2010 GRCA National Agility Gallery

(Click on the photo of Hawkeye for a larger view)

Here's the link: GRCA Agility Photos

One thing I've been dying to say about the GRCA trial: for it being a national, and therefore, I'm thinking, a pretty big deal, you folks sure were mellow. Maybe it's a Golden Thing?

Hemi

As with the MHGRC trial, two rings running simultaneously... if I missed your team, I'm sorry. And as with the MHGRC, I've included reference photos in the vast majority of of runs. There are a few though where I didn't. Contact me if you have questions about this.

A note on ordering: if you are interested in an 8 x 10 photo with text (like the shot of Hawkeye) just add "with text" along with your dog's name in the notes section when placing your order.

Thanks for visiting!

MHGRC Agility

Here's the link: MHGRC Photos

It was my pleasure to shoot photograph Golden after Golden at the Mile High Golden Retriever Club and the Golden Retriever Club of America National agility trials held last week in Greeley, Colorado. The trials were held Monday and Tuesday. I hung around Wednesday and was able to shoot a few portraits and take quite a few agility photo orders. (Thanks to all who stopped by.)

The MHGRC photo link will take you to an online gallery where you may view and order photos. The 8 x 10s with text (like Aine's photo, above) commemorating either trial are proving popular. If you would like this style, when you place your order just write "add text" in the notes section on the online order form. (It's pretty straightforward.)

I get payment questions from time to time: I accept either check or Pay Pal.

Limey

I shot a little bit of everything -- to the extent possible with two rings running simultaneously. On many of the Jumpers runs I feel like there were some nice team shots with excellent rear crosses right where I'd hoped they'd be. Several people have already ordered this particular shot, so do look for yourself. (OK, so the above of Tom Johns and Limey is not exactly that but it's nice nonetheless.)

Reason

I was also lucky enough to get some tunnel shots I am quite happy with. But you may have to work with me on this: I neglected to shoot (human) reference photos at times on the Excellent Standard runs but I did keep a detailed shot list of the dogs. If in doubt, shoot me an e-mail and I can help you locate your teammate.

Edge

Thank you very much to Warren Frizzell for the invitation to photograph the trials and to Warren, Mardee Kayser, Helen and others for all of their help on-site.

I should have the GRCA National photos up tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

Enjoy the gallery!

DOCNA Title Shots

Goose and Duck

Update: added the above photo of Belle because... well, because I can! Oh, and to show what a shot looks like with the "2010 DOCNA Nationals" text.

Thanks for the messages reminding me about the title photos. I decided it would be easiest to just post them in one gallery and let you choose. Here's the link: DOCNA Title/Ribbon Photos

The title photos come in the 8 x 10 print and high resolution digital sizes only. (Changing prices for photos in a single gallery is WAY beyond my html skills.)

Enjoy!

2010 DOCNA National Championships

Last Thursday we packed up the pack, my camera gear and printer, and headed south, to Grand Junction, for the DOCNA Nationals. It was our first, an event we'd looked forward to ever since I figured out the significance of the NAC qualifiers offered at local Utah trials in the summer of 2009. (Really, I had no idea what the big deal was about the NAC.)

Roxie

Suzie and I LOVE The Junction. The Stampes and others are probably tired of hearing us go on about how we'd like to move there... but to visit GJ for the DOCNA championships was the best reason yet.

Here's a link to photos from the trial: DOCNA National Championships Gallery.

Josie Girl

Personally, Suzie and I feel like we had a pretty productive weekend with Wyatt and Josie. Both got ribbons of every color. Josie's accomplishments are perhaps more noteworthy as she was in a deeper, more talented field. But I am very, very, VERY happy with Wyatt's Jumpers crown. He really got on it for me when it counted -- in spite of a really big handling error on my part in the finals! (Who botches jumpers, right? I do!)

If you ran in the Intern class, you might not find photos of your runs. I'm sorry about this. It was difficult to run Wyatt and shoot the same class. But this was Wyatt's last trial so, in all likelihood, next year, we won't have the same conflict!

Did you catch that in the last sentence? Yep, Wyatt is RETIRED! He went out with a bang and I am soooo proud of him. I will now focus on Cisco. And unless I am unable to bring it out of him, 16" jumpers need to be very, very afraid! (Just kidding, of course.)

Thanks for looking!

Great Salt Lake Agility Gallery

Nic

Here's the link: GSL Agility Photos

This was actually one of the more difficult trials I've shot in a while; with very few exceptions the 'money' shots were invariably backlit, which makes for horrible shots of black dogs in particular. It happens. It's why there are so many chute shots here and so few weaves, no tires, etc. But whattayagonnado? (Course designers, repeat after me: Run To The Sun!)

