Aftermath

SUMMARY: More on the break-in

So--here is why they never bothered to open the door, which is why they took only the things they could reach through the front passenger window:
("Protected by Chapman vehicle security system".)

It's funny to see that in the remnants of my side window, but not funny in that having the alarm in fact DID probably protect most of the other stuff in my car. I am grateful for that.

The glass company came out and replaced my window--he finished exactly 24 hours after the break-in occurred (within the same 20-minute period), which is a nice symmetry. Just under $200. Much less than my auto deductible, but still a good chunk of change--although I'm trying to keep that in perspective, too; it's not much more than one dog's full entry for an agility weekend, and I write those checks all the time!

Shattering that one window threw glass all the way through my van. Found bits in the far ends of the dogs' crates in the very back of the van. The repair guy vacuumed a lot, and then I spent another half hour vacuuming in even more detail. And every time I turned around, bits of broken glass had reappeared where I had just cleaned. Even big chunks of the safety glass. Which mostly breaks into chunks, but there are tiny shards and slivers among them.

I am truly grateful that the dogs weren't in their crates at the time; I vacuumed up some sharp bits. (Although--would the crated dogs have deterred them? Dunno. No way to know.)

My homeowner's deductible is much larger, but when I actually added up everything that was taken, it was way over the deductible, so I'll get some money back. Not enough to replace everything (because it's minus my deductible). But at least some small comfort. For the 12 or so hours that it took to research my losses, report them on the SJPD web site, report them to the insurance claim adjuster, go dumpster diving, make a flyer and post it in various locations, talk to Kaiser security, and so on and so on. Of course insurance doesn't cover THAT time, either.

Take a last look at my camera, telephoto lens, belt case holding another telephoto, and black and teal all-purpose jacket that I've had for 13 years and hardly shows the wear. It'll be tough to replace that. (Thanks, Steph, for the photo.)

But they didn't get my favorite Pluto Unleashed hat, thank goodness, which was behind the seat (covered with broken glass). Nor my hiking boots, nor my agility cleats, nor cell phone or digital camera, nor any other dog gear, nor the tools I carry for auto repair--All a great relief.

All things considered, I'm not feeling too bad. Concentrating on the "grateful for"s and just holding up a mental "STOP!" sign every time I catch myself thinking "If only..." and either dismissing it or turning it into "what did I learn that I can apply next time." It's tough to do but I think it's working pretty well. Like--oh, well, I do still have my point-and-click camera. And I still have a ton of unsorted, unlableled photos from the last couple of years that I can be working through instead of taking lots more photos with my "real" camera.

And I'll try to be satisfied with the point-and-click for a while. Its quality for tough lighting situations isn't great, but I can get SOME semblance of shots for things like these sunsets--April 20 and last night, after the break-in--which lightened my heart greatly, stopping to admire it--both seen from my car and dashing for the nearest place to pull over and get a photo. Not great, but OK after a little photoshopping.



Whatever gods or physics daemons are responsible for the universe--thanks for making it a beautiful place to live.

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Still Life With Dogs. OK, Not So Still.

SUMMARY: It's not the camera that's the challenge.

We just want a slightly silly shot of the 3 of us for facebook. ("We" loosely interpeted to mean "human residents of Taj MuttHall".) Can't have the same profile photo for too long!

The cheap snapshot camera goes onto the laundry hamper and we do a test shot for angle and height. Tika starts rearranging the bedding for us.


Too low, so we shim up the camera a little bit. Set up the dogs, turn on the camera's timer (TMH doesn't have a remote control), and leap into position.


Oh, man, I almost had it perfect on the first shot! Except (1) just before the timer went off, Boost shifted to her left, so she's cut off, although she's looking at the camera, (2) I just look way too cheery compared to the dogs, (3) I kinda thought it would be fun to have the dragon/heart art hovering over our heads, and here it's kind of cut off, and (4) why is it so dark?. (OK, "almost perfect" by some people's definition maybe isn't so picky.)

