Week 37 & 38

Been busy!  Fell behind in blog posting again, so here are photos from both of the past weeks

Playing around with shadows

Dazzle has been having a really bad time with allergies this year.  I heard ragweed has been especially bad this year and many people as well as dogs are having a hard time with whatever is going crazy in this area.  He has been chewing his tail so much he has made it raw.  It's been two weeks since I took this photo of him sleeping in protest of the muzzle while I tried to let the sore dry out.  But his tail is still not good.  I think I'm going to have to go to the vet for something more powerful.  It's currently wrapped, but he's still obsessed with chewing it.  So much that he has chewed off a big patch of hair :-(

On the 14th, I got up early to head to Columbus for a seminar.  Since I'm rarely up before dawn, I took advantage of it and got this "morning mist" shot

Dazzle and I headed up there for a Denise Fenzi seminar (that was awesome!), but I agreed to pick-up an attendee from TX at the airport.  Her flight arrived just before 11am, and the seminar didn't start till Saturday, so we had most of the day to kill.  We decided to go to the Museum of Natural History.  It was nice, but kind of small and a big part of it (the historic village) was closed because of a fair going on.  The museum had several "photo op" spots that I took advantage of...

 While setting Dazzle for the above shot, I overheard a passing teacher reply to a student in the school group, "Yes, that dog IS better behaved than all of you!"

This looks like a "study in shades of brown" :-)

Dazzle spotted this squirrel and was sure it would move at any second!  He stared at it for quite awhile. Dazzle was moving around and trying to get it to move.  Then when it didn't, he looked up in the trees to find its friends :-)

Another photo op location inside a restored trolly

There were several old cameras on display, along with how they have recorded history and historical moments.  But all of them were under/behind glass. Trying to get a photo without light glare and reflections was nearly impossible.  This was the only shot that turned out.

One of the funnier things we saw was this "peace pipe" in the shape of a dog.  I guess it's kind of hard to stay mad at someone when you see them sucking on a dog's ass?

Since the museum didn't take long to tour, we had time to visit the rose garden (a different location, but not far from the museum).  The online info said we should have seen the peak of the blooming season, but I think it had already passed.  I did get several shots of roses I liked though. I also got this photo of Dazzle near the fountain.

Baldo Villegas

Ceratostigma

It did rain on us a bit, but this "rain" is from a sprinkler

I didn't know pine trees came in a verigated variety, but this one was really pretty! Called Dragon's Eye pine.  Looks like porcupine quills, but much softer :-)

My favorite rose of the visit- George Burns FL

This one had many different shades of pink on a single plant, making each flower look different.  Magic Carrousel

Since the woman I met at the airport had gotten up at 4am for her trip, she wanted to go back to the hotel to relax.  I ended up going and getting some dinner that I brought back to my room to eat and relax for the evening.

The next morning started early and the seminar ran from Sat-Mon.  So much to learn, even though this was the third time I had attended this instructor's seminar. Dazzle waiting for his turn. 

Week 38

I spent some time playing around with my camera settings and finally found the settings I need to get focused action shots!  I'm SO excited! 

I was putting Dazzle on a sit and then tossing the ball toward him for him to leap up and catch as I fiddled with the settings.  I did still manage to get a few shots I love!

And a blooper!  The ball is mid-air between the camera and Dazzle here.  Kind of speaks to what is often on his mind though :-)

I thought his face was cute in this one

For the 52 weeks, I wanted to get Dazzle with the corn harvesting combine, but the rain has prevented the harvest.  So I decided to get a mirror shot instead.  I love how this came out and I call it "portal into the country"

Maybe this week I'll get the combine shot, but given that rain is predicted through Thursday, probably not.

 

On Sunday, I attended the Strutt your Mutt event to help run the event.  Dazzle stayed home because I knew I would be busy and distracted and I wasn't sure about the temperatures. 

 

Turns out that after a chilly start, it was a beautiful day for the event! 

This is a memorial near the event site

If the river gets up to 60', a lot of people are in trouble!

I just love this house!  Wouldn't want to have to try to maintain the gardens, but I think it's beautiful. And it has a great view of the river.

 

Week 36- going with Dazzle's choice

I had other plans for this week's photo, but when we went to the lake, Dazzle gave me a shot I just couldn't resist using. I kept coming back to it and I now have it as my desktop photo because I like it so much.  We were near the boat ramp and Dazzle's attention was caught by a low flying bird making squeeky toy noises (thank-you bird!)

