Be My Valentine

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day!
~~~~~~~~~~
Joining the fun at "Daily Dog Challenge" FlickR group.
If you like the idea of a daily prompt for your dog photography, come join our group. You can post as little or as often as you like. I find this group really helps me to stay inspired and challenges me to improve my photography.

Do Not Disturb

Cappuccino Hangover

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer .
~ Albert Camus

Espresso Required

Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

~~~~~~~~~~

Becky was still lying low last week while on the mend from her agility injury so the mood here was all about hibernation. Lots of comfort food, herbal teas, Cavalier cuddles rounded out my week - I'm not complaining!

On Friday we were hit with a snow storm which produced the season's first deep powder snow. Suddenly there was no containing Becky - she let me know she was ready to cut loose.

~~~~~~~~~~
Participating in Black & White Sunday

Original Cannington Dog Sled Race

For the last few years I have really been wanting to photograph the "Cannington Dog Sled Races" but between lack of snow or bad weather we always ended up cancelling.

   

Almost missed it again this year because conditions were touch and go with white outs on the roads.
Visibility was hard on the participants as well!

 

Over all most of the contestants were having a good time

This photo was taken 30 seconds after these dogs finished their run. I love how fit they are but what is more important to note is how their body language shows happy and relaxed dogs. Shortly after this I stood and watched them play a fun game of tug with their owner.

 

Beyond the dogs we also got to see local artists and view some interesting heritage displays; totem poles, bark houses and  ice sculptures. There was even a synthetic ice rink the children got to skate on.

 

I wish I could leave my story as a feel good one but sadly my experience did not end there.

While watching a few dogs pull the sleds more than once we witnessed one get tangled in the leg or around the neck by ropes. We heard a few times long and loud yelps but most of the dogs appeared in good condition. A few were obviously not as well socialized and appeared more wild animal than domesticated dog. Some had down cast eyes and avoided eye contact, they held their ears very flat back and some looked tired and unhappy.

We came across quite a few large patches of blood in the snow. There was no doubt one dog had a bad urinary track infection. Hopefully they were not doing an endurance race that day. It only takes a few of these images to squash what started out to be a fun day what I love doing most; photographing dogs.

It left a bad enough impression for me personally that I won't be back.

~~~~~~~~~

Adding this "Husky Puppy" to my

100 Dog Strangers Series

The Canine version of "100 Strangers".

A photographic record of all the wonderful dogs I meet in my travels.

 Began in 2012 and ending... TBD.

Physalis {Gluten-Free} Brownies

{ A Divine Marriage }

I know. Last week I said Dog Sled Race photos would be coming for this weeks challenge. Life just spiraled out of control (again) here and we had another unexpected trip to the Vet. This time it was my little girl Becky - my black & tan spitfire beauty. Becky has just started agility and loves it. She is known to be like a border collie but on steroids; fast and a bit reckless! She is going to be just fine, but needs to lie low for a few weeks to let her side muscles heal. That meant I was housebound and looking for ways to kill time. I decided to tackle one of the items on my {Photo Bucket List} and experiment more with "food photography". 

 
{ Physalis ~ Cape Gooseberry }

While shopping I saw this odd little fruit and stopped to do the "google" as I had not a clue what this creature was. Turns out it is called a physalis, part of the tomato family and a great partner with chocolate. Then I saw {THIS} an amazing cupcake photograph. I'm not a fan of spending time in the kitchen, but show me a great food photo and you have my attention!


{ Pure Bliss }

The "ladies" in our household are all on gluten-free diets. Gluten-free baked goods are rarely healthy and often are tasteless. My girls are amazing cooks and come up with unique recipes, however, I myself lean towards lazy baking. That means I will take a gluten-free boxed recipe and vamp it up. Today I used a bag of {Bob Mills Brownie Mix} and followed the directions. Then I added 2 Tbs more milk, 2 Tbs cocoa, 2 Tsp sugar and one extra egg, and followed the package directions for baking. It was pure bliss!


{ Chinese Lanterns }

This fruit is perfectly paired with chocolate. If your short on time, try {Physalis Dipped In Chocolate} - these two flavours were just meant to be married. Which is what I am doing with my left overs tonight!

Slaying Dragons

I swear I did pick up my camera last week but the better part of my free time was spent editing unfinished photos with new techniques I am learning. Problem is every time I learn something new, I have this urge to go back over all my old photos looking for ways to improve them or present them differently.

I love this saying and  texture called "KK_Cherished" from Kim Klassen. I think it gives a dreamy effect to my special little friend Kismet. 

