Week 11- happy St Pat's day!

I took a lot of photos this week.  I started out getting some for the two 52 weeks groups, then went to a new spot at the lake yesterday and got several more :-)  Since the 52 weeks groups run Mon-Sun, yesterday's photos were just for fun, but I got two I really like.

For the Flicker Group: ("The original 52 weeks for dogs")

"Taste the rainbow!" 

I had this idea, but wasn't sure how I'd pull it off. Trying to find a spot with a nice background, nose height spot for the "pot-o-gold", view of the skyline and the sun in the correct spot was a challenge.  I had a different spot in mind, but tried this spot that was closer to home first. I was pleased to see it would work!  I set the pot on the bench and got it all set up, then brought Dazzle out.  I tried several different poses, but loved this chance shot of him licking the ball.  The "rainbow" was added during processing.

The runner up:

I asked him "Where's your ball?" thinking he would reach out and point with his nose, but instead, he offered his paw "point". 

This was the idea I had for the Facebook ("Working Dogs") group, but I just wasn't happy with how any of my shots turned out.
"Looking for 4-leaf clovers"

I really liked this shot though, so it's the one I chose. I just love the colors in it.  I was sitting in the grass, enjoying the beautiful weather and Dazzle took a break from playing fetch to enjoy a good scent on the wind.

Other shots from the day in the yard:

I was trying to get photos of him rolling in the grass, but he had other ideas.  Here he was enjoying the cool grass.  He wasn't actually sleeping, I just happened to catch a blink. :-)

Dog over-bored... still trying to get a rolling shot, he just wanted me to throw the ball!

Bear was enjoying the day too!  He decided he wanted to have his photo taken and sat right in front of me when I was waiting for Dazzle to roll.

I did get a cool close-up shot of his eye too.

WATER DAY

This is a photo showing a bit of the little alcove off the lake that I found yesterday.  It was over 80 degrees, so swimming was definitely in order.  We had the place to ourselves and the shore was surprizingly clean. The close shore was all rock, but the far shore was sand/silt and Dazzle went over there several times to roll.

Dazzle got quite a workout running, trotting and leaping through the chest deep water over the huge sandbar. There was also a big area that was quite deep where he swam.

Close-up:

 This shows the opening to the big lake in the background. Dazzle was on a forced time-out rest break, just waiting for the cue that he was free to play again.

The sun was in and out of the clouds, so the lighting and colors in the shots really varied.

One of my favorite shots

THE BEST shot of the day!  I was sitting on a rock on the shore for all the lake photos and Dazzle set this up right in front of me!  He was waiting for me to throw the ball. I have not seen this view before, so I think it was a combo of my low position and his position on the sloped bank that made this happen.  I was just SO glad my camera was ready to shoot!  He only stayed in position for two photos.  The other focused on his tail and made his face a bit blurry. It's a cool shot too, but I like the focus on his face.

And some recent non-dog shots:

First flowers of spring

The first dandilion of many to come in our yard. This is straight out of the camera (no editing)

In todays overzealous "PC" world, I was surprised and glad to see that the phone company had the balls to show their pride in America and what she was built on.  The constitution and the bible.

On facebook, several people were posting photos of their freestanding brooms.  They said it had something to do with the alignment of the planets over a few days time. I figured it was a joke, but had to try it anyway.  Here is proof that I got the broom to stand up on it's own. I just tried it again and got it to stand on it's own, so I don't think it's related to the planet alignment, but it's still kind of cool.  Who knew a broom could stand up on it's own?  

Storms have been rolling through on a regular basis.  I saw this out the window and had to set aside my dinner to go take a few photos. It started pouring heavy rain as soon as I got back on the porch! Thankfully we have eluded the severe weather . I'd enjoy springtime a lot more if it didn't threaten to kill us! Several deadly tornadoes in the area lately.

Last Saturday, we visited a model train show.  There were several really detailed diaramas and I got several interesting photos.  But to see the detail, you need to be able to view the photos extra large.  So if you're interested, check them out on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scoutdogs/sets/72157629564540149/

When you click on the photo, you'll see a link on the top right to "view all sizes". Click on that, then select large or original.

Now I'm going to go enjoy today's warm weather!