365 Project

01/01/2012

2012-01-01T17:28:00.003-05:00

Going to give this a try again. I'll see how long I last. Yesterday I found a group of Trumpeter Swans in a field so thought I'd go back today and get some pictures of them. But there were fewer today than yesterday and with the weather they were not very active. So I headed over to the Ottawa Wildlife refuge and found a few over there and took some pictures, along with the usual resident ducks and Canadian Geese. Used my Minolta AF Reflex lens as I need practice using it and I thought the swans would be a good large subject. And incidentally about the swan with the neck band, I did a little research. 3AO was born in August of 2004 and she seems to have a fan club out there. Going to have to make some regular trips out there to see if we have some cygnets to this year.

01/02/11

2011-01-03T10:48:00.003-05:00

Sunday we had a special Planned Pethood adoption event since the holiday was on Saturday, our normal day to have it. My foster JRT pup Jessie wasn't happy being in her crate, so I was holding her and had passed her off to another foster so I could go take pictures of a dog that was out of his crate. And so I took this picture of her when she spied me.

01/01/11

2011-01-01T18:45:00.002-05:00

Well going to give this a try again. And tonight we had a beautiful sunset, so a great start to the year.

06-05-10

2010-06-06T21:03:00.003-04:00

Saturday I attended the Old West End Festival parade in Toledo, OH. What a visual feast for the eyes. I loved the colors. And part of the parade is the Pooch Parade.

06-04-10

2010-06-06T20:51:00.003-04:00

Wow, I can't believe I've let it go so long without posting on this blog. Anyway, Friday evening I volunteered with Planned Pethood at the Great White concert at Toledo Harley Davidson. After my duties were done I went and got the camera. By then it was dark, so I got to try some shooting at night. I was pretty fascinated with some bikes a lined up that one of them had neon lights on.

2-28-10

2010-02-28T15:48:00.003-05:00

How is it that my foster puppies always seem to have the worst pictures. I took Crystal out in the snow today to get some pictures of her. She's a 10 week old lab/spaniel/collie mix. What a cute little fluff ball. She is available for adoption with Planned Pethood

2-27-10

2010-02-28T15:37:00.003-05:00

For some reason the cold of winter doesn't inspire me to go out and take photos. Well I did go take pictures of the PPI dogs today. There are over 40 puppies in the program right now. There is a litter of puppies that were rescued from the Lucas county dog pound when they were just 2 1/2 weeks old. Before they would have called them pit mixes and they never would have seen the light of day. But thankfully times are changing and PPI was able rescue them. This little cutie peered over the shopping cart and I got her picture. And the other pup is Cupcake. Also with Planned Pethood I rescued Cupcake and her litter mates from the Ottawa county pound earlier in the week. I'm fostering Crystal, a litter mate.

01-16-10

2010-01-17T18:22:00.002-05:00

Little late huh? Took pictures of the pups yesterday.

01-05-10

2010-01-05T17:05:00.003-05:00

The local pound has a bulldog mix. I think he's probably a boxer/American bulldog, but what a face. I could take pictures of this guy all day. They had named him Sweet Pea at the pound and somehow it's a very fitting name.

01-02-10

2010-01-05T16:57:00.004-05:00

Well I missed the first day of the new year. So I guess I will try to get a new post up weekly on the blog this year. It was Saturday and I went to the Planned Pethood weekly adoption event. Molly had been fostering Dinky and I had been dying to get pictures of this little guy. Gabby, a bassett hound that I had pulled from the local pound was there too. I was anxious to get a new picture of her too since the last time I had see her was after she had taken me on a run through the country side in Bowling Green when she got away from me. After our little tour I just wanted to get her into her foster mom's car and send her on her way and didn't take any pictures that day.

12-22-09

2009-12-23T19:01:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I had a shocker. I was suppose to pick up my crate from the pound. I had left it there when I transported a couple of dogs a week before. But I over slept and didn't get there to pick it up. I was shopping when I got a call from them saying that had something in it that was mine. Small, black, smooched in face. All I could think was Chicklet my maltese/shish tzu got out. As it ended up it was my FIL's pug Buttons. My MIL had died last summer and he said he was too depressed and the dog reminds him of her too much. I am devastated that he took her to the pound and didn't call me. Fortunately the rescue she was adopted from took her back and I got her into a foster home last night. Sigh, just when you think you know people.

12-19-09

2009-12-20T06:00:00.002-05:00

Pictures with Santa today. And the little pit bull puppy that was rescued from the infamous Lucas County dog pound by Planned Pethood's executive director Nikki Morey was there. So I had to get a few pictures of her.

12-12-09

2009-12-12T14:13:00.002-05:00

Well it's almost been a year, and I'm getting very picky about what I post. Today I went to Petsmart. My weekend to work, but a couple of people wanted to see my foster dog Ariel, and if it gets her adopted I'll adjust my sleeping schedule. And since I had my camera hanging around my neck, I got roped into taking a few pictures. I had my nifty 50 lens on. I don't use it much, but after today I think I'll be using it much more often. I snapped these of my friend's daughter. She's becoming a little ham when she sees the camera. I converted them to B&W because next month for camera club out assignment is B&W portraits.

12-05-09

2009-12-06T23:11:00.002-05:00

I did Pictures with Santa today. I figure I did 22, with $5 for each going to Planned Pethood A friend had to play Santa for about an hour when my son decided he had developed a severe allergy to the Santa suit and her daughter quickly got over her Santa phobia. She was playing with Santa's hat and glasses when I took this shot

12-04-09

2009-12-06T23:07:00.003-05:00

Another picture of the beagle/basset baby, now in rescue. Oh I could have kept this one he was so cute.

