Saturday, December 9, 2017

Day 2907

Another year of Santa Paws has come and gone. Today was a big success and I'm pretty sure that we photographed even more dogs than we did last week. We had a several very large dogs today, one cat, a very well behaved baby, and a chinchilla. I don't think I've ever seen a chinchilla before. They have large ears and look like someone tried to breed a rabbit with a rat.

We photographed quite a few Dalmatians today. Dalmatians are very photogenic, but they have lots of energy. Every year I always have at least one photo of a Dalmatian flying through the air trying to escape from Santa's arms. A nervous Husky was the only dog who peed on the backdrop this year and nobody knocked anything over. I operate the strobes on low power now and move the lights in a little closer to get the same exposure. By babying the equipment this way, maybe I can squeeze one more year out of it.

I was pleased at how well things went this year. We've been doing these Christmas pet pictures for almost a decade now and there are few disaster anymore. We've definitely learned how to photograph dogs. I'm not as nimble as I used to be but I feel foolish even mentioning my somewhat minor aches and pains. Our leader had knee replacement surgery last week and it didn't seem to slow her down a bit. Every year I wonder how much longer we can continue doing this. Judging by how well things went today, I think we'll be back next year.

I feel bad about leaving Dash at home so long when we do these photo shoots, but there is no other alternative. Janet and I are both needed at these events and Dash hates riding in the car. He seemed fine at home today. There were no vestibular events and every time we checked him on the baby monitor, he was just sleeping on the bed. It was a very long day, but Dash still got a walk just before sunset. It was amazing he got a walk at all today. Janet left for home earlier than I did, but we both got caught in a horrible traffic jam on the freeway. There was an accident and it took over an hour to inch our way past the wreck.

The photo equipment is still piled up in the hallway, but I'm going to get organized tomorrow and take it all back to the storage warehouse. I don't do many photo shoots anymore and there's a good chance that this stuff won't be needed again until next year. As soon as I get all the clutter cleared away, it will be time to put up the Christmas tree.

I doubt if I'll make it to the gym this week. I might not even make it to the grocery store. There's so much to do that I don't even know where to begin. Maybe Dash will let us sleep in tomorrow morning. That would be nice. I think I'll sleep well tonight. I'm very tired.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day
Watch of the Day