We’ve settled in to our new house and are anxiously awaiting the completion of a new fence so the dogs can play and play and play.

Fur in Focus will be undergoing some changes this year. I’ll be taking on a more limited number of clients and spending time working on fund-raising events for a few local shelters. It’s likely that the blog will take on a more personal tone – with more photos of my dogs and the dogs of friends and family.

Thus, Katy, contemplating her new front yard.

Not enough frisbee action for you? Check out the slideshow here for the sequence shots of Katy in full-out action.

And, to complete this as a full-multi-media event on the blog today, here are Katy and Ellie demonstrating one of their cutest tricks. Gus is just cheering them on.

This was a bunch of fun. Following a textures tutorial from the MCP Actions blog and using some free textures that I found on flickr, I had some fun with these photos of the girls. I kind of like the results. I think Ellie’s portrait (on the left) has a Rembrandt feel to it. Katy’s reminds me a bit of an old print that you might find covered in dust at a hunting lodge.

The tutorial on how to use and apply textures is here.
Check out the free textures available on flickr here, here and here. Nice stuff!

Rather than packing for our vacation, I’m sorting through all of my old digital photo files. The shot above is from deep in the pre-DSLR days. Taken with my old, trusty Olympus C-5050 back in September of 2004. At one of my most favorite places in the entire world, Lucy Vincent Beach on Martha’s Vineyard.

We’re heading down to visit my parents in Florida. Looking forward to meeting old/new friends and their dogs (yeah!), soaking up some sun and relaxing for a few days. And, I rented a couple of lenses that are being delivered to my parents house. It will be fun to experiment with an alternative practical lens (the 24-70mm f/2.8) and a super fish-eye lens.

Happy Valentine’s Day!
I hope you all get a kiss from someone special today! ]]> http://www.furinfocusblog.com/2009/02/sweethearts/feed/ 5 http://www.furinfocusblog.com/2009/02/chippewa-creek/ http://www.furinfocusblog.com/2009/02/chippewa-creek/#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:07:13 +0000 Mary http://www.furinfocusblog.com/?p=84

A Saturday afternoon spent at the park, playing with the dogs and taking pictures. My husband tends to focus on the landscape shots, while I take pictures of the dogs. He captured a photo of me, taking the photo of Katy on the left.

It’s definitely nice to have subjects who are fairly well trained and cooperative. Katy is my agility dog and so we’re pretty good at working together on things. She was quite happy to stand there and strike poses for me.

Ellie doesn’t always love having the camera’s attention (I think it must look like a big, rude, scary eye pointing right at her). So depending on her mood, she can be evasive and tends to look away no matter how much “happy talk” (and begging) is used. I do have shots of her staring at me straight on and I think it’s safe to say that I had treats with me during those photo sessions.