11-30-09

2009-12-06T23:05:00.001-05:00

Is there anything cuter than a beagle/bassett puppy?

11-21-09

2009-11-22T16:08:00.002-05:00

Oh, have I ever been bad about posting. Well had the flu and it pretty well knocked me down for about 2 weeks. Yesterday I took pictures for Planned Pethood. I took thisk picture of Flop, a black lab mix puppy, that is available for adoption. I told him this was my money shot yesterday. I posted them on Flickr and tag him as a labrador and posted it on a couple of groups. Within 10 minutes his picture had 12 hits. Maybe it will help get him adopted.

10-15-09

2009-10-15T18:36:00.004-04:00

Pioneer Woman has a contest today to share you textured photos. Thought I'd give it a try with the one leaf photo I took Monday. Who knows maybe I'll win something. She always has great prizes. I had no idea what I was doing and I had to have my son help me only select the leaf.

10-13-09

2009-10-13T22:57:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I've been out to take pictures just for the sake of taking pictures. I was going to go to Crane Creek today, but the area back by the lake and boardwalk were closed for hunting season. So I headed over to Maumee Bay State park and Pearson Park. This week's assignment for Digital Photography School was Bokeh. Fall and Bekeh just seem to go together, so I concentrated on taking pictures in that style. While I was walking on the boardwalk at Maumee Bay State park a pair of deer jumped out and ran off right in front of me. About scared the you know what out of me since I was listening to my iPod and had no idea they were there. Fortunately I got a few shots of them before I ran out of room on my CF card.

10-11-09

2009-10-12T21:00:00.004-04:00

Planned Pethood had their 2nd annual reunion and I took pictures. The dogs had a blast and no one wanted to sit still for formal portraits, so I just took action shots.

10-10-09

2009-10-11T00:41:00.004-04:00

This old pug, Lucy, came back into Planned Pethood's care. They said it was because of a divorce, although we have our suspicions that she wasn't being care for. She has to be the skinniest pug I've ever seen. Hopefully there is nothing medically wrong with her and it's just due to lack of food. But I was determined to get a good photo of her today so hopefully it will help get her adopted.

09-26-09

2009-09-26T21:16:00.003-04:00

It's Saturday, so I went to the Planned Pethood adoption event and took pictures of the dogs and puppies.

09-24-09

2009-09-24T17:21:00.003-04:00

The Pioneer Woman is a blog I read daily. She's a city girl that married a country boy and they live on a ranch. She's all about the things I love, photography, food, her kids, dogs and husband and finding the finer things in a rural world. She issued a challenge today to photograph something fall-y with bokeh. I'll have to say bokeh is some of my favorite styles and so today I went to Pearson Park of the Toledo Metroparks system The leaves haven't started to change much yet, but I did get a few good shots of in bokeh style. I see their entries for their annual contest are open starting in October. Maybe I'll actually enter a few.

09-15-09

2009-09-24T17:15:00.002-04:00

Our summer project for the PC Photography club was to spell out name in pictures. This was my "S". I actually had another, but I loved the bokeh of this shot and change the picture at the last minute.

09-13-09

2009-09-14T23:26:00.002-04:00

A rather unique opportunity today. My niece's boyfriend and his family have restored a couple of antique tractors. Today they got together with some others that restore antique tractors and plowed a field. They asked me to come out and take pictures.

09-12-09

2009-09-13T10:43:00.003-04:00

It's a Saturday, so it must be time for a Planned Pethood adoption event. The cute little black and white dog is Lucky. And a lucky boy he is. He was found with a baseball sized hernia that was about to burst. PPI had emergency surgery done on him.

The beagle is Miss Blue. She is the mom of one of our puppies, Kreuger. Miss Blue had impaled herself on some type of metal rod which had to be removed by emergency surgery.

09-05-09

2009-09-13T10:34:00.002-04:00

This lovely GSD was a beloved family pet. Her owner went into a nursing home and gave her to some people thinking that they would love her like she did. Well they tied her up outside under a tree. Some neighbors were concerned and called the dog warden. The family said they would turn her over to a rescue group and Planned Pethood agreed. I had Amber at my house for a hour before my husband took her up to Toledo. Good thing I didn't keep her longer, I was in love. She plays ball and even tosses the ball back to you like my foster dog Ariel. Ariel and Amber could have entertained each other for hours.

09-03-09

2009-09-13T10:29:00.002-04:00

Been away a while. Working a lot at the paying job. The woman that works opposite me had surgery and then when she was about to come back to work had a death in her family so took some more time off for that. So I've been picking up a couple of extra days of work every 2 weeks. At least it will be nice chunk of change coming in for a few weeks. One morning when I came home from work I saw this spider web on my husband's truck. And with my camera right there I snapped a few pictures of it.

08-29-09

2009-08-30T20:12:00.003-04:00

Admittedly I've been bad taking pictures the last couple of weeks and posting them. The woman that works opposite weeks of me had surgery so I worked a few extra days. Then her mother in law died and they were having the memorial service on the day she was to return, so I'm getting in a few more extra days. So the next couple of checks will look nice a least, but not must chance for anything else. I did get to attend a Planned Pethood event. They had just picked up this cute little guy at the pound and brought him over to get a picture taken. I managed to get this one picture of him on my second try, while he was sitting with the woman that decided to adopt him. The picture was too good not to share.