Next try--

dagnabbit, kinda cute--both dogs are still looking at the camera--but how did the camera shim itself too high this time, cutting off my hands, I thought I put it back in the exact same way? And Boost refused to put her paws over the edge of the bed this time. Next try--


OK, Boost is getting bored or stressed and wants to leave, and I'm trying to talk her out of it. Great. But the framing's just about perfect if I can convince the beasts to just stay there while I'm leaping in and out of position to check and reset the camera. Next try--

OK, Boost's not totally looking at the camera, but I've got more important things to do and this'll have to suffice. Except that, being lazy, I left the pink curtains closed so everything has a pinkish tinge, and it's still a little on the dark side. So, into photoshop we go--

Took out the pink nicely. Better. But Tika's fur should be white and I could swear that it has a yellow cast. More photoshopping--


Indeed it sure did! To my eye, this looks closest to the "natural" colors of the room and its inhabitants. It might look blue to you compared to the previous one--that's because the previous one is so yellow! See, taking a quick snapshot just doesn't work for me any more. It's gotten so complicated.

How did I get the dogs to look at the camera? Foul trickery--I just pointed at the camera right before the timer went off, when it was making little beeping sounds, and said "what's that?" Bing!, instant attention. In other situations, I might have used food and done the same thing.

For another self-portrait-with-dogs adventure, read this old post.

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Busy Weekend Again Even Without Agility

SUMMARY: Friday and Saturday, dog playtime, then photo expedition.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last night I took the dogs up to Palo Alto and we had dinner with friends to celebrate their Bump's 10th birthday, right after he finished his LAA-platinum. What a guy. Boost and the 9-month-old Border Collie, Dig, played as if they had never been allowed to play before in their entire pathetic lives. They wrestled all over each other, the floor, our legs, the chairs... Tika mostly hung out and looked for food scraps.

Dig, being an actual puppy still, eventually tired Boost out enough that my girl WANTED to sit on my lap for about 10 minutes! Usually I have to insist that she come up and then kind of hold her there while I stroke her a bit before letting her go. This time, she was plenty happy to sit there and lean her chin on my shoulder. Very sweet. They did go back at it eventually. Not that it apparently REALLY tired either of them out completely.

Today, I picked up a friend at the airport and dropped her off at her mom's. Then I went driving and photographing nature with another friend. We thought we were going on a wildflower hike but it turned out slightly differently. See photos with notes here. (Addition Sunday Feb 15: View the friend's take on the trip.)

Then I shuttled a friend around whose car is in the shop (see post from last weekend--), then finally got to work sorting through and editing today's photos. I'm wiped out, and I hardly took a step all day. And dogs were completely neglected.

Tomorrow it's a movie with another friend and then holiday/birthday celebrations with my secondary family. No wonder I never get anything done even when I'm not doing agility!

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Experiment from Slide.Com

SUMMARY: Turned my Lexington Reservoir photos into a slide show to see what it looks like.

If you hover your cursor over a photo, it displays a caption. I think this is how it's supposed to work... Hmm, OK, if you click on it, it takes you to a separate page with full-sized views of photos and fairly easy browsing or automatic slideshow. Cute tool if you don't have another photo sharing site, I guess. This is from slide.com. You can pick a bunch of different ways for it to display here; I picked the newspaper version.

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Poll: Digital Photography at Agility Trials

SUMMARY: Curious what other people think about digital photographers who server dog agility events.

So I've created this poll. (And/or you can read my earlier post on this topic.)

How do you feel about buying dog event photos from a pro who posts many dozens or hundreds of photos online?
	Love it; don't mind the cost or the time.
	Like looking at the photos but it's often too expensive.
	Don't like spending the time but don't mind the cost.
	Don't like spending the time and it's often too expensive.
	Never look because it takes too much time.
	Never look because it's usually too expensive.
	I'm not interested in photos of my dogs.
	Never look for some other reason.
	Usually look but just not interested in buying.
	Other
View Results

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Digital Photography at Agility Trials

SUMMARY: Here's what I hate about digital photography.

In "the old days", when a photographer shot photos at an agility trial, the usual routine was to shoot all day Saturday, print the photos overnight, then make them available Sunday by posting, stuffing into albums, or just putting into boxes for you to leaf through.

I could spend maybe 5 minutes, usually less, looking at the photos to identify my dogs. If I liked the shot, I whipped out $6, bought it, took it home, and put it into my album.