Still, it a was fun three days.

I love the chute, actually. Even though it is -- for me -- easily the most difficult thing to shoot well. That shot of Nic, at top, and some of the others you'll see in the gallery were worth the effort though.

Ivana

That leaves.... jumps. With jumps, I try to look for a certain angle. If you get lucky, you can find an angle conducive to a rear cross. If you get even luckier, some sort of synchronicity might find you. Can you see it in the above shot of Ivana and Katherine Emge? (Sorry for the decapitation, Kathy!)

Aine

And sometimes you can find an angle that lets you stack a series of jumps. I think that's why this shot of Aine is one of my favorites of the weekend. (Click on it for a better view.)

Anyway... Thanks for visiting and I hope you find something you like.

PS. From Thursday through not-quite-sure when next week, I'll be in Colorado, first at DOCNA Nationals, and then at Golden Retriever Nationals. (Wish Wyatt luck at DOCNA!) I'm afraid orders won't go out until late next week at the earliest.

Great Salt Lake Agility

It was nice to see old friends and make new ones this weekend. It will be a few days before I get the gallery up but I thought I'd post a few shots (with questions!) before we head out to Flyball practice this afternoon.

Question 1: How is it that Nic, and shelties in general, are so dang graceful?

Nic

Question 2: Why do border collies look like they've just seen a ghost when they come out of the chute? Is there something going on in there we don't know about?

Gyp

Ditto

Question 3: Can Indy (below) take a bad photo?

Indy

Thanks for looking and bye for now. And again, please check back in another day or two for the gallery.

More Soldier Hollow

It's Tuesday (and I am so happy to be home)!

Thought I'd throw a few more shots up. If you missed it from the last post, you can find the entire Soldier Hollow Splash Dogs gallery here.

Thanks for looking!

Soldier Hollow Splash Dogs

Andy LaRochelle and Onyx

I was on the road all week this week and, well, didn't get these images posted nearly as soon as I would've liked. But here's the gallery: Soldier Hollow Splash Dogs.

I've included more images than I probably should have but I've done so with the thought that many of you might just like to see your dogs doing their thing.

I had a blast this year watching y'all jump! With the help of Josh, Andy and others we nearly have my little Cisco jumping, too! Here's to hoping the little guy overcomes that fear of what must surely be the equivalent of diving off the high board for us.

I'll leave you with this shot of Gosia and Blink. I like the concept a lot and this is something I will try to perfect for future events; it's VERY difficult to get enough usable (read: sharp) frames for this -- at least for this half-blind photographer! (Click on the image for a larger view.)

Gosia and Blink

Blink jumped really, really well. I hope G doesn't mind me saying so but is it not amazing that the biggest jumping border collie in the nation can't swim!?

Flyball with the Utah Tail Blazers

While the ball really does (occasionally) fly, it's the dogs that do most of the flying...

Tripp and an unidentified ball

Last Sunday afternoon, just like almost every other Sunday this summer, we had flyball practice at a local park. The 'we' in our family are Josie, Cisco and Suzie and me. (No, fb for Wyatt. Poor Wyatt.)

We're flyball rookies. If this were the NFL we would have to carry the other players' smelly... shoulder pads or practice in dresses or submit to some other indignation. I'm told I have to do wind sprints this Sunday but that's because I submitted this photo for posting on the UTB blog for their Wordless Wednesday post. I can't say who that is in the photo for fear of further retaliation....

Josie and a mystery ball holder

Practice is usually all about... practice. But last time around I got out the camera to see what I could see.

Calamity

Here's one of my favorites. While a flyball purist may take issue with the form (I say it's perfect form and the camera lies!!) I just love this shot.

Here are some more: UTB Practice

Enjoy!

Splash Dogs

Chase Me owned by Laurie Thompson

In early June I shot a few 'waves' of Splash Dogs while taking in Dog Days at Thanksgiving Point. (Dog Days is like heaven for dog lovers; in addition to Splash Dogs, there is an agility fun-run/demo, course-a-lure and dozens of other attractions and booths.)

Here's a link to the gallery: Splash Dog Photos

(If it's your first time to the site, click on the initial thumbnail to bring up a page with thumbs of everything. Click on a thumbnail again to bring up a bigger proof and pricing.)

This was my first time photographing this type of event and there was a bit of a learning curve. On top of that, unfortunately, the dogs were jumping more-or-less west to east -- horrible for shooting black dogs at high-noon and beyond. But whattayagonnado? (Yes, I would like a little cheese with that whine!)

I liked the event so much that dock diving just may be in Cisco's future. A few of our Utah Tail Blazers Flyball friends are already involved, so there's no shortage of expertise to tap into. When that happens I'll have to hand the camera off to one of you to shoot Cisco's jumps.