08-15-09

2009-08-15T18:12:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I get really good pictures of dogs and before I get them posted the dogs get adopted and no one gets to see them. Such is the case of these pictures I took today. Alexis the little terrier mix didn't even have a picture posted. A family saw her and she was adopted out by noon. Missy is a dog that came into the program in terrible shape. She was nothing but an oozing sore from head to tail when the Brooks family took her in to foster. Well they couldn't bear adopting her out and she became a member of their family today. Princess the poodle we a repeat visitor at the pound I pull from. The dog warden thought it would be best for Princess to find more responsible owners and she came into our program. Twink the bischon has a couple of good applications and so her adoption is pending.

08-14-09

2009-08-15T18:04:00.002-04:00

Went out late at sunset with the dogs to play some ball and take some pictures tonight. Chicklet the little maltese mix let me snap a few and Ariel our foster dog was running around. She wasn't interested in playing ball since we didn't have a yellow tennis ball outside. Scout one of the JRTs posed for me too.

08-14-09

2009-08-14T10:57:00.002-04:00

Well I missed WW last night because I got into town late. And I was going to go today to WW, but got up late. So I took a picture of the scale anyway. I may go try to find someplace I can just weigh in at today. But looks like I should be down again this week. I say should be because when I went last week my official WW weight stayed the same as the previous week even though I was down on he scale at home.

08-06-09

2009-08-06T16:51:00.002-04:00

Looks like I might make it 3 weeks in a row. And that was after doing pretty good through the weekend. Monday I just had to have one of those new Swiss Mushroom Angus burgers at McDonald's on Monday noon and a trip to DQ on Monday night. You just can't do it every day. Everything in moderation.

08-02-09

2009-08-03T09:18:00.003-04:00

Today was our photo clubs potluck. Then naturally what does a bunch of photographers do when they're having a picnic next to an old cemetery (we're talking the oldest tombstone someone saw was for a man that fought in the revolutionary war). One of our monthly themes for the upcoming year is black and white cemetery pictures. I'm not real happy with any of them. Still think I need to go over to Johnson's Island to photograph the civil war prisoner cemetery there. Then afterwards we went to downtown Milan which is built around a central park and all of the buildings are historically restored.

08-01-09

2009-08-03T09:11:00.002-04:00

Well another Saturday and another PPI adoption event. I took pictures of these too cuties. Daisy the cockapoo was adopted the next day by a family that had adopted another little white dog I had brought in the same day as Daisy. She probably would have adopted Daisy too, but there was another family that applied for her. That fell through when they returned Daisy, so the family from Illinois came to adopt Daisy. Sonny is a husky mix that came in with a PPI tag on. No one remembers him being in the program previously, but since he had a tag on we took him in. He's a active boy that needs another dog around as a buddy.

07-30-09

2009-07-30T16:56:00.004-04:00

Well it looks like I'm headed in the right direction. And after an unusually stressful work week with little sleep. I'm off to Weight Watchers now to weigh in. These weeks when I'm not working are always hard. I try not to eat much before going in. So today all I had before the meeting was a small chili at Wendy's. Next week when I am working I get up right before I go to WW, so I won't have all day to eat before going.

07-23-09

2009-07-23T18:59:00.003-04:00

Well it's been a year since I lost 50 lbs with Weight Watchers and I still have 20 to go. For the past year I've been gaining and loosing the same 5 lbs. In an effort to loose the last 20 I'm going to post my scale reading once a week. Hopefully the number staring me in the face will keep me honest and get me to loose the last 20. I really don't know what my hang up is. It's like I hit 50 (and 50 years old) and hit a brick wall. Maybe it's something psychological. Maybe it's been stress the last year. Well here is this week's post and hopefully next week the number will be lower.

07-21-09

2009-07-22T09:30:00.002-04:00

The summer project for the photography club I belong to is our name in photos. I had taken pictures of a slide a few weeks ago that I could crop for an S, but I wasn't happy with it. So I went back to get another picture, figuring by going on a weekday there wouldn't be as many people there. On my way back to the car I saw this lone little dandelion in the grass and stopped to get it's picture.

07-20-09

2009-07-20T20:14:00.002-04:00

I worked on my 2 entries for the Photowalk today in photoshop. On Dreaming I had to remove from cobwebs hanging off of the statue's nose. The bridge was painted blue and against the blue background there just wasn't enough contrast, so I played around with different effects in Photoshop and came up with this purple and orange version that I liked.

07-19-09

2009-07-20T20:09:00.002-04:00

Not too many dogs at the adoption event that I hadn't got pictures of the day before. I had picked up Mercedes the rotty from the pound earlier that day, so I got a picture of her. And Betty the St. Bernard I had brought into the group a few weeks earlier (actually on 6-30, the day my son flipped the ATV and broke his back). She was there and finally cleaned up, so I got a new picture of her.

07-18-09

2009-07-19T07:39:00.004-04:00

Like I said. Big photo day. Here's some pictures from the dock diving.

07-18-09

2009-07-19T07:30:00.002-04:00

Big photo day for me. I participated in the Photowalk in Downtown Toledo, OH. Got me out of my comfort zone. And afterwards we all met at Tony Packo's. Can't beat that. Then afterwards went to the Planned Pethood adoption event held at The Anderson's. And they had the Ultimate Air Dogs show going on with dock diving.