Compare and contrast:

Digital photography has put the onus of work on the dog-agility buyer. Understand that I do a lot of digital photography and I spend hours going through my photos, tweaking most individually, labeling them, and uploading them to my photo site. But some--if not most--photographers at trials do only the uploading, with minimal or no sorting and minimal or no editing of any of the files. And they take a whole lot more photos now than they did then, too.

So, instead of maybe 2 to 5 minutes at the trial, now I wait until the photos are available, days or weeks later. Then I scan through barely legible thumbnails on sometimes hundreds of pages containing hundreds or thousands of photos, trying to identify my dogs. Thank goodness that all of my dogs so far have been easier to recognize in thumbnails than, say, black and white border collies, or shelties, or corgis. But it's still a challenge at thumbnail size. It takes real concentration.

For example, I just spent an hour and a quarter going through one photographer's photos of a recent show, and that's without finding anything that I particularly wanted to buy.

If you find a photo of your dog, you click the thumbnail to display a new page to confirm what the photo looks like somewhat enlarged. But of course it's still not quite the same as what you'll see in print; I've been disappointed a couple of times. If you like it, then you click the "buy" button. Then you fill out what size you want and whether you want it cropped and so on, then click the add to cart button. Always waiting for the pages to load, which even on broadband often takes time.

Then you find your way back to the thumbnail page that you were browsing and continue, repeating the whole process for every photo that you're possibly interested in.

Then you go to your shopping cart, fill out all your personal info, go to the payments screen, pay for it via paypal or credit card, meaning that you're going to have to deal with that payment later when it comes due. And you pay postage, which often isn't trivial--it usually makes it so that buying just one photo makes that photo seem amazingly expensive.

Then you wait a week or so for the photos to show up in the mail--which means that someone somewhere is spending the time to package and label them, and ship them, and there's the material used for the shipping container, which now most likely goes right into the recycling bin.

And furthermore, most (not all) photographers charge a stunning fee for the photos. No $6 or $8 prints. We're talking sometimes as much as $20 for 4x6 prints, here. I mean, really. They promote them as works of art, I guess, that are color corrected and cropped and all that. They must get buyers, because they keep doing it. But I resent having to spend all that time and then PAY SOMEONE ELSE more than I used to spend on snapshots. The ones who are still in the under-$10 range are particularly the ones who don't seem to sort (for quality) or do any precropping or anything like that. OK, I can put up with some of that for a lower price.

But I can't even offer to process and print them myself to save $; most photographers charge at least as much for the digital version of a photo on the assumption that then you could, heaven forfend, print as many copies of the photo in any size that you want and THEY wouldn't get any more money for it.

And many of them sell photos through a photo service, removing some of the advantage of dealing in digital--no individual dealing or edits or anything. For example, I recently won cert's for about 6 free photos from one photographer who was generous enough to donate them to various raffles. But I found out afterwards that (a) you can apply only one cert per order and (b) you can apply it only to the photo, not to the postage and handling. And the photographer said, sorry, that's the way it's set up.

From a business perspective, I guess I can understand that. But now i have free cert's that will probably never be used. I guess that makes the photographer happy, too: Looks like a nice guy but never has to deliver.

And are the photos I get any better than the ones I used to get? I'd argue not--because in the day, I bought only the ones I liked that turned out well anyway. Do the photographers make more money at it and are they happier about it? OK, unhappy customer, happy photographers. You figure out how often I buy photos of my dogs any more. Makes me sad, but thank goodness for friends who like to dabble in photography and sometimes do it at agility trials, or I'd have nothing.

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Off to Nationals to Create More Unsorted Photos!

SUMMARY: Have skimmed through some photos from the weekend, but mostly it's been getting ready to go to Scottsdale.

Well, I have not by any means finished going through all my Monterey photos. You can pretend that the birds in these photos are dogs if you need a dog-photo fix.


Because the area was socked in with fog, we spent our "sunset shoot" looking for cool images like these, which were just lying around on the beach waiting for our cameras to suck them up.



In case you were wondering, this is sort of what you see a lot of when you go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with a group of 50 photographers:


And here I am in another experiment with self-portraiture.