Any takers?

I'd like to shoot more Splash Dogs and hope to make it to Soldier Hollow over the Labor Day weekend.

DOCNA Red White and Q!

Polly & Ethan

We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Grand Junction with the AWESOME Zippity Do Dog folks. I have lots of photos to share but only have time tonight to put the gallery online.

So here it is: DOCNA Red White and Q photos

Suzie, Wyatt, Josie and I had such a great time at the trial. Ditto for ZDD's September 2009 trial. During our drive home on Sunday we spent a lot of time talking about how nice it would be to live there...

More on the trial to come in the next day or two.

Thanks for visiting.

GSL Agility Combined

Indy

Hello all!

Here are some more photos from this weekend: GSL June 12/13 Agility Trial

I've added Sunday's to those taken on Saturday; they're all in one gallery! This means you can order photos from the whole trial in one shopping cart.

(You must complete an order from one gallery before proceeding to another or you will still lose the images in your shopping cart. I'm sorry if this has happened to you.)

I'll try to post a few more of the shots I liked from the weekend. But this post goes out to Indy. The lens is liking Indy a lot. For some reason I get more crisply focused keepers with Indy than most other dogs. And I've just gotten so lucky with shots of this screamin' demon on course doing his thing. That would be running really well while talking to his handler, Marilyn Murray.

Thanks for visiting the site!

Great Salt Lake Agility

Here's a link to photos from today. GSLDTC Agility Photos

It's somewhat slim pickins as the weather was horrible and, for much of the day, it wasn't all that conducive to shooting.

But the company was good!

Group IV AKC Agility Photos

Here is the link: Group IV Agility

Because of other commitments I was only able to shoot on Saturday. And only Standard classes at that.

Sorry if I missed your dog this time around. I'll be at the Great Salt Lake trial June 12/13, shooting both days.

And how do you like the above image? It's one of my favorite chute shots to date. Love it!

Thanks for looking and I hope to see you at the GSLDTC trial.

Fender The (High Stakes) Elite Gambler

That old Kenny Rogers song comes to mind. At the Muddy Paws trial Fender (and Edie) showed us he knows how to play the game. If you are too young to know who Kenny Rogers is, well... respect your elders!

Congratulations Fender!

Some housekeeping: All orders from last week will go out in today's mail. I will try to get orders received over the weekend out before week's end.

I'm doing post-work on some sittings as well. Can't wait to share those but I wanna get the prints done first.

Enjoy this snowy May day.

Sun Dogs and Black Dogs

Sunday afternoon it appeared and all of a sudden -- while I was walking the course no less! -- I started hearing that I needed to grab my camera and shoot a Sun Dog. Being a pretty obedient guy, I did. I'd never seen one before but I think we all took it as a good omen that it came to our little ASCA trial. Phil Hahn explained it best when he told me "a Sun Dog is a rainbow-like spot in a cirrus cloud. Light shining through ice crystals in the cloud makes a sundog, much like the light shining through raindrops makes a rainbow." Phil's smart like that.

Black Dogs

I'm still a little miffed that some of the shots in the gallery are darker than they should be. Something's up. So just because I can, I thought I'd post a few of what those shots should actually look like.

OK, so Bingley is not all that dark. But I like this shot -- and a few others of him from this weekend. Judging from those images I think there's more to Bingley than meets the eye. He's intense in the weaves and in this shot, call me crazy, but I think he's smiling.

OK, Spur is not exactly a black dog either. I just like this shot of Robyn Garrett's baby.

Here we go:

And if you missed it from the last post, here's the link to the gallery: ASCA Muddy Paws

ASCA Muddy Paws

OMG! Web Commerce Hell! I can now say I've been there. I had MAJOR problems with my online store but I think I have resolved them. Go me! Thanks for your patience at the trial and when you've gone looking for the gallery only to find nothing.

Here it is: ASCA Muddy Paws 2010

Big, big congratulations to Izzy and Little C for their ATCH! (Little C absolutley would not look at me so we took what we could get for this shot just after the big run.)

In the ASCA tradition this was a nice, mellow trial. Cool judge. Small field (entrants). All nice. Fun but a little challenging to shoot in some respects...

This shot of Pippi was one of my favorites of the weekend. Such a cute little lady! But then again I'm partial to corgis and Pippi is a Corgi-Westie mix. (Hope I get that right.)

Ginger Snaps was also adorable. Her tail is like a rudder and finds its way all over the place. And those ears have a mind of their own as well.

Important note when viewing the gallery: The images are darker than usual for some reason. (Quite possibly a remnant of the software woes I had this weekend.) And so some of the darker and black dogs in particular look too dark. They're not. So I thought I'd share a couple of images of dark dogs to give you an idea what they will look like as prints or jpegs -- both of the images below look way to dark in the gallery but they're really fine. If you have a question about a given image, just let me know.