07-16-09

2009-07-19T07:22:00.002-04:00

Sunset at the lake again. Although might have to rethink where I'm going to be doing these. Already the sun is starting to set to far south to get it in the frame at the beach, unless I'd be on a boat out in the lake. And that isn't going to work come winter. Might have to find another spot to take these. I took the one picture from an inland pond.

07-15-09

2009-07-19T07:20:00.001-04:00

I had the pleasure of transporting this cutie from the pound to his foster home today.

07-04-09

2009-07-16T23:25:00.004-04:00

4th of July. What do I take pictures of. Fireworks? Family? Flags? The Beach? No dogs. And black labs at that.

07-02-09

2009-07-02T23:55:00.003-04:00

Well my son fell off of a 4 wheeler and I took him to the local hospital. After a few x-rays and a ct scan they found that he had 3 cracked thoracic vertebrae. Basically right behind his shoulder blades. His vitals were all good and he can move his hands and feet fine, but after the er doctor consulted with the ortho specialist the decision was made to transport him to UTMC. So at about 1am I'm walking into UTMC and I take this picture. Teen aged boys, can't you just skip the years between 13 and 21 and just make them turn into responsible adults. My mother keeps reminding me that I'm getting my due for all of the grief I caused her over the years.

07-01-09

2009-07-02T23:50:00.002-04:00

Well the pound had an assortment of dogs this week including a St. Bernard that had been left in the backyard when her family went away for the weekend and escaped one too many times. And a cute little male pomeranian that was found running loose in a park. They are now in the Planned Pethood program and up for adoption. Talk about the extremes of rescue work.

06-30-09

2009-06-30T18:31:00.003-04:00

Driving back from PC today I notice a thistle plant right along the lake with huge purple flowers. I turned around and took pictures of it. And I played around with HDR. The top one is the original and the other 4 are my attempts at HDR.

06-22-09

2009-06-30T18:25:00.002-04:00

Well I went out again to try to get the perfect sunset. And again forgot my wide angle lens. Thinking I'm going to make it a weekly thing, going out to the beach and taking a picture from the same spot. Might be interesting to see the change in the seasons and a change in the beach as it used to be a public beach but is now a wildlife area, so it is no longer being maintained and allowed to go back to it's wild state. Not enough clouds this night, but the sun was pretty colored. Might try working this one in HDR since I tried it with another picture.

06-21-09

2009-06-21T23:28:00.002-04:00

Tonight looked like it was going to be a great sunset. Unfortunately there were too many clouds to get a real low sunset, but I liked how this one turned out with the lone seagull in flight.

06-20-09

2009-06-20T23:13:00.004-04:00

This old gentleman came into an area pound and had a microchip from 2001 that was registered to Planned Pethood Evidently he had been rescued from a pound back in 2001 that microchipped the dogs at that time and was rescued by Planned Pethood. Once he was adopted, his new family should have had the microchip transferred to their name, but they failed to do that. So he was still ided as being a Planned Pethood dog. And once a Planned Pethood dog, always a Planned Pethood dog, so he came back into the program. By chance a couple had applied for another dog, but she wasn't active enough for them. But one of our fosters knew about them and knew about this old guy, and they were happily hooked up. So on the day that Tucker, the name that he finally responded to from the hundreds we had tried, was sprung from the pound he went to his new home. How's that for a happy ending for a lucky dog.

06-18-09

2009-06-20T23:04:00.002-04:00

Just out playing with the dogs and taking some pictures. I took these 2 pictures of our foster dogs Bingo, a rat terrier and Ariel and ball obsessed labrador. Although you'd probably think that Bingo is from the pictures of him with the ball in his mouth. But his favorite game is to grab the ball from Ariel and get her to chase him.

06-14-09

2009-06-14T19:11:00.003-04:00

My mother in law died last week after a stroke. Her funeral is tomorrow and visitation was this afternoon. She was cremated, so the had this set up with her ashes. The 3 angels represent her 3 sons. The other arrangement was from the grandchildren, great grandchildren and the great great grandchild, with the red roses representing the grandchildren, the pink ones representing the great grand and the peach rose the great great grandchild.

06-13-09

2009-06-14T17:47:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was Planned Pethood's 30th birthday party. I was asked to take portraits of the dogs there. I have a background stand and white paper, but didn't really want to use the paper since they were predicting rain and it had been raining off and on the past day or so. So I bought a 8ftx10ft blue tarp and used that hooked up to the background stand with alligator clips and duct tape. Note to self, get another blue tarp and some more tent stakes. They also had an agility course set up next to me. This girl with a beautiful little sheltie wanted pictures and was lamenting that had to retire her sheltie from agility because of a knee problem and she never had any pictures of him doing agility other than a few snap shots. I told her I could do some for her. So we ran him though the course and I snapped a few pictures. I really liked them for it being my first time ever trying agility. I think I'm going to contact a few local agility groups and see if I can stop by sometime and snap some pictures. And then at the end I took a few formal portraits of him for her.

06-06-09

2009-06-08T09:08:00.002-04:00

Another Saturday and another Planned Pethood adoption event. This time I took along my background and got some pictures of the dogs in front of it. I think a nice clean background really makes the dogs stand out. Of course the photographers dogs have no pictures and I haven't taken my own fosters dogs in front of the background. Next week is the Planned Pethood's 30th birthday party and I'm suppose to take pictures of the participants there.

06-05-09

2009-06-08T08:52:00.003-04:00

I spent part of the day on Friday at the Toledo Zoo They have a wonderful aviary for taking pictures. In some of the rooms the birds are free flying and there are murals painted on the walls to simulate trees, sky, clouds etc. With a little adjustment the background fades out. I stayed out of the aquarium for once. Usually I go in there and end up sitting in front of the jellyfish for hours. But I did find my way to the rose garden where the flowers were in full bloom.