Next week's photos might be exciting if only it were to snow here! On Saturday, I am off to a Dog Sled Race! Half of me is not so sure about the sport of dog sledding. I do admit though, the other half of me is a bit excited to have this opportunity. Right now we do not have enough snow and it is very cold, so hopefully things improve by the weekend.

~~~~~~~~~~

Participating in: Texture Tuesday

Seeing the Light

Natural light is hard to come by in our house. After so many missed opportunities last year, this year I am trying to lighten up my "A" personality and just learn to grab the camera when the sun chooses to make a rare appearance - yup lots of Vitamin D deficient people in our house. Got to love cold, dark Canadian winters.

One of my photography goals for 2013 is to learn to work with my lack of light since Canadian winters are long. I hope to find time to experiment with ambient light and fill flash, reflectors and off camera flash too.This post at "Click It Up a Notch" gives me hope I can learn to work better with my lighting situation. 

Becky always the poser. Cavaliers tend to relish those cold days if it means a good snuggle and a sunbath.



Cold days also mean less walks so the living room doubles up as an indoor space for fetch. Not the best of photos, but it really shows how my home can be a challenge to find light. I love how the sun here is beaming like a spotlight on Kodee as she steps into the light.
~~~~~~~~~~
Participating in:
Camera Critters, Click It Up A Notch 52 Weeks & Paint the Moon - Let's Do 52; Wk 2 - "Imperfection"

Started With A Bang!

“Darkness reigns at the foot of the lighthouse" ~ Japanese Proverb

I am just going to take the positive route here and say my poor start to 2013, was simply because all my bad luck felt like gushing out at once! Here's hoping the rest of 2013 is clear sailing! New Year's Eve was spent driving over an hour to my Vet for an antibiotic for Kodee. Ya... snow has it's advantages when a dog has a UTI developing. After that unexpected adventure, I was looking forward to my New Year's Day ritual. This is the day I hunker down to a good (few) cups of coffee, sport a comfy track suit and get down to the business of updating my virus protection program and archiving my photos from the previous year. Too bad my computer had other plans and in the midst of updating, my keyboard function just vanished. When you bang your head for a few hours, it comes time to accept a reformat is the best route. Odd thing is, I am really happy disaster struck! My computer is running so fast now and I was forced to take a good look at  all my photographs for 2012. It was really cleansing to keep hitting delete on some really bad photography! In the end my first week of January was kind of special. I got to relive some great moments of 2012!

Poor Port Dover photographs long forgotten now dusted off and processed!

This summer on the spur of the moment we planned a 2 day mini vacation to Port Dover. So spur of the moment, no one thought to check the weather. As we got on the highway the skies opened up - yup it rained for the whole 4 hours we drove there. On the bright side the sky and water beamed with the most glorious green-blue color when the storm passed.

Did you think my dogs always look neat and groomed as perfect little lap dog Princesses? Hardly! At the end of the day, Cavaliers are still very much Spaniels and these two don't mind one bit hunting down dead fish to roll in. We were lucky and came across a pet store so we could grab a bottle of shampoo. Which was a much needed necessity, because these two insist on sleeping on my bed.

It was such a beautiful area, loaded with antique shops and so much to explore, I think these photos have inspired me to head back to Port Dover this summer - minus the rain this time!

~~~~~~~~~~

I do not do well with the 365 Day or 52 Weeks type projects. Such an undisciplined soul I am. So instead I have created a  "Photo Bucket List". It's just a check list of all the different types of photography I'd like to work on but with no set deadline or order. I will be crossing off what is done and adding new challenges as I find them.

Star Burst Christmas Lights

Celebrating the one and only 12 (day), 12 (month) 12 (year)!
Over at "I Heart Faces" today was a tutorial on how to create a "Star Burst" effect with Christmas lights. Since I wanted to include a moving object in my version I had to make some adjustments.

First I set my camera up according to the instructions.

Settings: manual, 30 sec, ISO 100, F22, flash on Lens 50mm

This produces a great star burst effect. What happens though if your dog (or a person) decides to move during the 30 second exposure?! The result in a great star burst tree and a very blurry dog! Another little surprize, if your dog gets bored and decides to get up and leave before the 30 second exposure is up - well then this is what you get.

Kodee Ghost!

So to solve my problem, I took a photograph of just the tree using the above settings. Then I took a second photograph, focusing on Becky and changed my settings to ensure I would have a nice sharp image of her.

Settings: manual, 100 sec, ISO 100, F2.4, flash on Lens 50mm

To get my final photograph, I combined the star burst tree and the sharp focused photo of Becky together.



Did you know Kodee and Becky have their own blog? From December 1 - 24, I am creating my own"Dog Inspired Advent Calendar" and taking a photo a day of Kodee and Becky 

View my 2012 Advent Calendar Collection

* * * * * * * * *

Joining the fun at: