It's National Black Dog Day

To recognize this day I'll share this photo of Sadie that I took back in 2008. Here she was playing bitey-face with Katie.

Still miss these two girls a lot -- always will.

Pain and Remembrance

I don't know if anyone is still reading this blog or not; I haven't added anything to this blog since a couple of weeks after Sadie died on St. Patrick's Day. I am sorry if you've been holding out and waiting for the past three months for something new from me. Her death had stolen most, if not all, of my motivation to write about pictures I have taken of Greyhounds and their owners. Oh, I do have plenty of pictures to share and give you a little background about them...but writing about it had seemed pointless without her (or Katie, for that matter).

We were without Greyhounds (or dogs) in the house for the first time in twenty years. That span lasted for two months, and it was the worst two months ever.

Fortunately I had planned to join two of my friends on an East Coast roadtrip to see a third friend run in the Boston Marathon for the first time. And I was lucky that I had photo shoots to do with a customer in Williamsburg, NY, and at the Greyhounds in Gettysburg event in late April. It was a great distraction for me, but still I caught myself weeping several times (like on the Amtrak train that we took from Boston to New York, or on the Metro in New York) because I missed her so much. My two traveling companions understood, and helped me a great deal.

And shortly after returning from Gettysburg our daughter and I prepared to drive to Minnesota and back to pick up a seven-month-old female Greyhound puppy (who our daughter named "Bean"), fostered for two months by my friend Aimée and her husband.

I promise to write about how Puppy Bean came to join our family in the very near future.

It was early this evening that Puppy Bean was lying on the front lawn, and I was sitting and watching her while holding the end of her leash. And as I watched I was suddenly reminded of a picture I took of Katie eleven days after her leg amputation. So I took our my smartphone and tried to get a picture of Bean as I had done with Katie.

As I tried to frame the picture it then occurred to me that tomorrow (Tuesday, 8 July) will be a year and a week since Katie's operation. It again saddened me terribly that she was no longer here, and those feelings of loss overcame me anew. I remembered what I told her at the end:

"I'm so sorry, Katie, that we could not save you."

As I have told some of my Greyhound friends who let me vent and hug and cry on their shoulders about Katie since her death, I will forever resent the fact that we did not even get the chance to treat her for the lymphoma that eventually took her so swiftly from us. If we just had the chance...

I expect to see her everywhere

It's been hard on you not to have your dog, my wife told me as she gave me a long hug one recent morning. "I expect to see her everywhere," I replied.

Goodnight, Sadie (2002 - 2014)

Some of my favorite photos I took during 2013 (part 2)

Jewel:

Thyme:

Heyokha:

Sadie (belongs to a different owner):

Gypsy:

Laika:

Isis:

Boo:

Violet:

Ringo:

Holly:

Speed Racer:

Mary, Speed Racer, and Trixie:

Cat and Sully:

Rocky:

(All photos taken with the Nikon D600, 50mm, and 105mm lens; shot in RAW, converted to DNG, and imported into Lightroom.)

Sadie is salt and pepper

At this stage of her life she's more salt than pepper.

 

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority with aperture set at f/2.8; 1/250 second at ISO 400; center-weighted metered; +0.7 exposure compensation; auto white balance; shot in RAW, converted to DNG and imported into Lightroom.)

Getting into a habit

Since Katie's amputation the girls have gotten into the habit of wanting to nap in the back of our van.

(Taken with the iPhone and processed using Camera Awesome.)

Sadie and Katie snuggle

Sadie is a snuggler; Katie is not. Sadie is needy and likes reassurance; Katie, not so much. Katie is not particularly fond of anyone lying very close to her. She will not bite if it happens, but she will usually get up and leave to go lie down somewhere else.

So to find Katie sleeping in a dog bed with Sadie's face so close to hers last week as Katie continued to recover from her surgery...well, we had to get a few pictures.

They slept together like this for awhile. It was comforting to see them like this.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 18-35mm zoom at 35mm; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/4.5; shutter speed of 1/15 second at ISO 6400; auto white balance; imported and converted to black-and-white using Lightroom; normal JPG.)