05-25-09

2009-05-25T22:41:00.002-04:00

I tried to go take a sunset picture tonight. I should have gone last night. The colors in the sky were so pretty. Tonight it was very overcast and we have a NE wind, which makes for a very rough lake.

05-24-09

2009-05-25T07:43:00.003-04:00

I made a quick trip through the Magee Marsh and took some pictures on Sunday. While I always envy people in the tropics with exotic birds to take pictures of, I guess I should be thankful living so close to such a wonderful place to photograph colorful songbirds.

05-23-09

2009-05-25T07:28:00.002-04:00

Another Saturday and another Planned Pethood adoptathon. And as usual I took pictures of the dogs that were there. Perdita is a little chihuahua mix that was there and was adopted. Missy is a black and tan terrier mix that was in terrible shape when we got her. She was missing most of her hair on her body. And although she is still looking a little sparse in hair she does look a lot better. Prudence is a puggle that was adopted by a former student of Prudence's foster mom. Talk about a small world. And Scooby is a newfie mix that I rescued from the pound. I took him to his foster family and I took the picture of him with the family's young son standing next to him. Marley is a border collie mix that was confiscated along with 14 other dogs from a family that was leaving the dogs living in horrible conditions.

05-22-09

2009-05-23T08:55:00.003-04:00

A friend asked me to take photos of her baby for her 1st birthday. I used white paper for the background and a white shower curtain for the floor. The little girl was getting tired, so she took a nap while I shot pictures of her mom and dad with their dogs. I did get one picture of Nikki who is the executive director of Planned Pethood which I told her she could use for press releases and her Facebook page.

05-21-09

2009-05-22T08:07:00.003-04:00

Well I fixed the photo from yesterday. I love it, even though I can see where the flaw is.

05-21-09

2009-05-21T13:06:00.002-04:00

I got up before dawn this am to take photos of the sunrise. I do have one photo that I love of the sunrise, but I'm going to have to see if I can get my son to fix a sun flare on it. Afterwards I went to the wildlife preserve to take pictures there. I found this Blue Heron getting a snack as I was walking back to my car. And this mallard duck flapping his wings when I was driving out.

05-20-09

2009-05-21T13:01:00.002-04:00

Not much in the line of photos today, except for this one. I picked up this big guy at the pound. He had been found as a stray. Everyone fell in love with him. Fortunately a foster home was found for him. The kids in the foster family named him Scooby and he is now with Planned Pethood and should be available for adoption soon.

05-18-09

2009-05-18T17:24:00.003-04:00

I'm still trying to get used to this new to me Minolta 500mm lens. I thought maybe some bigger subjects might work better, since I'm having problems finding things with it in the viewfinder. So I took the dogs out to play some fetch. My son's new puppy was out with them too. Monnie is now about 3 months old and 30 lbs. I picked him up from the pound and he was suppose to go into rescue, but my son took one look at him and said he was going nowhere. He had double cherry eyes, a hematoma on an ear and loose dew claws which all had to be taken care of ASAP.

05-10-09

2009-05-11T01:30:00.002-04:00

Ok, for today a shameless plug. Vote for Chicklet. I entered her in the American Greetings Furry Face Off Challenge. I took this picture in the backyard when we were out playing fetch with the new girl Ariel. Click Here to vote for Chicky

05-09-09

2009-05-10T01:13:00.002-04:00

So after moving Charlotte out, I said I'd foster a yellow lab that was at the pound. Ariel is a 2 yr old 68 lb girl. She loves to play ball and I had her out playing with Rory, my Chesapeake mix and Herb, by JRT. She's doing really well with the other dogs. Herb loves to run circles around the dog that is running with the ball and usually Chicklet and Mimi will follow behind. So it's like crack the whip with dogs. I'm going to have to get a video of them doing it.

05-05-09

2009-05-10T01:06:00.003-04:00

The pound had a stray poodle. She's young and very small. When you pick her up she's twice as light as what you think she's be. I fostered her for a couple of day. My husband never says much about the dogs we foster, but this one he did. Who knew a 4 lb dog could be so much trouble. My husband didn't want to set and hold her all day like she wanted. So now Miss Charlotte is in a new foster home, but before she moved on I got this picture of her.

04-27-09

2009-04-27T22:48:00.002-04:00

My son has had a hard time dealing with my aunt's death. He asked to come home from school early today and took him to a restaurant he's been wanting to try out and then took him for a walk at the wildlife refuge. I gave him one of my camera and I took the other one. About half way through we switched cameras, so I'm not sure which one of us actually took the picture. This momma and her babies crossed out path.

04-26-09

2009-04-26T22:02:00.002-04:00

I got a new used lens from KEH. It's a 500mm Reflex that was a BGN grade. In case anyone has wondered about buying a Bargin grade, this is the 2nd bargin grade I've ordered from them and they've both been great lenses. Today I went out to the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area to try it out. It's a little tricky finding small song birds with it and it's going to take some practice. Plus having a few hundred other bird watchers in the area didn't help. I'm going to have to try it again either by myself or going to the zoo in a more controlled environment.

