Puppies

Well, I have been very remiss with my blog... no updates for 15 months!!

Really cold weather this spring, unlike this time last year when it was just like summer.

My daffs have only just started to open, the tulips are still just leaves, and the lawn has only been mowed twice.

Two of my good friends have acquired puppies recently.    John's Sheltie, Lara, had two little blue merle boy puppies, John has kept one called Dec.  He is 12 weeks old. (All photos are clickable)

As  you can see, he is a little darling, and will be shown just like his mother and if he wins half as many titles as her he will be doing well.  In between times he will just be Lewis's playmate and the three of them will cavort around the garden like mad things all summer!




Also, my friend Elaine and her family have just got a new baby Leonberger puppy, Marvin, 8 weeks.

He accompanies their older Leonberger, Oz, who is bad on his back legs now.  They seem to get on well together.   This photo is the second day home.

Lovely time to have new puppies, all ready for the lovely warm summer days ahead... we hope!

Some shots with fill-in flash

I took these yesterday.. there is something about this type of work that I love.

It is achieved by metering from the sky behind the subject using spot metering in manual mode.
Then ignoring what the meter says and not changing the settings but using a flash dialled down to take the shot of the subject.
The small bit of flash then fills in the subject that would have otherwise been rendered dark if the sky was correctly exposed.

What are all these ducks beaks laughing at?  :)

I would like to have taken these shots of Lewis from straight on, but behind were trees so to get just sky to make it work, I had to take it from below!

Had I metered from the face, the sky would've been white.

Its a great way to get a nice blue sky.

Give it a try, its great fun and the results are inspiring.

(Yes, I know I should've cloned out the telephone wires - it was a spur of the moment thing!!)

The track of my photography

Like most photographers, I have my own preferences of which TYPE of photography I prefer and also the styles of taking the photos.

Some people stick with the same type for most of their lives, never venturing into uncharted waters, so to speak!

But I have tried my hand at a fair few types because I believe it is better to be able to diversify if the need arises.

That probably means I am a jack of all trades and master of none, but as I am not a professional, that is how I prefer it.

I started off with my favourite subject, wildlife photography.  I took shots of birds mainly and had a couple that won the Photo of the month Competition in the local Herts and Essex Observer newspaper.

Blue Tit

Cock Chaffinch

Goldfinch

                                         

______________ooO0Ooo_______________

Gradually my interest faded over a couple of years and I turned my hand to portrait work and made myself a small studio at home, and did portrait shoots with white backgrounds which is the in-thing!!

I have also done some weddings and thoroughly enjoyed those too, its very stressful but once the day is underway it is great fun!

So you see I have a fair few areas of photography to fall back on but at the moment I am just trying to get myself out and about and start hearing that shutter button click again!

Yessssssss!!!

I took Lewis out for a nice long walk today, even though I only envisaged it being a short  "I-suppose-I-ought-to" walk!

Once I was out there in the sun and frost I couldn't stop going.. we both loved it, and even though I didn't have my camera, I had my phone!

Remember, remember.......

November is upon us and it unseasonably warm. The trees are looking wonderful because we have had no frost here yet to knock them to the ground.
I remember many a Firework Night as a child absolutely FREEEZING trying to keep warm by the fire but not this year I doubt.

 Adam is now firmly ensconced in the house in Leeds with his friends. He has been trying hard for months to find a job and has finally got one in HMV in Leeds. It is a huge store with 2 floors and he has been there two days and loves it. Phew, that's one weight off my mind!... a huge one!
 He popped back home with a bad foot after a skateboard accident a few weeks ago but is right as rain now.

Roger was knocked to the ground face first by a reversing van last week! He was on the phone to Adam and suddenly was sent flying forwards and his phone went the opposite way across the concrete!! What with his bad hands and knees anyway, the force went up his arms and down his sides. After a couple of days rest he too is now fine!

Thomas hasn't had any accidents (touch wood) and is getting on very well in his job in the City.

Arsenal seem to be picking up a bit lately...obviously they couldn't get much worse!! :)

Here's a couple of photos I took recently when I finally remembered to take the camera out on a walk with Lewis!

September

In comes September... best month (as it's my birthday month!! )

Very mixed weather as usual.

I drove up to Derbyshire in the Peak District on Wednesday, to see my friends Margie & Mal and their lovely Cavaliers while they were on holiday there.

We had a lovely day, a lovely meal, and Lewis thoroughly enjoyed playing with their "boys"! 

It was a 3hr drive each way  but seeing as I go up to Yorkshire so often, it really didn't seem that far for me.

Lewis

Serge

Branden

Tom is still enjoying working in London, and Adam has been gone up to Leeds and moved in with some friends for about 6 weeks now.. very quiet here!!

Roger walked into the garden the other evening and picked an apple off the tree and came and sat in the lounge to eat it while watching TV.

Lewis was sitting staring up at him as he likes apples, but Roger said in a gruff voice "NO", as we don't like him staring when we are eating.

Lewis ran quickly out of the room and we thought no more about it.

About 3 or 4 minutes later, Lewis came trotting back into the room with a pear in his mouth from the garden and lay on the lounge floor eating it!!! :)

Clever boy!! :)

Sparrows, horse-chestnuts, and Sudocrem!

June was very cool and rather damp after our strange hot April/May, but it seems to be bowing out with a rage of sunshine and heat... 30C here!

I found a baby sparrow on the paving slabs yesterday.  I know it is best to leave them and their mums will find them, but I was worried about my cats and dog, and also, even if the mother found it on the ground, there is not much she could do with it there.

I held it up to let her see it, then placed it into some shrubbery and hope something comes of it.   She can at least feed it with flies etc and hopefully it may fly one day, although I can't see how it can take off if it is on the ground! :(

Hoping our huge horse chestnut tree in the front garden doesn't get the dreaded canker again this year.  It  had it last year, was ok the year before that, but had it the year before.

I have noticed hundreds of others are suffering the same, but they don't die but start from scratch again the following year.
The leaves go brown in July and fall off. It looks very strange along the hedgerows to see all these brown trees in the midst of the summer green.   Mainly in the S.E. of England I think.

Lewis has been scratching and biting at his stomach and underneath his rear haunches for the past few days, making big pink lumps everywhere.   He doesn't have any signs of fleas at all, so I didn't know what it was.

Roger had a brainwave that it could be where Lewis lies on the grass with his back legs stretched out the back like a frog!  We have ants on our lawn and if he was bitten quite a few times, he then scratched and nibbled and made them all worse.
A quick smooth on of some Sudocrem and it had all gone the next day......magic stuff, I keep a tub in the house since the babies were born some 23 years ago!  (Not the same tub!)