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Wordless Wednesday: Walk’N Roll 2013

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Donna Black-Sword
Rain, rain go away, shouts Euka. Come again some other day. Little Euka wants to play.
But don’t come back next Saturday, she adds. Euka’s chant is intended for this coming Saturday, October 12.
But being a web-toed water dog by birth, Miss Euka doesn’t mind getting a little wet. She’s not the kind of girl that worries about her hair or something.  And we were glad to see so many folk, dogs and human beans both, ready to participate in last Saturday’s Walk’N Roll DogFest fundraiser for Canine Companions for Independence in Indianapolis.  At last count, this event raised just under $24,000 for CCI. 
We lovers of all things dog have become accustomed to pesky weather patterns, including the intermittent rain that persisted all day last Saturday. We tend to be a hearty lot, we dog walkers, and yet I was relieved when we were blessed with a break in the weather as we started the event. Not being a web-toed water person, I do tend to worry about the hair. Just a bit.
So this next Saturday, let’s all shout at the rain to go away. Because we’re all registered to participate in the Walk’N Roll DogFest in Dublin, Ohio on October 12.  So far, there’s a promise of a gorgeous day ahead.
Join us? Local folk can get more information and register at this link: click here
And be sure to visit our CCI Walk’N Roll page to leave your kind words of motivation for Miss Euka at http://www.cci.org/dogfestcolumbus/euka




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Let’s talk about the dogs and the bees

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Donna Black-Sword
An over-the-shoulder look from my classy, yet contrary model.
Because there were two kids standing there she wanted to see.

It was a little like being a kindergartner in a high school art class.

It’s a picture of a bee, I said. I made you a bee. And despite valiant attempts to tamp it down, the declaration is followed by a quick and self-conscious apology. It’s a little blurry.

It’s a very nice bee, said the kind teacher. Now who wants to share their picture next?

Ugh. It’s my own fault, I know.  I signed up for a nature photography class being led by a professional photographer that I really admire*. The guy is an artist with his camera and I was eager to learn how he performs his magic. Get me some new skills and stuff like that to add to my own personal style. 

Introductions should have been my first awakening of what I got myself into this time.  Hi, I’m Donna, I say. I take pictures of dogs.

I know I shared more than that, but I was distracted after looking about the room and just threw out some random facts. Yup, pretty sure I was the most *cough* experienced in life.  Have any of these people even held a film camera in their short lives?  Ever had the chance to fall in love with the chemical smell in a dark room? Dodge and burn an image using an enlarger? I’m guessing, with the exception of the professional fella, it’s not very bloody likely.

Good grief, in my day we goofed around with the settings on the camera then had to wait days upon days to see how bad we screwed up the shot. But today everything is instant gratification, isn’t it?  We decide the destiny of our snapshots with a, well, snap decision. You don’t like the image?  Well, easy ’nuff to delete it. Or post it on social media.  Either one.

But no matter, seeing things with the eye of an artist doesn’t have a thing to do with age or camera settings or even dark room experience. You either have it or you are good with numbers or something. This was apparent at the end of the seminar when we shared what we captured during our time with the flowering photo ops outside.



I took so many shots of this jerk that
I should have named the little beestard.
You know what? I think I will.
I dub this fuzzy fellow Fred MacBlurry**.

One after another, we all handed over our memory cards and declared our favorite shot to put on the big screen to share in front of God and everybody.

Nice composition … I like how you set up the grouping …  Good close up … Wonderful job with backlighting … Um, nice bee.

Yeah, I spent my hour tracking a stupid bee. With a macro lens. At the end of the shoot, I just did a Picard face palm. What was I thinking?  Who tries to take a photo of a moving object with a macro lens anyway?

Well, me.*** 

So sure, in the end I did learn quite a bit about composition, natural lighting and how to work some advanced settings on the Canon. Maybe the most helpful is the new knowledge about taming that on-body flash that I have developed a hate-hate relationship with.

Yeah, and I learned that I kinda suck at nature photography. I simply just don’t have an eye for it.  You know why?  Because I don’t have a passion for the stuff, flower groupings and all that. There’s beauty out there all ready to be captured, it’s just that I don’t see it in my viewfinder. I’ll have leave it to the folk that do.

So I’ll stick with what I know and know very well. That one single subject of canine goodness that I find so rich. The timing was good here, because the next day after the nature photography seminar, Euka and I were working a CCI info table at Aullwood Farm.

Thank dog, I thought. I need a self-esteem boost. With the overcast skies, this is my all-time favorite of outdoor lighting.  A wonderful diffused light that softens shadows, but still allows nice highlights.  It’s gonna be a great day for a doggie photo shoot at the farm, I think.

