A light post today, while I work on a content-rich one for next week (following up on last week’s post about trauma and dogs).
After deciding to post only photos today I struggled to come up with some interesting photos that I’ve never taken. I’ve been photographing the dogs and the farm for seven years now, and there are just so many photos of dogs, hay in the barn and flowers that one can take.
Or so I was thinking. But then I remembered my Contemplative Photography class, and its inspiration to see the world in new ways. I decided to come up with a theme, like “texture” or “color” and go look for it with my camera in hand.
“Edges.” That’s what I came up with. Edges… the boundary line between one thing and another provides a wonderful contrast, and thoughts about where something ends, and where it might begin. Thus inspired, here’s a few things I found:
Southern Wisconsin is awash in corn drying in the fields. Always makes for great lines…
Sunflowers shining in the sun at the farm, the yellow petals a lovely contrast to the dark, green pine needles in the background:
My favorite “edges” of all… Tootsie alongside Willie, decorating our new living room rug. I love the comparison of little Toots alongside long and tall Willie.
What about you? I’d love to hear if you’ve found new and wonderful ways to photograph your dogs? Or your favorite professional dog photographer?
Bridget says
October 5, 2015 at 1:37 pmOctober is my favorite color! thank you for sharing those lovely pictures.
Gayla says
October 5, 2015 at 6:03 pm“October is my favorite color.” Great line, Bridget!
Trisha says
October 5, 2015 at 8:12 pmI agree Gayla, Bridget’s line is fantastic!
Eva says
October 6, 2015 at 8:16 amLovely pictures! Fall is my favorite time of the year.
BTW the yellow flowers are not sunflowers, they´re Jerusalem artichokes – if you dig underneath the plants, you will find delicious and healthy tubers.
Lupe Jack Russell says
October 6, 2015 at 9:54 amWeb still not working well, but see his beautiful pictures (in Spain):
http://www.elfotografodeperros.com
Trisha says
October 6, 2015 at 10:56 amThanks Eva! I’m digging some up tonight!
Jackie D says
October 6, 2015 at 11:26 amWhat a good idea for a theme! Lovely photos
Melody says
October 6, 2015 at 11:52 amOur 17 yr old son is now set up with a nice $1000 starter digital camera package, paying $600 himself and parents contributing $400 for 17th B-day, excellent grades, and a super year of safe driving (captured on car video cam provided by our auto insurance)!
He has found he can get some pretty interesting “mug shots” of our dogs Jenna & Lucy (4 & 13)by photographing them after a nice spoonful of peanut butter. I have used a couple of the photos as covers for humorous B-day cards I made. He has found our 3 cats are pretty boring subjects – pose please-zzzzz, okay give me excited please-zzzzz, how about we try for amazement-zzzzz.
Celine says
October 6, 2015 at 1:56 pmDog Breath Photography based in Boston, MA does amazing dog photograhy. I don’t have a fancy camera so my iPhone photos are the best I have. Sometimes I just go on Dog Breath Photography’s fb page or website to stare at the amazing shots of glorious dogs being happy and doing joyful “dog” things. I love it!
hakirby says
October 6, 2015 at 2:43 pmmy son started out as a photographer at the same time as we got Tom. Tom was his test subject for animal shots. now when he sees a camera, he poses
amy says
October 6, 2015 at 6:59 pmCould you write a post on using dog crates? In my experience, most people I know or read about on blogs, or meet that crate dogs seem to put dogs in crates for HOURS on end! they dont exercise the dogs, put them in these crates, and then complain the dog has so much energy. What is the correct way of using a crate? How long should i dog be confined in a crate? how big of a crate? people still put dogs in crates they cannot fully stand up in. I think crate “training’ is seriously over used and used poorly. There seems to be no guidelines, regulations, i think vets should advise vocally vociferously about the abuse of these things. What are your thoughts?
Kat says
October 7, 2015 at 12:47 amI’ve recently begun studying permaculture. Your edges photos reminded me of the permaculture idea that the edges are where all the interesting things happen and that permaculture design always seeks to maximize edges.
As for dog photography on Facebook if you visit Therapy Dogs International Chapter 270 and look for the meet the dogs album (pinned to the top of the page so anyone using a phone needs to click see pinned post) you can see a lot of my dog photos. I think my husband and I can claim responsibility for all but four of the photos. We seem to have two kinds of dogs in our chapter 1) those that mug for the camera and 2) those who always turn away from the camera. My Ranger is of course one of those who mugs for the camera. I think he genuinely enjoys the attention and admiration although it could simply be that he’s had so many people wanting his photo over the years that he’s been thoroughly desensitized. One of the funniest experiences with people wanting to photograph him was on a trip we were taking across the state to visit my family. I was walking him around while the rest of the family had lunch when a tour bus pulled up unloading a bunch of camera wielding Japanese tourists. One of the tourists noticed us and asked if he could take a picture of my beautiful dog. I said it was OK and the next thing I knew I think everyone on the bus had snapped his photo. I’ve been amused over the years imagining dozens of living room walls showing slideshows including “beautiful American dog.”
Mireille says
October 7, 2015 at 12:29 pmI love fall, ” our season” when the days are cooler and thus more active for my siberians!
I started a board on pinterest with some “doge detail pics” I hope you can see it with the following link: https://nl.pinterest.com/mireillewulf/dog-in-detail/
My absolute favourite is my latest of Spot’s head while he is “sniffing out” what is in the forest next to the house we rented. Made clear how important background is.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0d/61/77/0d6177657c4abd04c7d8626b9e9234d8.jpg
And the picture of Kay, a Siberian husky from a friend of mine on one of his last walks. my friend phoned me with the question if I would take some pics of him, since he was fading fast and she suddenly realised she only had pics of him in his prime. There are some more pics of him on my blog http://huskyheren.blogspot.nl/2015/04/dag-kay-goede-reis.html
I was so happy to be able to do that for her..
Bruce says
October 8, 2015 at 4:45 amDog Breath Photography makes me want to get a good flash or two for my camera and learn how to use it. Flash is the only way to get those pictures of a dog (person, whatever) in front of an amazing sky, and have the sky not all washed out or the person a dark silhouette.
If people would train their dogs to sit nicely on top of rocks, it would save the photographer the effort of Photoshopping out the leashes, collars, and harnesses. Future blog post, Trish? 🙂
mireille says
October 8, 2015 at 10:00 amThere is a Dutch proverb “It useless to discuss taste” but I must say that I find the Dog Breath photographs funny but “fake”
Proper light is also a question of proper time and place – as is dogs doing funny things http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6W58tOlI0s8/VDwtLeQs44I/AAAAAAAACWA/cLy9D8JTUuI/s1600/IMG_8537.jpg
(husky bomb!)
And why I love fall: the light is so much better for photographs
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1SBlG5GhhpM/VDwtdGT0-JI/AAAAAAAACXo/2ITOqpLHUCE/s1600/IMG_8564.jpg
Pia says
October 9, 2015 at 8:56 amWe have a little brown Havanese and one day my teen-aged daughter thought we needed to do a photoshoot where he was Simba (from The Lion King). It was terribly cute!
https://flic.kr/s/aHskmD95E3