black lab – Page 19

Don’t Fence Me In

I took this picture last summer of Ellie resting on the hardwood outside on our bedroom. We were having a heat wave and have a portable air conditioner in the bedroom and would make her stay in there during the savagely hot days, especially as she’s gotten older she pants heavily on hot or even warm days. But as you can see she doesn’t like being cooped up in there, more than anything she wants to be with her people and be at the door to greet me when I come home. Generally the weather here doesn’t get too hot but the last couple of summers have been hot and we hit 91 yesterday on May 22nd. May 22nd!

I have an appointment in a couple of weeks for an estimate on getting central air installed, which if feasible will make both of us quite happy during those days we need it. I love the smell of fresh air, and the cats like the open windows, but there are days where AC would be nice.

An Early Start

A couple of weeks ago I woke up early (for a Saturday) so Ellie and I got an early start to our walk. It was a lovely spring morning and since I take the new camera a lot on our walks now, I took a couple of pictures of her at the dog park before we spent the next hour walking the neighborhood.

Root for the Underdog

I don’t know how much of it is her advancing age and how much the warming weather, but I’ve noticed Ellie’s breathing has been a little more labored lately on her walks. For all that she still gave me a couple of long walks last weekend, but I wasn’t surprised this morning that even though she went as far south as normal after visiting the dog park, she only went a couple of blocks east before wanting to head back north towards home. I thought she was tired out but as we prepared to take the last turn towards home she indicated she wanted to continue going north. The next block she turned east towards home but kept wanting to go east and east and east until I made her turn north to avoid a busy street. We doubled back along Klickitat Street before heading to the park once more, then she was ready to head home, after a full hour and a half walk.

It was still breezy this morning after high winds much of yesterday and my sinuses were bothering me a bit, but what a lovely way to spend the morning, me and the pup!

I took this picture of her on Klickitat, the section of the street we walk on that takes us to the park is closed to vehicle traffic except for people with driveways on the street, and this little post blocks vehicles from entering. Someone put a sticker on the post that says “Root for the Underdog” so I made Ellie pose for a quick picture. The new camera is working a treat for quick pictures like this, just a snapshot to remind me of our walks, it is so lightweight that I take it with me a lot even though I only occasionally take pictures.

Spring Finally Arrives

As much as I love the rain, even I was ready for a sunny day after an unusually wet winter. Although Ellie loves the colder weather, she was up for a long walk on this beautiful spring morning, wanting to go farther and farther each time we reached another corner. I was only too happy to oblige and we didn’t return home for an hour and a half, pretty remarkable for our aging pup.

White on Black on White

Our beautiful 13 year old pup.

Me Too

“I wish you, the person reading this finds love and happiness.”

“I wish for all dogs to have a loving home.”

This one found a loving home and brought love and happiness with her.

As the snow continued to fall I wanted a picture of Ellie beside the Wishing Tree, one of my favorite places on our walks, as my wish was for her to have at least one more chance to play in the snow. So maybe I wished a little too hard and that’s why we ended up with this unusually heavy snow in January. We made the best of it, the pup and I, I’ll never forget that day.

The Big Dog Bed

A while back we took our bed off the frame and set the box springs on the floor so it would be easier for our elderly pup to jump onto the bed. Recently we also added some throw rugs to give her better traction on the hardwood. After a visit to the vet yesterday to have her teeth cleaned and a few pulled, Ellie was in recovery mode and still a little wobbly from the anesthesia. Ellie was a bit restless when my wife came to bed so she encouraged Ellie to jump in beside me as I was already sound asleep. Ellie did not however make enough room for my wife to join us as well so she slept in the guest bedroom.

This picture is from the summer when we were enjoying the air conditioner in our bedroom, her smile will be missing her small front teeth from now on, as well as a growth that had developed the past few months at the front of her mouth.

