This year I’ve made my normal snow shots. Kirsch & Ekko LOVE the snow, if they see me put on my snowshoes they can’t contain their excitement. While Kirsch & Ekko’s humans were recently vacationing in Budapest:
the agility equipment seemed to fall into disuse; If you can’t tell, the boardwalk is just left of the tire jump. Both the dogs and I needed to exercise,
so even though it was 2 degrees F this morning, I stuffed a couple logs into the wood stove, tugged on the snowshoes, and hoped the camera would work in this frigid cold. Since the boys had been up since 4:00 this morning barking at the coyotes, I was even able to get Ekko to slow down enough to get a couple shots of him. I don’t know at whom he is sticking out his tongue.
And of course, you can’t keep Kirsch from ending up in front of the camera.
I looked at the first pic before I read the captions and was like “hey I don’t think that’s Traverse City!”
Is one of your dogs the dog in this blog’s banner at the top?
Nice catch on that on – that’s Kirsch on the banner, a photo I took when he was a little older than Nikon. His tail had grown, his body, not so much.
That is not at all TC. We spent some time in Prague, Bavaria, and Budapest. Michele is half Hungarian and always wanted to visit. Prague was vibrant, Budapest still suffers from it’s history, both old and recent. The people were great, but there was an underlying feeling of fate not being kind to the Hungarians. It was a bittersweet experience for Michele.
Garth and Michelle — welcome home!!! What a great trip!
The boys are looking marvelous and when did Kirsch turn into such a manly dog?
Hello Garth & Michelle! Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos.
Garth, I believe that you had promised to take some pix for me several months back. It’s time to fulfill your obligation!
Please send this bottom photo of Garth, full size, in high resolution! Both your boys are very handsome, but this photo of Garth is just stunning.
I would almost trade in my flip-flops for snowshoes for one day just to have the opportunity to photograph the dogs.
Regards,
Carole
CarsinGSD@gmail.com
OK. Garth, even though I think you are a very handsome man, it is really KIRSCH that I believe is stunning!
(I’m certain that Julie will get a laugh out of this little blunder!)
Carole—Snowshoes and flip flops are the same thing! Only difference are snowshoes are bigger. You will be a natural in snowshoes.
As for Garth, I agree he can be classified as eye candy. Lucky Michele! This reminds me I have not yet shared the pictures of good looking men from the BSZS in Aachen —do you think I only take pictures of the dogs?
Michele is most definitely the lucky one!
No—I knew you took photos of more than dogs! Just thought you decided to keep those “great shots” for yourself!
The last foto is simply stunning , thank you for sharing, what a beautiful dog. I live in Scotland but snow rarely sits on the ground where I am because of the salty sea air xxx
Carole:
Blush, wait a minute, you’re looking a Kirsch! He is very handsome. I’ll email the bottom one high res, as well as a couple others that are pretty nice.
As to snowshoes, yes, a lot like flip flops, only I need them for walking across the yard. And yet another foreign concept for those not in the snow belt, I’ve already raked my roof twice this year.
I did take the boys out sledding this morning (I sledded, they chased), that really incites the herding drive. Kirsch playfully nips at me all the way down the hill. I just need a way to get them to pull me UP the hill.
As a bit of an aside, I’m wondering how those with more photographic experience set up snow photos when the sun is out? I can’t really capture the real beauty of the brilliant white snow without losing the detail of the dogs. It makes me want to dig out my old film SLR and filters.
G.
This is where snow looks most at home – not in my backyard in lower southeastern MI. I actually like the fact that my snowshoes typically only get a workout every 5 years or so.
Your poochies are both very handsome and your photographic skills are great. Just a thought – can you shoot in RAW? If you can, you would be surprised at all the info embedded in the shot that you could pull out and tweak. As your shots are now, I think you have reached a nice balance of snow texture without losing the rich details of your dogs’ expressions and coats.
Thanks for reminding me about the snow rake – I’ve got to get the snow off my greenhouse roof with my rake tomorrow or suffer the dire consequences. That’s another item that only gets used about every 5 years.
I should not address since I have not taken one single snow picture all year.
If you were using your SLR what filters would you be using? Have you tried slapping them on the DSLR? When I finally do get out and take some pictures in the snow I will have a polarizing filter on my lens. I will let you know how it goes.
Margot, Julie:
Thanks. I am a bit limited by my camera (Nikon L15), although it has decent resolution at 8 megs, it won’t shoot in RAW format, and is a P&S so I can’t fit filters on it.
If I were shooting with film, I’d probably use a warming filter to reduce the blueness of the snow. Something with the way light is reflected off snow, but it always ends up way bluer than real life colors, especially if it’s clear and you have blue skies. I’d also try a polarizing filter, but I don’t think it would be my first choice.
I’ve spent a lot of my life looking at snow; nordic skiing, snowshoeing, shoveling, and I’ve always lived my life in lake effect areas. I still use waxable nordic skis, so I tend to study the snow structure.
Lake effect snow is quite different from system snow, with very nicely developed crystals that really make it sparkle, and it is also quite “dry” (for snow). Lake effect can make for great photos if you’re able to capture the structure of the snow.
Garth you are getting great pictures, especially with a P&S!
The picture of Buda was wonderful! Hope you both noticed the dome of the gorgeous parliament building in the background, across the river. The travelers are up on the Buda side, in the Castle. Makes me
ready to head back immediately, but it will probably be a year from May.
Meanwhile, we are concentrating on coffee and korpuus.
Happy Solstice!
Ann:
We spent a couple days in Budapest, we stayed at the Hilton in the Buda Castle area, but also spent a day in Pest.
I’ll bite on this one, what is korpuss?
Garth
oops, I meant korpuus.
Garth
He will probably be disappointed–not Hungarian, but Finnish (and general Scandinavian and North European), known in Russian as sukhari (or sukhariki, if they are smaller). I still get mine from the Trenary Bakery in the UP, where they are just listed as Trenary Toast. Not quite the same as the ones we used to get from the Swedish Bakery, but I fear that has been gone for years, and Trenary is not only there but has a web site. The cinnamon kind has been holiday breakfast for years.