Meanwhile, traveling companions Debbie and Porsche (the dog, not the vehicle) dropped by most of their stuff today, and it's now all neatly stowed in my van waiting for the very last last-minute additions bright and early. We expect to be on the road by 8:00 and in Scottsdale by 10 p.m.

I seriously doubt I'll get a post in tomorrow, but hopefully Wednesday, unless my computer fails to recognize its power cord again--

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Fun with Photos

SUMMARY: Some photography at the end of the day in Monterey.

We had a ton of great lectures today and saw many, many inspirational photos. So, after the day was done, I raced down to Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row areas to snap some sunset/twilight/night shots. THis laptop takes far too long to load and process images, so I ican't really do much with them tonight, but here are some highlights, after lectures on looking for lighting, looking for shapes and patterns, looking for opportunities, composition, shooting at sunset and twilight, and so much more




What about the obligatory canine photos that makes this appropriate fare for Taj MuttHall? I saw quite a few dogs out for their evening constitutionals, but it was too dark to catch them on film. Except for these terriers, who hung around while their human mom examined a candy store. They were every which way, everywhere, and wouldn't hold still for the fraction of a second it took to click the shutter. But I kinda like the way this one turned out.


Tomorrow I'm going to be shooting a tanker-load of photos on top of the 100 I snuck in in an hour this evening. Maybe someday I'll finish processing my Montreal photos so I can then go through my Monterey photos and then perhaps move on to some other Mont--Montserrat, perhaps?

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Lessons From The Weekend

SUMMARY: Thoughts on achievements and challenges.

• Photography: MM, who is a semipro photographer (as in makes money at it but I dont think makes most of her income from it), commented about how she didn't feel like bringing her camera this weekend because she didn't think she'd have time to shoot anything and she didn't want to make the effort to get it ready and bring in, and then was inundated with requests for photos and there was no photog here at all, all weekend, said that the lesson is: Just always bring your camera. My version is: If you have your camera around your neck, you will use it. If it is sitting next to your dogs' crates and you're working score table and running 2 dogs all weekend and the days are long, you won't. Can you believe I was at a trial all weekend and this is the only photo I took?
  
  
  
  
  Because these rustic rural greater-than-life-sized carved wood statues are new to this site, and they stood out like sore carved-wood thumbs against the underside of the modern all-metal bleachers where they store large steel barrels for trash. You couldn't not notice these guys welcoming you as you walked through the gate to go to the restroom
• Boost weaves: Twice this weekend, I was ahead of Boost at the weave entry and she entered correctly but so hard that she bounced off the 2nd pole and skipped one. Something to work on. We had some other weave issues this weekend of the random sort, but I still count hr weaves as successful when she's not popping out at the end, which she never did.
• Boost staying in crate: I came back to my crates after working the score table for a full round and discovered that I had never zipped Boost's crate, and she was still inside. What a good girl! Training does pay! (Although I can't picture that working for Tika...)
• Boost bars: Grumble. Both gambles executed perfectly except for knocked bars. That's not supposed to be the hard part! Must work more.
• Boost elbows off table: On Saturday, she never did get her elbows down on the table. (But we had already Eed, so it didn't matter.) Sunday, we worked on excited down-stays on the ground before going into the ring, and her table down was perfect. Same result as last weekend. Training does pay! Need to remember to do this before every Standard round!
• Boost smooth runs: I see some progress. Our Standard run Sunday was so close--no runouts or refusals or knocked bars--but she left the table early when I led wayyy out and ended with an off-course. But I was still happy with it. Jumpers Sunday was also close, with just a bar and an issue on the lead-out pivot (which isn't the same thing as when we're running). So practice does pay. Just need to keep at it.
• Boost practice with lots of space: Things that I need to work on up at Power Paws or somewhere where there's lots of space: Lead-out pivots more more more. Just sending her ahead of me over long lines of jumps. She's still turning back to me and then eventually waiting, resulting in refusals or runouts. Can work on a little bit of jump-focus rather than me-focus here at home, but still I'll bet that just running in a huge U of jumps around the entire field would be a good thing to do many times.
• My brain: Forgot Tika's course twice this weekend. Didn't feel stressed, they weren't particularly important or stand-out runs. It's very odd. I wonder if there's a trend? Something to ponder. It's also funny, because one of them I had just run correctly with Boost. That alone cost me two Qs this weekend.
• Tika's contacts: She does them so fast & such good 2 on/2off in training. I've let them completely go to heck in competition. Do I want to try to fix them? Aframes I can force her to get a foot or two in if I get in front of her as she's coming down, so if I can plan the course so that I'm front crossing or running past, she's fast and hits it. Maybe it's good because it forces me to keep moving ahead of her. But it's bad when I can't, as in Saturday's Steeplechase, with 2 Aframes, where she was way ahead of me both times and wasn't even close to getting a toe in. Maybe I just need to run faster! But contacts alone cost us 2 Qs this weekend.
• Tika's bars: Knocked a bar in Snooker opening, so we definitely wouldn't have Super-Qed. Knocked a bar in both Saturday's and Sunday's Jumpers. Bars alone cost us two Qs this weekend.
• Trust all your senses; even measuring tools lie: Quite a few dogs didn't make time on Saturday's Master Standard course. When dogs who moved pretty smoothly through the course on Sunday were also over time by 5 or 10 seconds or more, there was considerable debate about whether the calculations were correct. The judge, after listening to several complaints, did finally say that the yardage for the course seemed odd for what she had laid out. So someone walked the measuring wheel along a 50-foot measuring tape and came up with 41 feet. That poor scoretable. Fortunately it was only Saturday's and Sunday's Masters Standards that they had to review for over-time dogs; nothing else in that ring to that point had required the measuring wheel.
• I'm happy with two dogs: All kinds of people have new puppies! Blue merle Border Collies! Blue merle Pyrenean Shepherd! They are VERY cute and quite beautiful. And, no, I don't find that I have any urge at all right now to add a puppy to my clan.