Black in White

I knew it was asking a bit much of my camera to meter a black dog in white snow, especially since I’d be changing how large Ellie would appear in the picture, so I set the exposure mode to manual and set the exposure itself when I left the house. I frequently shoot in manual mode so there was nothing unusual in that. Unfortunately I forgot to check if the exposure was still valid a few minutes later when we arrived at Irving Park. Looking through the optical viewfinder of my SLR everything looked fine as you don’t see how the image will be exposed, but the open scene was slightly brighter than at my house and these images ended up a bit overexposed. Not tragically so, and the hot exposure did help preserve detail in Ellie’s dark fur, but my mistake would have been obvious with the electronic viewfinder of a mirrorless camera.

I need cameras that make mistakes obvious, because even after all these years I make them frequently. The more excited I am by a picture, the more likely I am to mess it up. I am far better at this than I used to be but there’s a part of me that will never learn. Sometimes it doesn’t matter but in cases like this, I’ll never get a second chance.

I almost bought into Sony’s full frame line a year and a half ago but chickened out at the last minute due to the high cost and lack of reviews, and to this day I can’t tell you if it was the right decision or not. Sony has updated their smaller sensor camera and I’m leaning in that direction, although there are a couple of other options I’m considering. There’s much to love about my Canon and I’ll still be using it for my telephoto work and I took a bunch of pictures with it on this snowy day, but I found myself fighting the camera off and on throughout the day as I walked around the neighborhood. It doesn’t help that it’s bigger and heavier than I want in a walk-around camera.

One thing I am cognizant of is that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, and I have to be aware of what I’m giving up in order to gain something else. The Canon has great weather sealing (although the lens I was using had none) and it is a speedy little thing, and the Sigma 17-50mm 2.8 lens I bought to hold me over back when I couldn’t decide on the full frame Sony has proven to be a charming little lens despite its shortcomings. Even without weather sealing, since it didn’t cost me much to purchase it and I’ve gotten a lot of use out of it I didn’t think twice about shooting in the snow all morning, I did my best to keep it wiped clear of water drops and it did just fine. Sadly nothing like it is available in the options I’m considering, although those options are more portable.

And goodness have we come a long way since I first got started in digital photography, something I’m aware of whenever I edit old pictures. I’ll always remember this day with my pup and I’m as thankful for these pictures of Ellie as she is for the treats she got for posing for them. The off-leash dog park we visit is just up the hill to the right, I took her leash off for the pictures.

Winter at the Door of Hope

When we got an unusually heavy snowfall earlier in the month, I wanted a picture of the Door of Hope church in the snow. The church sits at the edge of Irving Park and Ellie and I used to pass it as we walked around the path that circles the park, but these days after a quick visit to the dog park she wants to head out into the neighborhood instead of going further into the park.

I had thoughts of making her go up to the church as the snow continued to fall, it isn’t much farther than the dog park, but I just couldn’t do it. This theme continued as we walked, on the one hand I knew this was a historic storm and it was not something I’d have the chance to photograph again, but on the other hand this was also going to be my only chance to enjoy this much snow with the pup, and I chose the pup. I did take pictures on our walk, some of her and some of the neighborhood, but only on streets she chose to go down. An hour and a half later I dropped off an exhausted Ellie at the house and went back out alone for more pictures. The snow was still falling as I reached the Door of Hope and took this picture.

A few days later I bribed Ellie with treats to get her up to the church on our morning walk, now bathed in the morning light, every inch of snow trampled underfoot by families enjoying the unusual snow. I had thoughts about making her sit in front of the little utility building from the previous post, it’s just a little further up the path to the left of this picture, but she wanted to go and I couldn’t say no.

The Happiest Dog in the World

The snow was still coming down as a tired but happy Ellie waited to go inside after a long walk through the deep snow. Despite my best intentions I didn’t take too many pictures over the hour and a half we walked as it often felt like it would intrude on the fun we were having. So after getting her settled inside I went back outside for more pictures.