Sadie, tonight.

I don't get to practice with my off-camera flash much, so tonight I had Sadie go outside with me. I got to practice for all of five minutes.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens, SB-400 on shoot-through umbrella, and PocketWizard Nikon MiniTT1 and FlexTT5; program mode; shutter speed 1/60 second at f/5.6 and ISO 400; auto white balance; converted to black and white using Lightroom; normal JPG.)

Sadie is 11 today!

Happy 11th birthday, Sadie!

(Shot with the Nikon D300, SB-400 flash, and 18-200mm VR zoom; 1/60th second at f7.1 at ISO 800; matrix-metered; slow-sync, SB-400 pointed at ceiling and bounce-flashed; auto white balance; +0.7 exposure compensation; normal JPG.)

Bink!

A young Sadie and Nikki:

A young Katie and Nikki:

Nikki and Sadie:

Nikki and Katie:

Sadie and an ailing Nikki:

Sadie at the park

I took Sadie and Katie to a nearby park during a break between rain showers that passed through our area yesterday. She is putting up with not being allowed to run, go on long walks, or go crackerdog for now; I can't say she's happy about it.

But I needed an excuse to carry my camera with me because I haven't taken any pictures of the girls for the past week or so. And walking to the park just seemed a good reason to get them out of the house and be outdoors.

There are a few small berms around the perimeter of the park. I had the girls stand on one of them and, as I was kneeling below them, I snapped a few pictures under mostly overcast skies. I hoped that the overcast might keep Katie from squinting but that was not to be. Sadie, however, watched and listened to some dog barking from its backyard that bordered the park.

I knelt a short distance away from her because I was trying to get a whole-body shot for a change, but when I started looking at the picture in Lightroom I decided that a close crop of her head appealed to me more. I dodged her eyes a bit to bring them out, added some sharpening on her face, and added a vignette to emphasize her face as the main subject.

After we were done we left the park and crossed the street to go home. I looked down at Sadie, and she at me, and I knew by the mischievous look in her eyes that she wanted to start pogo-ing as is her habit when we're walking down the street. But I had to say "no." I rubbed my hand over the top of her head and said a few words to her, and hating that I had to deny her the fun we have grown accustomed to having. I hope I don't have to keep telling "no" for much longer.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority with aperture set to f/4; camera chose a shutter speed of 1/160 second at ISO 100; cloudy white balance; normal JPG.)

On my photo bucket list

One item on my photo bucket list is to get a good picture of Sadie smiling. Now, let me explain: Sadie is sensitive. Sadie thinks she's in trouble when some of us talk loudly in conversation. She thinks this even though the conversation has nothing to do with her. So she will walk or trot up to whoever is doing the loud talking and start smiling and smiling. It's cute to see her do this, but we tell her that she's not in trouble and that things are okay.

So, one day (soon, I hope) I want to get a picture of Sadie smiling. I hope it'll be similar to this picture I took of Pistachio in Solvang a couple of years back:

We're not going to start yelling on purpose at her to try and get this response -- that's just mean. But smiling is part of her personality that I have yet to capture. So getting a picture of her doing this is on my photo bucket list.

What do you have on your photo bucket list?

Hijinks on hold

Sadie's developed a bone spur on her right hind foot, so until we get that sorted out she won't be running or playing around with Katie like this:

I am amazed seeing her facial expressions when she plays.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 18-200mm VR zoom; shutter-priority mode with shutter speed set to 1/1000 second; camera set aperture at f/4.8 at ISO 2000; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

It's been two months...

...since I last photographed Sadie.

 

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/4; camera chose 1/50 second at ISO 320; auto white balance; center-weighted metered; converted to black-and-white using Lightroom; normal JPG.) 

The new camera arrives

My new camera arrived. After it sat in its box for a couple of days I finally got it out and took a few test shots to start getting familiar with it. It shouldn't surprise you that the first few frames were of Sadie and Katie (I asked Gayle to be in the first picture but she looked at me like I was an idiot).