04-25-09

2009-04-26T21:46:00.002-04:00

My aunt's funeral was today. She died on April 20th from congestive heart failure and cancer. She donated her body to the University of Toledo Medical Center. Even though we asked that no flowers be sent, there were a bunch and my mom was the recipient of them (my aunt's sons said they didn't want them). So Mom asked me to come up and photograph them for her. Even though I did take them on Sunday, I'm going to post them for Saturday in remembrance of my Aunt Nancy.

04-24-09

2009-04-24T20:20:00.003-04:00

i saw some really pretty photos that were taken with oil and water. I just got my new macro lens today and thought I'd give it a try. I used a clear pie pan and sat it over a scarf with some wine glasses. I tried some clear votive candle cups, but they were too short and I wanted the scarf out of focus and the "bubbles" in focus, but I ended up with everything in focus. Hence trying the wine glasses. I'm going to have to try it again with a bigger pan and a tripod. I took a bit of experimenting until I figured out I needed to use manuel focus too.

04-23-09

2009-04-24T20:16:00.002-04:00

My mom received a bouquet of flowers after my aunt died and wanted me to take a picture of it for her.

04-22-9

2009-04-22T07:17:00.002-04:00

My mother gave me some old photos my father had taken on D-day during WWII. He had been in the navy and was on the boats that brought in the marines for the invasion. He never talked about the war until they first gulf war. My mom said one day she had been out and came back home to find him sitting at the kitchen table crying after having watched the gulf war on TV. After he died she found an envelope of pictures in his stuff. Most of the pictures are very small and some are damaged, so I'm am trying to scan them in and enhance them and repair them.

04-18-09

2009-04-18T23:35:00.003-04:00

Well another day spent at hospice. I did slip away for a bit and took pictures of some of the foster dogs for Planned Pethood Could the puppies be any cuter. They are cattle dog/JRT mixes. My favorite breeds and no one in there right mind would ever breed two of those dogs together. The bad thing is, even though I listed them as potentially challenging dogs (and not for 1st time dog owners) people seem to want to challenge us on it. People keep wanting to adopt them that live in apartments. They have no idea. The little old chihuahua is being fostered by a friend of mine. She was in one of the pounds that I watch. With all of the events of the last two weeks I couldn't move her and Molly went to the pound and picked her up herself. She's a senior but the sweetest old girl you could ever want. And then back to the hospice. I don't see how she is still holding on. She has hardly ate since she was admitted and she is a naturally thin person anyway. She is still eating and her kidneys are still working. The doctors and nurses tell us that when the kidneys shut down then it will be soon. I walked around a bit today and took some more pictures. Tanner wasn't there today, but the flowers were and the temperature outside was in the high 60's again.

04-17-09

2009-04-17T20:45:00.002-04:00

On 4-9 I had my beloved Aunt Nancy admitted to Hospice of NW Ohio So between work, having some kind of upper respiratory cough thing, and visiting my aunt I haven't had much time for anything. Today was a beautiful day with the temperature in the upper 60's. The grounds at the hospice are filled with flowers and wildlife. And in the building there is an endless parade of new bouquets of flowers and potted plants. I took a walk around the grounds with my camera and took some shots. And there is a wonderful therapy dog named Tanner. My aunt's room is right across from the nurses station where Tanner spends most of his time. I got a wonderful shot of him. I'm hoping to have it enlarged for them to display in the building as I've noticed that the only picture of him on display is a snap shot.

04-02-09

2009-04-02T17:13:00.004-04:00

Oh, I am so bad at keeping up with this. Yesterday I picked up a beagle from the Ottawa county pound. The received a call about her before Christmas that she was running loose. No one could get near her. The neighbors were all putting out food and water for her as the temperature was sub zero. They even had a trap set for her. They didn't want to dart her because of the risks. Finally they caught her after about a month. There was someone that said they wanted to keep her, but she was in heat and they didn't want her until she was out. So the dog warden agreed to keep her until then. But then once she was out of heat, they didn't want her. By that time the dog warden had become attached to her and named her Ginger Bay, since she was found on the Sandusky Bay and Ginger because it's a cute name. I kept trying to get Planned Pethood to take her into their program, but we already had at 2 female beagles. Finally we were down to only 1, and they agreed to take her. Well it probably helped when I told them how Ginger will cry and has tears coming out of her eyes when she doesn't get her way, be it wanting whatever you're eating or getting out of her kennel. She's a cutie, but in typical beagle fashion all she cares about is smells. When I finally figured out I needed to be between her and the wind, I got a few decent shots of her. It didn't help today it was so windy and her ears were flapping around.

03-26-09

2009-03-26T17:02:00.003-04:00

Another nice day weather wise in Ohio. It's starting to look like we might have a spring. Too often it seems to go from winter one day to summer the next and we miss the entire spring season. I had some of the dogs out. Bingo has been our foster dog for the past 2 years. You'd think a small dog like him wouldn't be a problem to find a home for. Wrong. Bingo is a bit of a scardy cat and when he gets scared he poops. Somehow that seems to turn people off. He loves being outside and running. He always tries to get someone to chase him. Today he found a stuffed toy and was running back and forth trying to get someone to play.

03-24-09

2009-03-24T17:53:00.004-04:00

Another almost warm day here in NW Ohio. I took the dogs out to potty late this afternoon and took a few pictures. Rory is our Chesapeake mix. Looks like he's put on a few pounds over the winter and needs to get out some more. Wally is his back to normal after his hair cut. And Bitzer is a new guy. He's still gets a little anxious being out with everyone and is a little unsure about things. But every once in a while his inner puppy comes through and he takes a quick run around the yard.

