I love photography.  Whether I’m on a photo job or just hanging out with friends and family on the weekend, I typically have a camera with me everywhere I go.  Those of us bitten by the “photo bug” are accustomed to hearing things like, “C’mon, do you really HAVE to bring your camera this time?” from our children and even our spouses when getting ready to head out to any given event.  And while I agree that there should be a healthy balance to all things (yes, even requiring me to leave the camera at home from time to time), I do openly admit that photography is both an art and an obsession of which I am a willing victim.  And my photo obsession continued this past weekend when I brought my camera gear over to a friend’s house on the 4th of July.

Our good friend Tish lives on a beautiful lake here in Washington State.  When we got out of the car we were greeted by two incredibly energetic German Shorthaired Pointers (Wyatt and Roy) who had an obsession of their own.  Their obsession?  Pine cones, birds, mud, water, and anything that moved!  These two dogs were so animated and had so much energy that I couldn’t help but photograph them in action.

So I grabbed by 70-200 lens, walked down to the dock at the lakefront and started shooting as the dogs.  I captured them chasing passing birds, pine cones (thrown by Amber), and even having long staring contests with fish in the lake.  The only way I was able to get them to hold still for a few seconds was by holding a pine cone next to my lens as I snapped a few shots. Here are a few of the images from that day.

Another dog named Fontana also made an appearance during the course of the day.  Fontana was a beautiful golden retriever with long, light yellow fur.  Her fur was the perfect super-sponge for soaking up buckets of cold lake water and subsequently shaking it all off directly behind a certain surprised photographer.

Here is the dock that I was shooting from.  I snapped this with my 14-24 lens.

And of course the fireworks on the lake that night were spectacular!

COMEDY CLIPS

Where there are dogs, there is comedy.  Here are a few of the outtakes, starting with a picture of my Labrador (Peepers) attempting to jump from the dock to get a ball.  Nice try Peepers.

And here I caught a rare photo of CUJO.

And lastly, I’d like to announce that I am the first photographer to capture a non-blurry picture of an actual Chupacabra!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Christian

My blog is up and running at last!  It’s time to hit the gas and begin posting some serious photos.

My dog is driving me crazy!

Thanks for coming along for the ride,

Christian