Autumn Reflections

I spent an afternoon photographing fall leaves in St. Mary's County.  I love reflections of leaves in water.

      Reflections

     I can't resist a red boat.

     Nice curves

     Panorama with a wide angle.

     Three beautiful Australian Shepherds

     Trinity Church Road

Annapolis, An Unexpected Visit

When a boat with trailer we purchased, was suddenly unsafe (smoking wheel bearing on one side of the trailer, tire and rim fell off on the other side), we ended up in Annapolis for the weekend.  We took the last room at the Navy Lodge and spent the day at Dock Street and Quiet Waters Park (to entertain our pet poodle).

Around Dock street, we met many dogs on the street and by the Federal House Bar and Grill.

     Carly

Quiet waters has a shady off leash fenced park, where we met young Soka happily digging a hole.

Then we visited the park dog beach near sunset.

Lancaster Dog Park photos added to Dog Services Website

I visited the John G. Lancaster Dog Park again after discovering a website that needed photos of the local dog park.  It is an excellent source of information for people traveling with their dogs and I thought I could help tell the local community that the dog park is available. 

The website www.bringfido.com includes pet friendly accommodations, places to visit with your dog (beaches, hiking trails, tours), shelters, kennels, airlines, and even pet friendly restaurants!  You can see my photos of the John G. Lancaster Dog Park in Lexington Park, MD and maybe even learn some useful dog information if you are traveling with your pet.

The park is very nice, with lots of open space for dogs to run, a little tunnel, safe separate double gate entry for large and small dogs, shade trees and running water.

I've met some very nice pet owners there and some of them have kindly given me permission to share some photos of their dogs on my websites.

 Gia playing in the tunnel

 

 Gia playing with another dog

 

Dog park regulations

Meeting New Canine Friends at the Dog Park

I visited the local dog park today to practice photographing dogs in a variety of situations.  I had a blast.  The dogs were full of energy and having lots of fun.  The dogs loved playing tug of war with a a knotted rope and splashing in the water.  I met some nice people too.

Most of the photos were taken in shade without flash in the late afternoon creating nice soft shadows.  I used knee pads and stayed low to the ground so I would be on their level. 

Here's a few of the better images.  Bailey (below), a beagle mix, was staying close to her owner.

Nala, a Pit Bull King (or Cane) Corso mix puppy was full of energy, most of the time.

Dex and Nala were having fun playing tug of war.

Casey's favorite activity at the dog park was playing in the water.

Funny Dog Photos: Learning How to take Humorous Pet Photography

The St. Mary’s County Camera Club had a themed competition of humorous photos last week. Humorous photos are challenging. You can either hope to get lucky when something you see strikes you as humorous or you need to create something funny. I decided to get more pet photography practice and learn about photographing humor at the same time. I enjoyed my photo attempts because I am very interested in humorous photos.


Some pictures are funny if something doesn’t quite make sense or fit in with the rest of the photo, there is an unexpected element. Human activities, clothing, silly hats, funny teeth or children’s toys look funny because we don’t normally associate them with pets. I’ve also seen photos that are funny because something unfamiliar happens, like a photo of a dog floating in the air with balloons attached to his body or dogs waterskiing.

I photographed a Westie “playing” the piano, reading a book and driving a car. My first place photo was a Westie at the piano. The original photo was mildly funny, but the addition of the piece of music called “Unleashed Melody” added an extra funny element. The dog reading a book received an honorable mention. The pictures were all challenging, because the dog was in a wiggly mood.

To see some wonderful humorous dog photos visit photos by Eliot Erwitt or William Wegman. I give my thanks to Andrew Darlow for his pet photo advice.

More Pet Photo practice

I am learning to make high pitched silly noises to make the dog's ears perk up.  It seems to work better than squeaky toys.  It is very important in most cases to focus on your pet's eyes to get them sharp, since most people look right at the eyes of any person or animal in a photo.  We put DJ in a large bucket to add a little color and create a cute pose.