Day 74: Another Day at the Park & Mini-Photoshoot

Today was just a normal day.  I worked.  I came home.  I took Bailey to the park.  During the warm months, this becomes our every day schedule assuming it isn’t raining.  Bailey falls quickly into the habit in that every day around 5 o’clock, it is time for the park.  As it nears “park time,” any move I make, he darts for the door with a look like “It’s time to gooooo!”  or whenever he hears my phone’s text alert, he perks up knowing that it was probably a text from our doggy friends saying they are ready to go.

So as per our usual park day, we met up with Gaston and Fiona.  I don’t think I’ve ever talked about Fiona too much here in our blog, but in addition to Gaston, she is the dog that Bailey sees most regularly.

I used a good portion of park time today to photograph Fiona.  Another friend has asked me to take maternity photos of her, her husband and two dogs.  I am taking them this weekend, and both of her dogs are black, so I wanted to squeeze in a little “black dog photography” practice.

Please excuse the monotonousness of the photos.  There are some tennis courts right next to where we take the dogs to play and they are currently doing tons of construction on them so the scenery isn’t the prettiest right now.  As a result I had to keep a grassy background in all the photos.

Day 55: Packed for his own vacation

(Excuse our very messy living room)

Bailey knows when he is going somewhere.  Ever since he was a puppy, we have used the same bag to pack his stuff when going on a trip.  He knows it is his bag.  He knows when he sees his bag being packed that it means he is going on a trip.  Heck, the first thing he does when he gets to the new place is usually unpack it on his own.

When we are packing our own suitcases, he gets really anxious until he see’s us pack his bag as well.  He thinks we are going somewhere without him, but then he settles down when he sees his stuff being put in his bag too.  Then instead, he just waits by the door while giving us the look that says “C’mon!  Lets go!”

We had to do things a little differently tonight and pack him up first and take him to Gaston’s before we started packing.  We knew it would confuse him too much if he saw us packing our stuff AND his stuff, but yet he wasn’t staying and going with us.  So as I type this, Bailey is now at Gaston’s starting his week long sleepover.

You’ll also notice Lamby (first time making a blog appearance) is not packed away.  Lamby is Bailey’s favorite toy.  He gets really upset when it is packed away so Lamby is either last to go in right before we leave or just travels out of the bag.

As for me… well I need to start packing my own stuff now.

Really early morning flight tomorrow.  See you guys in a week!

Day 51: Bailey Goes to College

I’m in a bit of a rush today.  I haven’t done any post processing on today’s photo.  This is literally straight of the camera.  I don’t even have the time or energy to put on the watermark.

We had another playdate with Gaston.  Even though we don’t live in the country, we are lucky enough to live near many dog friendly places and parks.  We also live right by a university and the fields there are where we bring Bailey most often.   Our favorite place is the “President’s Lawn” which is a big grassy hill behind where the President lives on campus.  On nice days like today, many college students are out and about or relaxing out in the sun.  Bailey and Gaston don’t mind.  It just gives them obstacles to run around.

They also like when unsuspecting college students fall asleep and leave their water cup open and unattended.  We apologized profusely, but she didn’t seem to be bothered too much by the fact that they just snaked her water.  Bailey also went over and woke her up at one point.  She hadn’t moved in a while and he was just checking to make sure she was okay ;)

Day 48: Dogs look really silly when they run

Bailey’s best friend Gaston came over this afternoon to play.  It is quite amusing to photograph them as they are running together because of the expressions that it captures on their faces.

One thing I love about my new camera is that in burst mode, it can take up to 8 frame per second.  I compare the sound of my shutter to a machine gun as it rapidly fires photos.  It’s so fast.  The auto focus also does a decent job at tracking the moving subject and results in some great action photos.  The fact that the grass hasn’t been cut in a long time messed up the focus in quite a few shots though.  My camera many times wanted to focus on the tall grass/weeds instead of the dogs.  I really can’t wait to photograph Bailey doing agility stuff with this camera because of it’s fast shooting.  We just haven’t gotten around to taking out any of his gear lately.

Here are a some extras.

Bailey grinning as he runs.  I love the little smirk on his face and the mischief in his eyes.

Gaston just looks plain silly

I love Gaston’s ears in this next one.

A couple of them wrestling/chewing on each other.  I kinda love the first one how they are just twisted together, but you can see Bailey’s teeth lol

and to finish it off, one portrait of Gaston because he’s so handsome

Also, to all my blogging buddies, I have a lot of posts to catch up on on the weekend. I don’t know what it has been lately, but I’ve been so tired and barely have enough energy to get up my own daily posts, let alone read and comment on all my subscriptions. I’ll be around soon though to catch up with what everyone has been up to :)

Day 30: Dog Parks Relieve Stress… For People

When the weather is nice, we take Bailey to the park daily.  Honestly, it is more for me than for him. There is nothing more relaxing for me than watching dogs play.

Something about just watching them run around and wrestle and play.  It’s therapeutic.  It is as though there is not a worry in the world, and the only thing that matters is chewing on each others faces (Bailey and Gaston’s favorite activity) and who can catch each other in a game of chase.

I was in a really bad mood earlier today.  Work wasn’t particularly bad… just tiring.  On top of that, some other incidents at home just really hit a nerve.  However after some time at the dog park, my spirits are high again.  It was just what I needed – to be able to sit in the grass, sun in my face, and watch the pups let out all their pent up energy.  As they let out their energy, my stress goes along with it.

Here are some extra photos, in case you are also in need of a Monday Pick-Me Up.

and last but not least… One tired out, dirty faced puppy.