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Catching Up

SUMMARY: Hiking around Stanford, Tika's status, Bay Team trials.

Wednesday evening I went for the usual 5-ish mile hike with the Sierra Club group, this time on relatively level surfaces in and around the Stanford campus in Palo Alto. There are miles of trail-like walkways lacing through the neighborhoods and campus in that area. A lovely walk, especially in the spring with rose gardens in profuse bloom. But I didn't take many photos, one of my friend's house before the hike, with her wisteria and many roses in bloom. (She lives just a couple of blocks from where the Sierra Club group was meeting, so she and her BCs Bump and Styx joined us.)

We walked out to Lake Lagunita on the campus, which currently has water in it (seems to me that it doesn't always) and arrived right at sunset, which probably would have made for some nice photos if (a) I had taken a good camera and (b) I hadn't been, as usual, rushing so as not to fall behind. As it was, we jogged a block afterwards to catch up after I took the time to snap half a dozen shots.

An experiment that didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped. But something to play with in the future.

The highlight of the hike was the Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden, just below the lake, at the corner of Santa Teresa and Lomita. Amazing sculptures by New Guinean artists carved here at Stanford of wood and stone and nestled among the trees as if they had grown there. Enchanting, but far too dark for my camera; the flash just washed out the details. I'll have to get back there sometime in better light.

One of my fellow hikers took a ton of photos all along our hike that she has made available for viewing.

Tika's status

Tika was in full form yesterday all day with no aspirin. I didn't try keeping her locked up, and she was charging around the yard after squirrels or whatever with no signs of soreness, and bouncing straight in the air again at mealtime. I ran her for one very short jumpers-with-weaves run in class last night at a lower height, and she was very fast with no signs of problems going over the jumps or making the turns, and begging for more, but I didn't want to push it.

I think I'm going to scratch her from a couple of runs a day so that she's scheduled for only 3 a day instead of 5; guess I'd better do that now.

Boost's weaves

Boost can make some very difficult weave entries, as we proved again in class last night. That's because they force her to slow and collect herself, while straight-on, full-blast, she just doesn't slow enough to get around the 2nd pole after making the entry, or just skips the first pole. I amused myself last Sunday, in Pairs Relay, when I told my partner that Boost was having trouble making weave entries so could I please have the 90-degree approach rather than the straight-on, simple approach--which she made easily.

