Monthly Archives: June 2008

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Don’t Mess with Max

June 30, 2008 – 9:52 am

On Saturday afternoon I had an awesome time photographing my good friend Rebecca, her husband Pat and their new Puggle puppy, Max. It was a stunning afternoon so we headed to Balboa Park for a good mix of beautiful gardens and interesting architecture. 

Max is only four months old, but he took his photography session so seriously. Whenever the camera was pointed in his direction he would stare at it with such fierce concentration. I’ve never seen a puppy with such an attention span, but it certainly made my job easier.

This is my first client session in about 10 months. I was worried it wouldn’t all come back to me, but it’s just like riding a bike (but more fun). Thanks to Rebecca for giving me the opportunity to get creative again and try new things.

By admin | Posted in Pug, USA, beagle | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (14)

Dog A Day has made it somewhere very foreign

June 29, 2008 – 9:24 pm

My recently posted photo of Buddy has turned up on a site which I suspect is written in Russian. Check it out here. Having not a clue how to translate, I turned to Babel Fish. What follows is the translation that Babel Fish spat out at me. If anyone knows someone who could do a better job of translating, I’d love to hear from them. In the meantime, lets see if we can work out what’s been said.

Даже собаку захотелось…..

Even the dog wanted ..

Рубрики: ПРОСТО КРАСИВО 

Headings: IT IS SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL

Comments go something like this:

  • Any minute now! And I about this recently did answer - why us he is desirable to immediately embrace beautiful animal? Even if these are this dangerous predator as lion or tiger… 
  • Yes to people only give anything to feel
  • [Tishunchik], and what of [oyyyyy]! that? Here and bring… “)) [motsionchik] in any weather - for the health is good) ” I To [timke] of [druzhochek]! (Hmmmm…they’re losing me)
  • I am pathologically lazy, moreover is sufficient [bezotvetsvenna]. I after itself that with The [timkoy] with difficulty can follow, and here another dog. [Obektivno] if we evaluate, I will be ANY owner) ” trigger pitifully
  • Photo so emits happiness! It seems still barely and girl will suffocate in the embraces of her four-footed friend. It is it’s a pity only, that [mordyashki] of the latter it is not evident. (Ok…I think I’m getting it)
  • Alizarin, well is there evidently sensitive, probably, it is also happy.
I hope everyone had a great weekend.
By admin | Posted in Blogging | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (8)

Slumber

June 29, 2008 – 8:18 am

Yesterday I had a fabulous day. It was a day truly dedicated to dog photography.

First up, I went down to check out the Surf Dog Competition at Imperial Beach. What a blast! Expect some photos to make it onto A Dog A Day later this week.

In the afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of photographing my good friend Rebecca with her husband and new Puggle puppy Max. I can’t wait to show you some of these photos. This is one photogenic family.

Today is going to be spent doing some quality relaxing.

By admin | Posted in Cross-breed, India, Stray | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Painted Ladies of San Francisco

June 28, 2008 – 7:46 am

UPDATE: Voted best of ‘City’ theme at Photo Tuesday.

I am always so stoked when I manage to get a photo of a dog in front of a famous icon.

<Insert very best Troy McClure voice from the Simpsons> You may remember such shots as:

One of my ‘must see’ spots in San Francisco was the Painted Ladies at Alamo Square. Also known as postcard row, this is one of those photos that is really representative of the city and when I pictured what San Francisco might be like, this shot is it.

After battling with tourists in downtown, we were pleasantly surprised how quiet and peaceful Alamo Square was. Locals were enjoying the day and it was only a matter of time before I had a dog walk along the path in front of the scene I was capturing. This boy was so old that he was travelling very slowly along behind his human. He walked with a pronounced limp and stopped regularly for a rest. He was still clearly enjoying his morning stroll though.

Because the morning sun wasn’t quite hitting the houses the way I had hoped, the colours were not as brilliant as I had seen in other photos. I considered converting this to black and white but decided on this old world look instead. Do you think it works on this image?

By admin | Posted in USA | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Buddy gets a hug

June 27, 2008 – 8:05 am

Buddy is a big Alaskan Malamute who I first photographed in Canberra soon after I had moved there in 2006. I had started a photographic arts course at the Australian National University (ANU) and had decided to photograph dogs for my first body of work (surprise, surprise). I put the word out around work that I was after volunteers who could offer up their dog for me to photograph. The first person to respond was Adriyana. She and her husband Mark are now two of my closest friends.

I happened to be going through my archives last week and came across this photo of Buddy with Adriyana’s niece. At the time, I pretty well scrapped this photo because we couldn’t see much of Buddy’s face. Now when I look at it I see a little girl enjoying cuddles with her dog and I can’t believe I ever passed it over.

Adriyana was a really good friend to me when I moved to Canberra. We became friends quickly and we planned a trip to India together within months of knowing each other. Adriyana is the dog wrangler behind many of my India Dog photos, especially Taj Dog. I just wanted to thank Adriyana for being my friend, because sometimes I get crazy busy and don’t keep in touch enough.

By admin | Posted in Alaskan Malamute | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (7)

Three little Doxie’s

June 26, 2008 – 8:00 am

Ok…here’s something a little lighter after yesterday. The Miniature Daschund is another photogenic breed of dog that I always love to photograph. I think I must be partial to small breeds with long hair and drooping ears. Why then, do I have a large German Shepherd in my life???

I photographed these little doggies on a white sheet draped over a sofa. It was a very primitive studio setup, but it worked for me in the early days before I had invested in any decent equipment.

Trying to capture multiple dogs like this is often difficult. They all want to look in different directions, or one of them inevitably decides to wander off stage left. You have to have well trained dogs and/or a lot of patience to do this successfully. Or, in the case of the Labrador puppies in this photo, give them a good feed, let them sleep and then photograph them as soon as they wake up, and you have a winner.

By admin | Posted in Dachshund, Lots of Dogs | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (5)

This may hurt a little…

June 25, 2008 – 8:10 am

I’m going to go off on a little tangent today. So far I’ve been bringing mostly nice doggie pictures and happy stories to this blog. Today, I feel the need to remind myself and as many other people as I can that there are so many dogs in this world who do not live happy lives.

“Of the hundreds of millions of dogs and cats in the world, around 80% are thought to be strays.  They are threatened by starvation, disease, traffic accidents, aggression from other animals, and abuse at the hands of humans. ” WSPA 

Never was this more evident to me than in India. Of course they were great subjects for photography, but the reality is that every one of the dogs I photographed was living a tough existence. There is so much work that needs to be done to control the stray dog population and it seems to me that the most humane way to deal with overpopulation is the ABC (Animal Birth Control) method. The Visakha SPCA in Andhra Pradesh is doing some great work in this area.

And while the problem is very evident in India, unwanted and dumped dogs occur far too much in Western society as well. There are fantastic organisations working throughout the world to save dogs from death row every day, but we need to educate people that it is not ok to buy from puppy mills and it is not ok to buy from pet shops who are often supplied from puppy mills.

I personally feel like I should be doing more and I have some thoughts about how I can do that. I intend to do something with all my dog photos from India, and it will be something for good. Leave me a comment to let me know what you think I should do to raise awareness (and money) to put to this very important cause.

By admin | Posted in Charity, India, Stray | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (10)