But that happy thought was popped like a the fragile bubble it was. Miss Euka was in one of her contrary moods.  She rocks an expert level at passive-aggressive naughtiness.  Worse, what she was up to this time wasn’t even a behavior that I could offer a correction for.

In one shot after another, she either squinted her eyes at me, adjusts her ears into a weird position, stretched her neck out or would drop eye contact at the sound of the shutter click. 

Oh, this isn’t the sun in her eyes or the sky is too bright. This is Euka telling me she’s just not in the mood for this nonsense today and can’t we go back to the info table to see more kids?

I’m getting so focused on getting a shot of her with her eyes open, that I forgot about venial sin in portrait photography.

Not paying attention to what’s in the background.

I know, I could crop this down some.  And end up with two stalkerish white tennies behind that lovely outstretched neck.

Or hey, there’s the other option that is the hallmark of digital photographers everywhere. Just set the shutter setting to Continuous.  It’s just as cheap to take fifty photos as it is only one carefully framed shot.

click…click…click…You’ll have to open her eyes at some point, girly girl…click…click…click…Euka! Cookie!…click…click. 

Hah! Got it.

Cookie?

_____________________________

*Photography by Jim Crotty.  Do check out his Facebook page and see if you might appreciate his gorgeous work, too.

** Get it? A play on Fred MacMurray? You know …  Fred MacMurray.  My Three Sons, The Absent Minded Professor (1961), The Shaggy Dog?  Oh c’mon, this has to be reaching some of you, right?  [crickets]  Anyone?  Hello … ?

***Fixation: because just giving up is for sissies.

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Wordless Wednesday: Euka Flash

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Donna Black-Sword


When we started raising our second puppy for Canine Companions for Independence, the mighty Micron, eventually we fell into a groove for this gig.

That is, we started some things that became traditions.

Like the One Year photo shoot at Flash Photography of Dayton.

So we have some shots to share with y’all of our lovely Euka showing poise amidst personality.

She just has that look, right?  Like the wheels are turning in that noggin, the fire’s burning bright, she’s not one slice short of a loaf?  A clever one, our Miss Euka.

Taken on September 14, 2013, her first birthday.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ok, one outtake for you.  Look! Look!, says Euka. I’m doing a Micron!
 
 
 
 
 




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Raffle me this

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Donna Black-Sword
Oh yeah, bring it on, cotton brain, says Euka. I am the Master of Eye Contact.
[must . . . not . . . blink . . .groan]

Let’s start off today with a quick test.  No worries, y’all. This’ll be easy ’nuff, like those magazine personality quizzes.  You know, like if you could be any celebrity, what would be your favorite color of food? So, I’m just gonna toss out a couple or three questions and the first one is a total gimme as a multiple choice.

Question 1. Ok, this friend of mine, let’s call her Dee, won an awesome raffle prize at a pet adoption event. She is thrilled, because it’s been years upon years since she’s won anything, awesome or otherwise. What do you suppose was the most common question asked of her by friends and family in lieu of a congrats? 

a) It’s supposed to be a what, exactly?  

b) What the [bleep] is up with the tail anyway? 

c) Does anyone else think it’s creepy how it stares without blinking? 

d) Since it doesn’t have a neck, can we say it has a good head on its shoulders? 

e) Hey, you wanna see how much my dog hates it? Watch this . . .

f) What are you going to do with it? 

Answer: yep, the answer is f.  What are you going to do with it?

Bunch of naysayers, I say. And to these naysayers, I say nay to you, because horses eat . . . wait, no. That’s not what I mean.

I mean it’s ok to be jealous, y’all.  There was only one lifesize German Shepherd stuffed dog in the raffle and, dogs be good, it is now mine, bwahahaha.  Or my friend, Dee’s, that is.  Because Dee won the thing, right?

So anyway, here’s your second personality test question.  Bumping it up a notch with a Fill in the Blank query. It’s a two-parter with that run-on sentence in there.

Question 2.  Are you the kind of person that would name a lifesized stuffed dog? Let’s consider you might be, especially since you haven’t named a pet in countless years since you either adopt or raise service dogs and they always come with their own names? And when you think about it, you haven’t given a moniker to a pet dog since Sh** Jack in 1988. We’re not counting the fish, Bob II, because obviously he’s not a dog even though you did get to name him.  So, what would you name a lifesized stuffed German Shepherd dog?

You can tell by the face this is a female, right? Oh, don’t go on about looking at the wrong end, because this is a stuffed animal, people. We don’t have a lot to work with here. I’m pretty much just making it up as I go along.

Well met, Cap’n Windy

And speaking of making it up, I will refer to this prize winning beauty as Cap’n Windy*.