Sadie was understandably impressed with the new camera:

as was Katie:

Maybe they'll get more excited for me later.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/2.8; camera chose shutter speed of 1/50 second at ISO 560 (top) and 1100 (bottom); matrix-metered; auto white balance set with 0 trim (top) and M1 (magenta) trim (bottom); normal JPG.)

Something new

I ordered a cheap light stand, shoot-through umbrella, and an umbrella adapter to learn how to use off-camera flash. After my order arrived it sat on a chair unopened until this evening (all because one of our cats is using the chair for his naps and I don't want to disturb him). Finally, after getting the umbrella set up in the backyard I took Sadie outside and had her pose for me when I fired off a few shots.

Of the pictures I took, I like this one best:

I cropped the image a bit, made some cosmetic fixes, and added a vignette. I have a lot to learn about how to use an umbrella; it'll be awhile before I feel comfortable enough to use it in a session.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens, SB-800 flash, and two Pocket Wizards; program mode; camera set shutter speed at 1/60th second, aperture at f/5, at ISO 200; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Sadie says, "Mmmm..."

In the late afternoon I was standing just outside the back door of the house when Sadie walked up and paused at the door. I was thinking she would either: (1) join me outside, or (2) stand her ground at the threshold as I held the door open waiting for her to pass through. She chose (2).

So as she stood there I thought, "Hey...I like the way she looks while standing against the dark interior of the house. Maybe I can get a shot or two of this." I went inside to get my camera (Sadie twisted her head around to see what I was doing), grabbed a handful of dog kibble, then stepped back outside and got her attention by talking to her and handing her food.

I had a different picture in mind when I started this exercise, but Sadie would not open her eyes wide enough. Instead, I tried to get her actually doing something, instead of my usual staring-back-at-the-camera shot:

I played around with this in Lightroom; I tried different black-and-white treatments but none seemed quite right. I left the picture in color and just removed most of the color from her red tag bag, and added some sharpening around her eyes. Then i added a vignette to isolate her face further.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/2.8; camera chose shutter speed of 1/800 second at ISO 400; center-weighted metered; -0.7 exposure compensation; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Sleeping buddies

My parents came to visit us last weekend. After we greeted each other at the door, my dad walked over and sat down on our sleeper sofa. Sadie, who was not feeling well at the time, walked over to him and lowered her head so my dad could give her head, neck, and ears a good rubbing. (She'd stay there for hours if we could keep it up.)

Then, as she had done during my parents' last visit, she climbed onto the sofa and laid down next to Dad, resting her head on his side. Eventually, the two of them fell asleep. I had to capture the moment:

I had a decision to make before I took the picture: who do I focus on? I decided that I wanted Sadie to be the subject, so I put her in focus and had my dad be just out of focus. I guessed that using an aperture of f/4 would give me what I wanted. Using center-weighted metering I set my exposure compensation to -0.7 because there was a lot of glare behind them. I must have been an amusing sight to see as I stood, knelt, and changed my viewing perspectives attempting to convey what I was trying to say.

Eventually, Indy the cat came over and sat in front of them for awhile. He stared that cat-stare that they all have, and then left. I have no idea what Indy was thinking.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/4; camera chose shutter speed of 1/15 second at ISO 1000; -0.7 exposure compensation; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

The solar eclipse of 2012

I have not taken anything worthy of either Sadie or Katie in the last couple of weeks.

But there was a partial solar eclipse visible here in southern California this past weekend so I tried to get a few photos of that. Fortunately, clouds were rolling in off the ocean in early evening (normal for this time of year) so I didn't need any eye protection. Still, I refrained from looking at the sun directly, and looked at the edge of the viewfinder while focusing on the sun.

It didn't turn out too badly:

Since I was using the spot meter the camera made silhouettes out of everything.

One method that was suggested to use to watch the eclipse was to use a white background and binoculars or a telescope to project the sun's image onto the background. I didn't have a white backdrop handy, so I had Gayle hold our binoculars and used Sadie as the backdrop:

Sadie was a little confused about why I was having her stand still on the front lawn as I snapped a few frames.