I just don't have room in my yard to do that with 12-pole weaves, and she doesn't seem to do it with 6-polers! Dang dog.

Bay Team trials

The Bay Team gung-ho folks are insane. We had a trial in January, one in March, one this weekend, a 3-dayer in early July, another one in late July, our 3-day Regional in September, and another in December. Here's what I've just learned: We're going to offer Strategic Pairs at our December trial. It's been a long time! Will tell more later.

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Photos in Clean Run

SUMMARY: Have camera, will photograph.

Well, I don't have an article in Clean Run yet, but they did buy a couple of my photos from the Rachel Sanders running-contacts seminar that I attended in January. Which, at the time, I thought I was taking only for myself until Rachel asked me about it later in the day.

It's a pretty good article, too (yeah, the photos are the most important thing of course!), including explanations of why she's using this method and why the various steps are important. May 2008 issue, page 41. Those weren't even the photos that I thought were the best or the most interesting, but there ya go. I did, however, use one of them in my post about the seminar.

The moral of the story is: Always carry a camera. And don't be afraid to use it.

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Wildflower Identification--And Not

SUMMARY: A volunteer project not involving dogs.

If you'd like to see my photos (many blurry again) of my hike and wildflower identification (or failure to identify) project, read about it here.

(I will have you know that it has now taken me longer to sort through, label, edit, upload, describe, organize, and research the photos I took than the entire time that I spent driving to & from and actually going on the hike--and it was a 4-hour hike! I hate digital photography.)

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It's All About the Titles (2007)

SUMMARY: 2007 agility titles earned.

On any given day, I might tell you that agility is all about the clothing, all about winning winning winning, or all about having fun with your dog. But those are days on which I am not thinking clearly. Obviously, agility is all about how many titles you can earn. Because there are a lot of them. And because you get lovely certificates, suitable for framing, and sometimes even cool plaques to hang on your wall that are easier to dust than ribbons and that don't require that you hunt down a frame in which to put them.

Herewith¹ are my dogs' titles earned during 2007 (I don't seem to have all my cert's yet--dang--)

Boost

2	USDAA Starters (novice level): SSA (Starters Standard Agility: 3 Standard) AD (Agility Dog: completed novice level, at least 3 Standard, 1 Jumpers, 1 Gamblers, 1 Snooker, 1 Pairs Relay)
	USDAA Advanced (intermediate level): AG (Advanced Gamblers: intermediate level, 3 Gamblers) AS (Advanced Snooker: 3 Snookers) AAD (Advanced Agility Dog: completed intermediate level, at least 3 Standard, 1 Jumpers, 1 Gamblers, 1 Snooker, 1 Pairs Relay)
	CPE: CL3-S (CPE Level 3 (intermediate) Strategy: 2 Snooker and 2 Gambler/Jackpots (under the old rules)) CL3-R (Level 3 Regular: 4 Standards (old rules)) CL3-F (Level 3 Fun: 2 FullHouse and 2 Jumpers (old rules))

Tika

	USDAA ADCH (Agility Dog Champion: 5 each Masters Standard, Gamblers, Jumpers, Snooker (including 3 Super-Qs--top 15%), and Pairs Relay)
	USDAA Snooker: SM (Snooker Master: 5 Masters (top level) Snookers (including 3 Super-Qs--top 15%)) SCH (Snooker Champion: SM + 5 more Snooker) SCH-bronze (SCH + 5 more Snooker)
	USDAA Standard: SACH (Standard Agility Champion: 10 Masters Standard) SACH-bronze (15 Masters Standard)
	USDAA misc: GCH (Gamblers Champion: 10 Masters Gamblers) RCH-bronze (15 Masters Pairs Relay) JCH (10 Masters Jumpers)
	USDAA TM-silver (Tournament Master silver: At least 25 Grand Prix, Steeplechase, and DAM Team, with at least 5 of each.
	ASCA: GS-O (Gamblers Open (intermediate level) title--3 Gamblers) RS-E (Standard Elite (top level)--3 Standards) JS-N (Jumpers Novice (novice level)--3 Jumpers)

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¹ Yes, another useful everyday word in the Here clan, which has many aunts, uncles, and cousins, many of whom are in the legal profession, and which also includes hereabouts, hereafter, hereaway, herein, hereinabove, hereinafter, hereinbefore, hereinbelow, hereto, heretofore, hereunder, hereunto, and hereupon. Now go read a dictionary and stop bothering me with these questions.
² Today was Fun with PhotoShop day, not Fun with Photography Day. The light level was too low, I didn't use a tripod or a flash, so pictures are crappy. Yes, all the USDAA certs are exactly the same pale ivory color, not assorted khakis and blues. But cropping out backgrounds is so much fun, and doesn't it look so much cooler! I mean, were you going to read the certs anyway? (If so, click on an image to enlarge it.)

