Just a puppy {Alderick}

Yes, he really is still a puppy. I believe he's 10 months old. This is my girlfriend's dog. . .well her son's dog but you know how teens are, they're never around and the moms take care of the animals. I know my friend is attached to this one anyways.

I haven't seen Teresa in a while so I went up to visit and have a few cocktails out on the deck. The pup had been hit by a car about 2 months ago and had surgery on his back leg. Because he has to stay mobile, he's stuck in a cage and can only get out to stretch and relieve himself. So getting a decent picture of him was tough because he has so much energy pent up. He only had 2 more days before he was released from his medical restrictions.

I would love to go back and get some decent shots of him out in the fields, etc. But he must be walked first to tire him out a little LOL

Bronx Zoo {girls day out}

Schyler and I took a bus trip down to the Bronx Zoo for the day on Saturday. It was a fun girls day. The zoo was really big and a few times we ended up going in a circle but we managed to get through all of it. That day was very busy and it was hard to get in a decent spot to take a picture. We had a fun time and were pretty tired when we got home.
This gorilla sat right up against the glass eating and kept shaking her head like she didn't want everyone sitting there watching her. Another gorilla that was sitting up against the glass was just watching everyone. A little boy standing right in front of it stuck out his tongue and the gorilla did it back to him. Everyone started to laugh and told him to do it again just to see if the gorilla knew what it was doing. Didn't you know the gorilla stuck it's tongue right out again LOL!

Jack Russell Trials {FUN STUFF }

Warning, large share of not so great photos and long post ;)

We headed down to Connecticut for a fun weekend with Piper. We attended the Yankee Trials. It was great to see so many people with their JRT's. What is so amazing about this breed is there isn't one dog that looks alike. There are smooth, broken and rough coats. They also have many different distinct markings in brown and black and they are all different sizes.

We watched quite a few of the races and strolled around looking at all the dogs. A few people talked us into entering Piper in the Lure Coarsing for fun. She's never done anything like this before and our entry was called "just for fun". We decided to sit back and let her watch some of the pros chase the bags around. There is a large pulley system around the race track that has a bunch of plastic bags attached to it. The dogs instinctively chase the bags.

After watching the second dog run, Piper was going crazy she wanted after it LOL! She was called almost last. She got 2 tries. Her first run was extremely fast but when the bags went around the corner one ripped off and she chased that and it basically stopped the run.

Here's her second run. Mike was preparing to let her go on call.

I was disappointed in my photos. I was so excited watching her that I never really checked my settings and I really had a hard time focusing on these speed demons! I use my 70-300 all the time for Pop Warner and I never had a problem. These dogs are like lightning and I could barely get focus on any of them. You can see behind her the dirt coming up in the air!

That was her second time, even after being tired from the first run. We figured she ran 250-300 yards in 18.70 seconds! She pretty much smoked the pros, except one he got 17 something. The judges told us we need to put Piper in a class!


Not a great pic but you can see how sprawled she is and she's right on top of the bag.
Daddy giving some love.
Here are some of the pros running the hurdles. Yes, they need to be muzzled because when they come through the shoot they attack the fake fox and each other because they are so excited.


More love.
Taking some agility jumps with Schyler here.

My girl. . .

Getting back into the swing of things for the season. I haven't been using the D300 lately and I'm trying to get used to it outside with natural light. Seems much different than my D70s. I'm sure it's a matter of all the settings, lcd lightness, etc. We got this outfit as a possiblity for our Denver Pea Trip, but I think we need wellies instead of her Uggs. We're working on a possible rocker type outfit maybe, but we'll see ;O)

I'm also psyched about proofing now since I've just completed Phaunt U!

A little brag here. . .

I dove into photoshop head first trying to learn all I could from my pea-pals and other tutorials online. Never could totally grasp all the techniques and why. I finally took the plunge and signed up for Phaunt U. . .absolutely amazing class. We're nearing the end and I'll be sad when it's over but man did I learn so much. If you are ever looking for a great class to learn all the basics of photoshop, contact Kylie at Phaunt U. She's wonderful. So my brag. . .I made her blog "bragging on my students". Here's the link http://www.phauntactions.com/blog/

Mine is obviously Piper in the pink chair. I'm actually thinking about having it done in a canvas now! I love it that much. So glad I decided to go back to some photos that I thought I would never be able to fix.