Jack

Latigo

That's it. Time to crash!

Thanks for looking.

Jasper & Daisy

Jasper and Daisy live on our street, five doors down. They're a regular fixture of life in our great neighborhood; we see them on their morning walk with their human companions, John and Sheryl, just about every day. Since our little photo session a few months back Jasper (on the left) and I have become best buds; if we're out at the same time, he is gonna come say hello. Period. And there's a whole lot of hello in Jasper to go around. But I like that.

These guys are clearly best friends and are inseparable, so when we talked about what we were after in a photo, a two-shot made the most sense. But just sitting around and looking pretty for the camera wasn't something they were into. No, they'd rather play. So after a few posed shots, we brought out a toy and a game of tug-o-war was quickly on!

The toy never stood a chance.

Jackson & Sadie

Paul Thiriot is a friend of over a decade. He happens to be one of the better cameramen in Utah if not the US. No lie. Paul can make a jar of mayonnaise look sexy. If you've ever seen Dateline, you've probably seen his work. A few times a year, we get the chance to work together.

On a job just before Christmas we were hovering over our iphones, sharing pix of our dogs. When I showed him a portrait of Wyatt, Paul got kind of excited and told me he wanted me to shoot his Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Jackson and Sadie. Talk about making my day! (For you 'agiliphiles', it would be like Susan Garrett asking you to run her dog.)

Sadie & Jackson

It was Paul's daughter Danielle that brought the pair into the family. (And what does Danielle do? Oh, she's 'just' a jet pilot in the US Navy.) Her fiance wanted to give her a photo for Christmas. We decided to go with a canvas gallery wrap of the image below. It'd be pretty hard to mess up a shot of this pair but it did turn out even better than I'd envisioned.

That musculature and their lines just blow me away. I would not want to be an African lion with a pack of these guys on my tail...

Paul will have Sadie and Jackson at the Lure Coursing trial in Morgan over Memorial Day weekend (along with a bunch of other ridgebacks). I've never seen them run and I've never actually seen Lure Coursing, so I hope to make it up for the event and possibly shoot some runs.

Outdoor Agility Season!!

OMG! It's here! And man are we excited about it! Well, Josie's excited and Wyatt is... well, it depends on the day, the temperature, his bio-rhythms and... me. Sigh. More on Wyatt in a minute.

Josie at the April USDAA trial in Farmington

We've taken part in three trials so far. If Josie's results are an indication, she and Suzie are on their way to a nice season. Josie is hitting her weaves more consistently (a bit of a problem area) and she is getting more comfortable running ahead of Suzie -- a must for a fast girl whose legs are almost as long as her handler's!

At this past weekend's AKC trial in South Jordan, Josie got more Qs than not and in just her second trial, she's a leg shy of moving up to Open in both Standard and Jumpers. (I note here that AKC Novice courses are ridiculously simple. My humble opinion anyway.) And the great thing about Josie is that she just loves agility.

Wyatt at the UKI Fun Trial ~ photo: Carol Clawson

Wyatt, on the other hand, probably won't miss agility at all when he's no longer running. The summer heat only adds to his occasional on-course apathy. Try as I do -- and if you've seen us run you know I am as much cheerleader as handler -- I'm starting to 'lose' him (his attention) with increasing frequency. Still, he got an Excellent standard leg this weekend and was oh-so-close in two Jumpers runs. So I think we'll run this summer and then Wyatt's gonna get a big ole 'Retired' sign on his kennel. Perhaps he'll pursue that modeling career he's always talking about.

That EXCELLENT photo of Wyatt above was taken by our friend Carol Clawson. As cute as "Mr. Never a Hair Out of Place" is, the photo illustrates one of the banes of our agility existence: contacts. W just loves to hang out on top of the A frame before frequently doing a leaping dismount.

And me? I had so much fun shooting agility last year that I'm just excited, almost giddy, to be able to photograph in good outdoor light again. At the same time, I'll almost certainly shoot fewer trials than last year. I will be at the local ASCA trial this weekend. It's a nice, relaxed venue and Robyn Garrett and Linda Hahn were very supportive last year in allowing me to shoot when I was still trying to figure out how to shoot these wonderful athletes we're so lucky to have in our lives! (And I'll be running with Wyatt.)

Here are a few photos from the April USDAA trial. I shot very little at this show as I was running Wyatt and, frankly, just wanted to relax and visit with friends... But a few turned out nice and kind of reinvigorated me for the upcoming season.

Cesar - airborn and with a tailwind

Indy

Lock-step. Can you see it?

Pushing through the chute