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Walking Into A Big Hole In The Ground

SUMMARY: I can do it; really I can.

I have this list. I've had this list for many, many years. It's all the things I want to do or see before I go on to the great parking lot in the sky. Oops, dang, now there's a movie about it, and this kind of list actually has a name, and it's called a "Bucket List." (Things to do before you kick the bucket.) Who knew?

"Hike into the Grand Canyon" is one of the list items. (I have always assumed that Hike Out Of The Grand Canyon is also on the list, but I suppose that's icing on the cake. There's always horses. At $150 a ride.)

Last fall, a friend an I actually made reservations for this coming May at the lodge at Havasu Falls. It's just a little wee hop of a hike. Don't let the bright red "Strenuous!" label on the page fool you. What's 10 miles, anyway? 19 miles of it straight down the side of a cliff and and 35 along the bottom of a never-ending canyon, but really, it's nothing.

If I only were walking 1-1.5 miles daily as I did for so many years until my knee crapped out on me last year and then I also lost Jake, who was a good dog for walking with, and left me with TIKA THE WALKHOUND FROM HADES. Here you see how much fun we're both having while I try to photograph flowers on a little stroll down the path along the local river, which has a vertical change of elevation of about 0.3 inches on a bad day. You should see how much more fun we both have when another dog walks by within 35 miles.

She will not be going to Havasu Falls with us.

But I also made this ToDoList back before I owned any kind of camera except the sort that you stick in your pocket and it's fine until you actually want to take a picture. Like, say, of an Ovis canadensis nelsoni at a quarter of a mile and you wish you had a real telephoto lens.

But now I have multitudes of SLR cameras (approximately two) with hundreds of lenses to complement them (at least 3, certainly less than 4). And as you can see, taking photos as I hike (or as I do just about anything, for that matter) is just as important as actually DOING the thing. Maybe moreso. Sorting them afterwards? Well, sort of liking walking out of the canyon, that's also icing on the cake--the point is that I TOOK the photos. Right? Am I right?

So not only do I have to get myself and 3 days of water and clothing down into the canyon, plus lunch (and sunscreen), I have to carry 40 pounds of camera equipment or I will feel NAKED. (Although I guess I probably don't need to take all two tripods.)

Anyway, the point is, I'm trying to get out and walk a whole lot more to get in shape for this lifetime dream, and I'm not doing it really well, (although perhaps better than I have for a while), and my excuse is always, "because the dogs need the exercise and stimulation as much as I do, but I can't deal with Tika today, so I guess I'll sit at home instead."

And, oh, by the way, on this list (which takes up several pages), the only mention of dogs is one question buried at the end under "miscellaneous," which is: "Where do dogs fit into all this?" You might guess that this was before Remington, Jake, Tika, Boost, and dog agility in general. Back when I wasn't sure whether dogs fit into it anywhere. Look at me now. Who knew?

(P.S. Thanks, Steph, for the photo. Note the stylish backwards baseball cap. I wear it to keep the sun out of my eyes. But pressing a camera against my face works just about as well and it would bump against the front of the cap, so my official photographer cap is backwards.)

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Taking a Break from Dog Activities

SUMMARY: It's still 3 weeks to our next agility trial. What do I do in the meantime--nondog stuff? Are you kidding?