Why would you do that, you ask? Well, because I can. And adding to that, I may just be a bit rusty in this dog naming business. But just like the gender decision, it just seems to suit her, I think.

Now for your final question. This is requires more of an essay-ish response.

Question 3. If you were as amazing as Dee, an individual who had her stars in order and could actually win such a treasure as life-sized German Shepherd stuffed dog – well, what would you do with it anyway? Any ideas, people?

No really, what would you do with this thing? I want to know. So I can help my friend Dee explain it to her family. She’s struggling here trying to justify why it should be on proud display in the family room while the kinfolk have less spectacular ideas regarding where it should be available for public appearances. Because Dee doesn’t agree that she needs an ersatz guard dog in the walk-in closet.

This is not just another way to get a fourth dog in the house, but you have to see the benefits to having this kind of thing around, right?   Considering the low vet bills and lack of biological clean-up moves the needle on the Attractive Meter into the green zone. Then we gotcha the obvious.

Like home protection, of course.  Heck, once I put Cap’n Windy on the front porch and started taking photos, even the neighbors started to look on edge.  Ain’t nobody messing with us now.

To build on the personal protection theme, here’s an idea for when you have to drive through those sketchy areas.  I mean, who doesn’t respect a dog looking out from the moon roof? Nobody, that’s who.

Oh, but it gets better from here.  Finally somebody who’ll play a game of Scrabble with me without being a sore loser.

Because Jager cheats. Ok, I haven’t actually caught him, but still. He’s all sneaky, with those street smarts of his. Not keeping an Ace up his sleeve, because this is Scrabble, remember? And dogs don’t wear clothes while playing Scrabble due to the cheating. It’s in the rules. But I do suspect there could be a vowel or two under that wily tongue.

I don’t usually need help in the kitchen, the space being somewhat limited anyway.  I tried putting Cap’n Windy to task to see if perhaps I could step back and do the crossword while dinner was on the stove. 

All for naught, that little fantasy.  All she did was stare at the peanut butter jar.  Probably for the best, seeing the chicken broth and dog hair lint roller in near adjacency. I don’t think you’ll find these ingredients together on the same page in the Joy of Cooking.

At least I want very badly for this to be true.


Color me desensitized, says Euka. I think that
would be pink or something.

I do have to admit that Cap’n Windy’s destiny is still up in the air [snort windy air].  We might need to find the chick a higher calling.  I mean besides desensitizing CCI puppies to novel objects and putting it on the kid’s bed so when he comes home and turns on the light, Cap’n Windy is there to say Good Evening. I hope you made good choices today.  Yeah, besides those things.

What am I going to do with it?

____________________________
*Does that name nudge a long-forgotten memory, my southwestern Ohio friends?  How ’bout The Uncle Al Show with Captain Windy? Remember now?  She was introduced on every show with her flying on screen, cape flapping, like Supergirl only more wholesome. Yep, naming the stuffed dog after her is messed up on a couple of critical levels.

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Wordless Wednesday: Caption This #11

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Donna Black-Sword
I SAID!, said Euka. YOU SHOULD HAVE PACKED A SANDWICH INSTEAD!

What about this looks so familiar, you wonder.  Right?  There’s that Déjà vu thing again – that ethereal feeling like you’ve already had a microwave meal for lunch every day this week? Or is it because you’re just collecting Lean Cuisine points to get that snappy new lunch bag so you’re willing to down one more pasta conglamerate in a frozen box even though the very thought of it makes you not hungry anymore, but it’s the only thing you packed and you do really want the special edition lunch bag so you have to at least nuke it for the box label?

Is that the feeling? Or is it because you just saw this photo a few days ago on The Ohio E’s Celebrate Their First Birthday right here on the dog blog?  Which may be doubly impressed upon your memory cells because that particular photo of Emma and Euka reminded me of this one below?

And if memory services, I introduced this adorable shot to y’all in Caption This #9.  A post worth a second look just for the caption ideas, by the way.

Hey Emma, says Euka. What do you get when you cross an
elephant with a rhino*?
 [sigh], says Emma
(photo by Chris Kittredge Photography)

And while we’re on the topic of captions, let’s put some thought into the top photo, shall we?

So what d’ya think? Yeah, I know. Euka’s just yawning in Emma’s face, like she’s been raised with no manners whatsoever. So we could take this a couple of ways – build a clever caption making a case for these two very bored dogs or instead, with a squint of your eyes, pretend that our Euka is saying something REAL LOUD.

Inspired now? Drop us a comment with your clever thoughts.





___________________________
*What do you get? Elephino.  Sound it out by syllable, y’all.

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