 
We were at the lake as a reward for him, but also to get some photos for the Facebook photo challenge group.  The challenge was "You put a chair where?"  Shown are: On the dock, middle of the road, on the tracks and in the water.  I wanted the water one to be much deeper, but the boat ramp was extremely slick and this was as far as I dared go out.

 Of course when Dazzle got OFF the chair, he kicked it backward, so I had to go farther out to get it. I was sure I was going to end up on my butt in the water!  I did consider sending him to get it, but didn't want to risk it getting any deeper.  I made sure that for the dock photo, he stayed in place till I could hold the chair because I was afraid he would knock it off the dock and I'd never see it again!

There were two other chair shots I didn't end up using.  I love the flower shot, but the bright yellow played havoc with the camera's sensors, so I had a really hard time getting the right focus and lighting.  Had to do a lot of processing on it.

For this one, there was a great patch of light coming through a break in the trees that offered natural lighting.

Best comment on the chair shots was "Green chair and ham"  LOL


Below is the idea I originally had for this week for Flickr.  It's just a test shot in the yard, so not the nice location I had planned.  I found that I'll need to hold an umbrella or have it in the shade so that the sun is not reflected off the camera side of it.  It's also not as clear of a globe as I was hoping for, but I guess you get what you pay for. :-) I turned this photo upside down.

Week 35- KHP & around the yard

Rather than fill this blog with the over 300 photos I took at the Integrated Concealed Carry course last weekend, I created a new blog page:  http://iccexperience.blogspot.com/ Because of all the photos, give the page a moment to load.  I also got one short video of part of the training: https://vimeo.com/48269221 You can visit the blog link above if you want to read about my interesting experience at the course.

This week, I have been recovering from the training course.  :-)  But on Monday I met some great folks from Australia that are touring the U.S. to learn more about American dog programs/sports. They have been speaking with some top name trainers, so I was honored to be included in that group!  It sounds like they will be starting a Dog Scout troop shortly after they return home, so I'm looking forward to having Dog Scouts in Australia!

This week a challenge has been popular on Facebook- spell your dog's name in treats or toys and get the dog's photo near it.  So I decided to play along. Dazzle watched as I spelled out his name and then couldn't decide which toy to go for when I let him know he was free to move. LOL

And then it was pointed out that the Z's were backwards!  Since the sun was quite low by that time and the shadows would have been bad, I just fixed it in Paintshop :-)

Who knew it took so many tennis balls to spell Dazzle!  I had to substitute other toys when I realised the big bag of balls wasn't going to be enough :-)
 

Yesterday (Saturday) I went down to the Kentucky Horse Park to shop the vendors at the big Bluegrass Classic dog show.  I only ended up getting some treats and a T-shirt, but spent quite a bit of time chatting with several friends I hadn't seen in awhile.  I also had the plan to get this week's Flickr photo down there:

This chair is part of a set on display.  They are from a table and chairs jump called "The Giant's Table" created for the first U.S. World Equestrian Games in 1978.  They are really showing their age though.  The seat on the other chair was much worse. Since many people sit on them for photos, I wonder how much longer they will be on display. 

I also found a new display nearby- The Flower Basket.  Sadly this is on display because a famous horse, Frodo Baggins, died after a fall on this jump and his rider was critically injured.  His death was the second in a short period of time in 2008 and that brought about a major review of the sport of three-day eventing and a change in the rules to increase safety.

In trying to get his ears up, I tossed a clod of dirt. He was VERY interested in it, but didn't move his feet even after stretching as far as he could!  Good boy!

 

On Friday, we had a challenging Excellent level course for Agility practice.  I had to get video of him doing this course after he did SO well on the LONG send away to the weaves.  And for the recorded run, he NAILED it!  I'm so pleased with how far he has come and how well we are able to work together even though I can't run with him.

VIDEO:  https://vimeo.com/48634684

 

 

I took several other photos this week too:

 

The Saddlehorse bronze at the KHP

A view of some of the pastures at the KHP

Kentucky Horse Park logo

The vendors surrounded all the rings and more were on the upper level

An interesting leaf I found at the training last weekend.

On Wednesday, I decided to see what I could photograph around the yard...

Abandonded home:

Depth of Field

Dazzle wasn't too pleased to have to wait inside the yard while I was out playing :-)

Pretty in Pink- This is straight out of the camera- no editing

It's amazing how many textures and colors a stalk of corn has

This little guy was a cooperative subject and let me get the camera quite close.  The rest of his buddies jumped away as soon as they saw me. He (she?) was watching me closely, but didn't jump away.