Side effects

Whenever you take a new medicine, you usually have to worry about possible side effects.  This is also pretty much true when you try something new.  Running?  You're feet and legs are going to ache for awhile until you build up some stamina.  Ice skating?  You're going to fall until you become decent and then you'll still fall.  Yoga?  Yeah, I'm just not flexible enough to even attempt that one, but I'm sure others can tell you about some of the side effects there.

So why am I writing about side effects?  Well, I've encountered my own side effect from going out and deliberately talking to dogs and taking their photos.  Dog slobber.  Who knew that many different kinds of dogs could slobber so much?  I knew some dogs slobber, case in point, this bulldog I captured a couple of years ago.  

Today, I ended up walking along the Thompson Creek Trail, mainly because the foothill trails had been closed down by the city due to the winds and possible fire danger.  So I walked the bike trail and got lots of dog photos. And I also got lots of dog slobber too.  But it's the best kind of slobber, so I guess this is just a inconvenient side effect.

Explore

Every now and then, I'll post an image and not really think anything of it, that is until I get home the next day and I've seen all the faves the photo generates.  I regularly post to Flickr and they have a category called Explore.  Basically, it's the best photos that people post over there and it's by invitation only.  

The invitations are sent out to photographers after a photograph has reached either a certain threshold of faves, or comments or some such, as there seems to be no way of really knowing how many you really need, as I suspect they probably think that you might "stuff" the ballot boxes if you knew.  They also block you from getting back into Explore for a certain period of time afterward so that others can be seen without you becoming a dominant factor.

Up until today, I've two other photos in Explore.  My Death Valley photo, that I took in the spring of 2015 was the first.  I even blogged about that experience here.  That photo has almost 8000 views and 98 faves.  Interestingly, it used to have 99, but I guess someone decided they didn't like it quite as much as they previously thought.  The second photo that made it to Explore was a photo I took this summer in Yellowstone National Park of the Grand Prismatic Spring.

And now I have a third.  Jaxson, the Weimaraner is now in Explore.  If you click this link and hurry, you might see Jaxson near the top, but as new photos get added, he'll move further down and out of site, but even if you don't find him, check out some of the spectacular photos there.  You won't be disappointed.

Dogz and horses on walkz

Every now and then when you're out geocaching, you see some pretty interesting sites.  The nice thing about where I live is it's only a 30 minute drive to get to the desert, or the beach.  For this shot, it was obviously, the desert.  And the nice thing about the desert is the wide open spaces.  Once you get out of any town, you have some pretty scenic vistas.

Several years ago, I was out taking some shots of the mountains with Joshua Trees in the foreground, when I heard these two guys conversing on horseback.  One of their dogs came up to greet me, giving my hand a lick. We exchanged pleasantries and then they rode off and I took some photos of them as they rode away from me.

It literally wasn't until I looked at the shot on my computer screen that I realized the guy on the right was packing.  The way this scene played out, I just felt this one needed a slight sepia treatment to it to give it an "Old West" feel to it.  And the only thing that really gives this away is the guy on the left is wearing sneakers.  Otherwise, it could be something form the 1800s.

Comments would be appreciated.  Thanks for stopping by.

Dogz on Walkz

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't posted much on here.  In fact, I haven't posted anything since late June of last year.  Life has happened, repeatedly in a variety of ways.  But I've had many adventures since June and I could have written a lot, but I just haven't.

And so I'm starting fresh again.  My daughter suggested something to me last week that grabbed ahold of me and sort of kindled a spark in me.  We talked and laughed about it, but then I started thinking and realized that I could really get into this.  And so, Dogz on Walkz was born.

I decided that if I was going to do this up right I wanted to get a good Instagram feed going, so I went through all of my past photos and found as many Dogz on Walkz photos that I could find.  Then I created the Facebook page and the Instagram page and now I'm trying to post a new photo every day of a dog I encounter on my hikes and walks.  After all, the title of this blog is a Photo a day, so why not get back into it.  I even decided to re-join 365 Project as Dogz on Walkz.  And so it goes.

I also practiced first.  I decided that on my walk/hike on Saturday of last weekend, I'd just greet every dog that walked by just to get a feel for it.  I didn't bring my camera, although I had my phone with me, so I could have taken shots with that if need be, but I just wanted to practice that day.  Sunday would be different.

On Sunday, I literally picked up my camera for the first time this year.  I can't even remember the last time I used it, maybe this summer when I was on vacation?  It's become so easy just to pull the phone out and take a photo on that, that I'd forgotten how I used to enjoy taking photos.  One of the first things I noticed was how heavy the camera is.  That will take some getting used to again, but it didn't take long for me to get back into photographer mode.

The first dog I met on the trail that day was Annie, pictured her.  She's only 7 months old and according to her people friend, she's a Pit Bull/Boxer mix and was a rescue dog.  Annie was so thrilled for pets from me that when I sat down to take photos, she jumped into my lap and schmooosed the front of my camera, a fact that I didn't even noticed until after I left her and her people friend.  Then I noticed all the dog drool on the front of my lens.  Nothing like dog slobber to really get a lens nice and clean right?

So this is my attempt at really doing a photo a day for this blog.  Sometimes, it might just be the daily dog photo, but I'm going to try this again.  Wish me luck.

As always, any comments, words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.  Please like our page on Facebook.  Also, please follow us in Instagram.  Tell all of your dog loving friends to follow us in Instagram as well.