TEXTURE: Dog Photography 52 Week Project: Week 39
Texture is the topic for week 39 of the 52 week dog photography project. When I think of texture and dogs, I automatically think of their fur. My yellow lab Willow has a lot of texture in her fur. I grabbed a few photos of her this week and as you can see in the photo above she is also lumpy. Labs develop lipomas (fatty deposits) as they age and she has her fair share of them. Keep scrolling down and you'll see a long scar on her right leg where she had a large one removed that was impeding her movement.
Willow's fur was the first thing that I thought of when this theme was announced but photographing her is a challenge.
Some of you may not know that Willow is afraid of a lot of different sounds. My camera (even with the focusing beep turned off) scares her. Our cell phones are on silent whenever we are home. If we are out for a walk and she hears the train, she tucks her tail and can't get home fast enough. The smoke detector's low battery chirp sends her running to the bathroom to hide.
One of the bathrooms in our house where Willow spends lots of time. I'm sure she likes the tile floor but she spends a lot of time on these rugs too. (The rugs are compliments of the hubby who decided to replace the gray rugs in the bathroom with blue-ish ones. Ugh. Willow doesn't care. :o)
I can always tell when she is afraid because she pins her ears back and that's not really the look I want to capture. I actually don't have a photo of her that I've taken that I love. I do have some decent ones of her that I'll cherish forever but I don't *love* any of them. I would like to try and take some photos of her that showcase her eyes and show off the wavy texture in her fur.
I would like to try but how do I balance what I want and what she wants?
Forcing her to do something that makes her afraid is hard for me. It's not like I'm making her do something she doesn't want to do but it's good for her or she needs it. Every day I put her tramadol pill in a big scoop of peanut butter for her. I know she doesn't like it because if she can taste it at all she spits it out (even Moose won't eat it :o) but I know she needs it so I do it. Getting over the guilty feeling of asking her to model for me is a different story.
I'm a people (and dog) pleaser. I am not good at forcing her to do something she'd rather not.
Here is Willow, sitting as old dogs with arthritis do, sporting the battle scar from having a golf sized lipoma removed.
Willow is 13. She has arthritis in her hips. She struggles to go up and down the 2 steps to get in and out of our house. Sometimes I have to put a towel under her to support her back end to help her down the steps. Sometimes I have to lift her back end up on the first step to help her back in. If I'm going to try and take her photo, I suppose I should work on it sooner rather than later.
Perhaps I will try for real with her soon. My camera, Willow and lots of yummy treats to reward her for being brave.
This is a blog circle and next up is Linda from VP Shoots Photography serving the Tampa Bay area, Florida. Be sure to click the links at the bottom of each blog and you'll end up right back here looking at Willow aka Whittle's cute face.
PS I googled images of dog's fur. I wanted to see the different angles that photographers used to take them. If you ever do it, be prepared to see lots of tick photos. Yuck.