to tell his story.  His story is familiar.  “I’m really cute”This photo tells a touching story that still haunts me.  I took this photo of this lovely Aussie as this truck was whizzing by.  Another “Truck Dog” shot.   I was amazed I got the shot as my settings were in manual and I had virtually no time to prepare,  I just went for it.  Once I saw the shot and made a few fine tuning adjustments it turned out I loved the shot so much I made a 18 x 24 Giclee canvas piece out of it.  I put it up for sale at the next years Draft horse show.  On the last day of that art show during the Draft Horse Show, Rockin Roy was manning my fine art booth when a woman appeared and became glued to the canvas piece.  She asked were the photo was taken.  Rockin Roy said “it was taken here at the show grounds last year”.  The woman looked shaken and stated she was sure the dog in the photo is now hers.  The dog “Janie” had belonged to her late husband who was driving the truck at the time my photo was taken.  AND her husband was killed in that truck driving with Janie about two weeks later.  Janie was seriously injured but survived.  I learned of all this from Rockin’ Roy when I returned from my break.  Later the woman came back to meet me and buy the canvas piece.  I sold her the canvas at cost, we hugged, she smiled and told me she was finally starting to feel better since the accident.  She cherished Janie.  We parted ways.  I was glad I took that photo.

Adios Amigos 🙂