03-22-09

2009-03-22T20:34:00.003-04:00

When I took the dogs out at noon I took along my camera. For some reason no one wanted to stay out by Wally, our Planned Pethood foster dog, and Chicklet our maltese mix. I converted Wally's picture to black and white. We'll see if that helps get him adopted.

03-21-09

2009-03-21T20:06:00.003-04:00

Another Saturday and another Planned Pethood adoption event. I don't have the stats yet, but it looks like a lot of dogs were adopted or are pending adoptions. And I got a lot of great pictures of the dogs that were there. And as usual there was the group that were whining about why I don't take whole body pictures. Why can't they understand that no one has ever said that they fell in love with the dogs body, they fall in love with the eyes, and when you only have a small thumbnail to draw someone in, it has to be a close up.

03-18-09

2009-03-19T09:36:00.002-04:00

I belong to the Port Clinton Photo Club and try to attend meetings once a month. Last night Doreen showed how to make a photo box to take pictures of glassware. I didn't have my dSLR along, but I did have my Canon Powershot and tried taking some pictures with it. I did a little photoshoping on the picture and took out the line between the floor and the back. I took a picture of the set up too.

03-17-09

2009-03-17T16:28:00.004-04:00

It was the first nice day of the year here. Temperature was in the high 60ºs today. I stopped at Wildwood metro park and took a walk on one of the trails. Everything is still monotones, nothing has greened out yet. I took these through the trees and photoshop the heck out of them.

03-16-09

2009-03-17T00:59:00.004-04:00

Finally off of work after working 7 night straight. I did sleep a bit in the afternoon and when I got up I went out with the dogs and took a few pictures. This one of Rory, who's gained a few pounds over the winter I especially liked.

03-10-09

2009-03-11T08:39:00.003-04:00

Another night of rain in NW Ohio. I took this shot out of the window while waiting for a red light on my way to work.

03-09-09

2009-03-11T08:30:00.002-04:00

I took some pictures of the flowers from my aunt's party. My mother, who has never taken much interest in my photography was actually impressed with these. She wants me to make her some prints to hang above her living room couch. I thought they'd make pretty photo throws or purses for Mother's day presents.

03-08-09

2009-03-08T11:13:00.003-04:00

My cousin Sue was in charge of the cake for the party. Sue ordered the cake from Mary Poppins Cake Factory in Woodville, OH. It was 5 tiers with 3 different types of cake, an Italian white cake with rum filling, a dark chocolate, and a carrot cake. Yum. So much for Weight Watchers yesterday. I had to try one of each. And as an added bonus they make adorable little cupcakes that looked like little potted flowers.

03-07-09

2009-03-07T22:34:00.004-05:00

Today was my Aunt Nancy's 75th birthday. We had been planning a surprise party for her for the past couple of months. On this past Tuesday she was hospitalized with congestive heart failure. We had a 5 tired birthday cake ordered for her, invitations sent, people planning on coming in from out of state. All week the party had been on and off again and again. On Friday they decided to discharge her, but felt that she needed to be rehabed at the local nursing home. Fortunately a friend of mine was the social worker doing the discharge and got it written in that she should be given an LOA from the nursing home so that she could come to the party. My aunt's son picked her up and told her that he was taking her out to my sister's house for cake and ice cream. When he turned right instead of left she knew something was up, but had no idea how extensive it was until she walked in. That's my aunt in the black and green. My mom, her last surviving sibling is in the blue on her right. And my cousin's husband is following behind.

03-06-09

2009-03-07T21:55:00.004-05:00

I have a new camera!!!! I heard from a fellow Alpha user that he had bought an A200 at Walmart marked down to $250. Well thinking about it, what should I do? I could spend around $1000 and get the A700, or I could spend $250 and get the A200 and use the other $750 on a new lens and maybe a nice Jill-E rolling bag. I decided I was going to need a new bag if I got a 2nd body since 2 cameras with lenses attached would not fit in my Crumpler, and there is a Tamron lens I've been wanting, so the A200 sounded like the way to go. An besides it's not about the equipment, it's about the photographer. Right? So I had scoped out 6 Walmarts in the area. Only one had the A200 in stock. Thursday night when I went in they had it marked down, and since it was the last one they knocked off another 10%. Wow, what a deal. So now I'm officially a camera nerd with 2 dSLRS.

03-05-09

2009-03-07T21:42:00.003-05:00

I suggested to Nikki, the executive director of Planned Pethood to have pet first aid classes. Dr. Kittsen McCumber is a board member of Planned Pethood, and also the owner of Animal Emergency & Critical Care in Toledo. She agreed to conduct the class. Being a medical professional I know how important it is to keep current on your medical skills, and even though I've taken the class twice before I signed up to take it. What a great class. The other times I took it they were conducted by a Red Cross volunteer, who in all honesty probably didn't have as much experience with animals as me or the vast majority of the other fosters taking the class. What a difference between someone that learned something from a book and someone who's been there and done that a few hundred times.

03-04-09

2009-03-04T12:24:00.003-05:00

Well today I can actually stand to be outside for over 2 minutes and when I took the dogs out to potty at noon I took along my camera and got better pictures of Bitzer. He's hesitant of the camera and ducks when he hears the shutter go off (dang noisy Sonys). But he actually ran all the way to the back of our property today. He's been just barely walking off of the patio to potty and then running right back to the door to go back in. For a dog that I've been told was kept outside all of the time in with the cattle he's must be afraid of being left outside again. He really has caught onto being housebroke. And I actually heard him bark yesterday, so maybe we're making some progress with him.

