Random Photo Friday: Still Trying Pet Portraits

What the heck - have I seriously not posted anything to this blog since July? Yikes, time is going tooooooo fast. And I have oodles of photos from the past couple of months, not least the 1600 pictures from mine & Lorne's trip to Europe in August - namely, a soggy, cold, blustery and flash-flood week visiting family in England, followed by a cool, grey but drier week in the Czech republic, mostly in the fantastic city of Prague. What a place!

So, while I work my way through those photos (which reminds me, I don't think I ever even finished my Germany photos from last year), I thought I'd quickly post a couple of pet portraits I've shot recently.

Eeeeeeazy like Sunday morning.

Firstly there's our own enormous bundle of fur and cuteness, Louis. Suffice to say he loves basking in the sun as it pours through the window of our second bedroom. (Well, it's more of a den than a bedroom, since you'd be hard pushed to get anything larger than a pet-bed in there anyway.)

I purposefully shot this f1.8 to create a very shallow depth of field, highlighting his paw but capturing the lazy, snooziness of his overall demeanour. He was the perfect model.

The next image is of a wonderfully loyal dog patiently waiting for his owner outside of a coffee shop on Main Street. I used the same lens (my 50mm f1.8 portrait lens) again for a shallow depth of field, to highlight his soft, soulful eyes as he waited so calmly. Well, I say 'he' but he might actually be a she.

Patiently waiting. Dog Days on Main Street.

My Lightroom/Photoshop editing skills are really very basic. In fact I hardly touch my photos afterwards other than a minor tweek of contrast, exposure of colour temperature as needed. But for this pic I felt it warranted an olde-worlde look. I like the effect. I only wish I'd actually looked at his/her collar to get a name - I like to think of these captures as unique moments where two lives touch and the picture holds that moment in infinity. It doesn't seem right to not know the name. :-(

The Perfect Nanny?

Just to prove it's not all about cats in my world, I thought I'd share this fabulous YouTube video - it just cracks me up. Who knew a dog could make such a terrific childminder?



Of course it helps that the kid has such a great laugh - love it!

This vid is my favourite de-grumpifying tonic if I'm having a crappy day.

Enjoy!

Argufying and Grumbulating

I decided to use "Argufying and Grumbulating" for my 'why oh why' postings - a forum for a wee rant/Victor Meldrew moment about things that make me go 'Grrrrrrr'. The title is one of my favourite terms that my Dad made up. When we were kids, if he and my mum were about to leave us on our own for a while, he'd always recite the rules, "I don't want to hear of any kicking, fighting, scratching, biting, thumping, screaming, hair-pulling or argufying and grumbulating".

So unfortunately my first theme makes you ask yourself - what kind of person does THIS to a dog?

This horribly neglected and death-defyingly emaciated dog, now named Trooper by the SPCA officers treating him, was handed in recently by a man who maintained he'd found the poor dog wandering along the highway. As it turns out, the guy is in fact the owner and had knowingly neglected him to this horrific and miserable state. Handing in this bag of bones with matted, feces encrusted fur is perhaps the only 'kind' thing he's ever done for this adorable golden retriever who currently weighs just a third of what should be his normal body weight - and less than the bag of dogfood they're now feeding him at the SCPA. Officers/vets had to shave off his fur because it was so matted and foul and underneath they found sores indicating he'd also be kept in a confined space for a long time.
I cannot for the life of me understand what kind of person knowingly lets an animal suffer in this way, in an ongoing state of unbelievable physical as well as emotional neglect. Vets are amazed he even survived at all in this state although a couple of days more and he most certainly would have died and you have to wonder if the owner would even have noticed.

Thankfully Trooper's now recovering and receiving lots of love and warmth with a caring foster parent via the SPCA - and he's even gaining a little weight. What a wonderfully loving and forgiving dog, despite the sad and absolutely unnecessary trauma he's endured for quite some time.

There's now a petition to make sure full charges are laid against his former owner. I vote we shove him into a birdcage and leave him to starve while he lies in his own filth. Oh wait....sound familiar?