Wednesday: Because the instructors are heading up to Canby (OR) for USDAA Regionals, there's no class for Boost on Thursday, so I switch off running her and Tika in Tika's wednesday night class. It wasn't so long ago I wouldn't have dared to try it. But Boost's weaves have been MOST excellent lately--I'm very happy about it--and she *IS* only one leg away from being in Masters! Ooops, 2 legs--one standard and I keep forgetting about the pairs. Tika ran very well, too; there's definitely something motivating about jealousy of mom's time in the ring.
	This photo is pretending to be from Wednesday evening, but it's actually from this morning in my back yard. It was a bit of a challenge getting set up to do this, and to convince Tika to go through the tunnel while I waited at the other end with my camera. Turns out that first we had to do some backchaining to teach her to do the tunnel under those specific circumstances, and then many takes before getting a result I liked.
	When I trim things in the yard and toss the clippings aside, Boost likes to catch them for me. Mint is a special favorite.
	Friday: This week's photographing-your-dog topic is action photos. I visited an agility friend's physical therapy session for her little chihuahua mix who's coming back from a broken wrist hopefully in time to get back to competing in another month or so.
Saturday: Monterey Bay Area Research Institute another great organization sponsored by the Packard Institute (of Hewlett and...) had its annual open house. Went down with an agility friend and her spouse. There were dogs *everywhere*. I don't know why on earth anyone would think that their dogs would be interested in exhibits on banthic autonomous underwater vehicles, but they were there, from chows to chihuahuas, Wolfhounds to Whatchamacallits. Neither of us took our dogs, but of course we had to look at all the ones that were there.
	I love the MBARI slide shows of some of the critters that they've been able to observe with their remotely operated vehicles, like this oddity: transparent head, green upward-facing eyes that actually rotate forward, too (what you'd think are eyes on the front of its head are its olfactory organs).
Sunday: Since I don't have to do anything dog-related, I sneak out in the morning for a movie (Oceans 13), and then--spend the rest of the day trying to take some halfway decent dog action shots and sort through them. That's another 320 photos in one afternoon. Who said that digital cameras were a good idea? Gah. On the up side, it's instant feedback about how you're doing, and you can just delete the really awful ones.
	Tika liked the ones where I was throwing the toy. She doesn't merely chase it; she tries to knock it aside and surrounds it from the front to pounce on it. Toys seldom get beyond her.
	This was another many-photoed experiment. Main goal was to try different shutter speeds to see what effect you could get--and whether stopping motion completely was more effective in an action shot than panning along at a slower shutter speed so that the dog is somewhat in focus but the background is very blurred. This is the fast-speed shot (1/1000 of a second). Very clear, everything's in focus, you can see exactly how the dog is moving. I like this shot.
The second part was that I decided I wanted to try to capture Boost in the part of her stride where her feet are bunched beneath her. Can you guess how hard it is to guess that? So I repeatedly put her in a down stay in exactly the same position, put shutter on multiple-shot, make several passes at it; identify where in her path across the lawn her stride is in that position by trial and error, and then once that's figured out, setting myself and my camera to be ready to snap the shutter at that exact location to try to recapture it from the ideal angle and lighting. Yeah, right. Still, I got better at it with practice.
	This is the slower-speed panning version (where I follow the dog with the camera for a longer exposure--1/100 second here). It does indeed look more like the dog is moving. Another good shot but with a different feel to it.

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Self-Portrait With Dogs

SUMMARY: This was a hard assignment!

For a photo story of the story behind this photo, go here.

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Once More With Feeling

(Read more about heterochromia and see a more detailed view of her right eye: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterochromia.)

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Another Photo Experiment

SUMMARY: Boost photo

I was trying to get Boost to look intently into the distance. What I did was: Put her in a Sit. Get Tika a little excited, then put Tika in a Down about 20 feet to my left. Boost loves watching Tika to see what she's up to. Then, just before snapping the shutter, I tossed my keys in the air so they landed on the ground near Tika. Worked pretty good, but now I have to figure out how to get her gaze aimed a little more upwards. So many things, so little time...

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Merle Girls

SUMMARY: Photo for today

I signed up for a 4-week online class "photographing your dog with an SLR camera." (It's not too late to join! I think tomorrow's probably the last day, though. Not really cheap but what the heck less than an agility trial and I'm not doing agility for a month and a half.) I thought I knew something about taking photos, but I'm having a heck of a time getting the effects that I want. Still, here's today's best attempt with both dogs, for your viewing pleasure.

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