03-02-09

2009-03-03T06:32:00.004-05:00

Today one of Planned Pethood's long time fosters lost their home in a fire. Fortunately Julie was taking their grandaughter to the doctor and Kirk was at work, so none of them were in the home. But all of their pets including 3 Planned Pethood foster dogs died in the fire. I've often thought about what I'd do if I'd loose everything. It isn't so much about the stuff. The clothes, household things, food, toys can be replaced. But the other things can't be. Julie and Kirk always took in the dogs that needed a little extra help to be turned into family pets. Tiffany Rose, Bambi and Jefferson were no exceptions. Jefferson was a senior dog that was found as a stray in downtown Toledo. Bambi was a dog that was returned to Planned Pethood's care. At first no one could touch her, but Julie and Kirk worked with her and she had turned into a lovely dog. And Tiffany Rose was a stray that had a massive bladder stone that had to be removed. It was so sad to have to remove them from the website.

03-01-09

2009-03-01T18:31:00.003-05:00

There were 15 dog confiscated in a cruelty case in a neighboring county. A friend of mine works with this pound and knowing that I love Australian cattle dogs thought that this guy would be just my type. This is Bitzer, which is Australian slang for a mongrel dog. As in a bit of this and a bit of that. The rest from what I hear were all being kept in a pen outside, but Bitzer mostly stayed out with the cattle and had little human contact. Remarkably he's difficult to photograph because he stays so close to me. He's about 25 lbs and so fluffy. He's full grown. He looks like a cross between a ACD and a bear cub, but I think he's ACD and either border collie or sheltie. Can't wait until he gets more comfortable and I can get some better shots.

02-28-09

2009-03-01T08:34:00.002-05:00

Usually I work every other weekend, but I took this weekend off. We were suppose to be having an anniversary party in honor of Planned Pethood's 30th year. But it was changed to a later date. But I still had the weekend off, so I went to the adoption event and took pictures. I got this picture of Boomer. What a cutie. I love to take pictures of big hairy dogs. They have such personality.

02-21-09

2009-02-21T17:42:00.002-05:00

Most Saturdays I am off work I spend them photographing dogs for Planned Pethood A well groomed pomeranian has to be one of my favorite dogs to photograph and as luck would have it we have one with the rescue right now. Rusty is a 3 yr old that was rescued from an area shelter. What a cutie. Just a ball of fur filled with personality.

02-20-09

2009-02-20T20:04:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine told me about the contest that is going on with the Toledo Metro Parks where they are looking for winter photos, so I went to Sidecut and Wildwood and took pictures today. This one that I took at Sidecut along the Maumee river was my favorite.

02-19-09

2009-02-19T22:24:00.002-05:00

Well today I thought I'd revisit a picture. This is a picture I took back in 2005. It's also when I decided I might have a real talent for taking pictures of animals. This is Petey, who was then an 8 week old JRT that we were fostering. Petey was quickly adopted out. I had been using this picture of Petey as my thumbnail on Flickr until Tuesday when I took the self portraits. Now today I find out that they are returning Petey to our care. How ironic is that?

02-18-09

2009-02-18T23:35:00.003-05:00

Today was mostly spent taking my aunt to the hospital for some tests. I thought that while she was in for the tests I'd be able to sneak away to one of the local metro parks and take some pictures since they are having a winter photography contest going on now. But Ohio weather as it is, didn't cooperate and it was raining. So instead I made a quick trip to Costco to get my prints for photo club that was going on tonight. So I really didn't have an opportunity to take any pictures. But I did enter this photo tonight to rave reviews. This is Brownie who a friend of mine found. He is now a foster dog with Planned Pethood

02-17-09

2009-02-17T15:09:00.003-05:00

Well I kind of got out of the habit of doing this, but today is a fresh start. Tomorrow night is photo club and our project this month is a self portrait. I am not one that likes to be in front of the camera, that's why I took up photography. But I thought I'd give it a try. After a few feeble attempts with my dSLR, I was sitting at the computer and thought about trying Photo Booth. I tried a few of the special effect and found I especially liked the colored pencil one.

02-09-09

2009-02-09T07:20:00.002-05:00

I found a bouquet of purple tulips marked down at Walmart. Now I just need to find some yellow, white and red ones.

02-08-09

2009-02-08T23:17:00.007-05:00

Now before anyone tries to tell me that I don't understand, let me tell you I have lived in the area for 50 years. And in my younger years was known to accompany my father on ice fishing expeditions. My father and his brothers even had an ice jalopy. An old car that was stripped down, all that was left was the seats, engine, steering wheel, and windshield. Sides, top, doors and trunk were removed so it was lighter in weight and if it did break through the ice you could get out. He also had icy shanties. But why anyone would go out on the ice after 2 days with above freezing weather, especially when they had to cross over a plywood bridge is beyond me. Well Sheriff Bratton had it right. Idiots. And then the ones that went out again the next day to retrieve the stuff they left, Double idiots. I even heard one say that Sheriff Bratton didn't know anything about ice fishing. Yeah, he does know a lot about it. Like you don't go out when you've had above freezing weather for 2 days and a south wind and you have to cross open water with a plywood bridge. All I can say, thank you ice fishermen for helping to stimulate the economy in northwest Ohio. You have cost the taxpayers a few thousand dollars because of your stupidity besides for risking the lives of the rescue personnel. The next time you have a craving for fish, go to your local super market. The taxpayers of Ottawa county and Lucas county will thank you.