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47/52

Spencer loves lying with his paws crossed. It's one of his signature poses. See how nice and neat his feets are? I have to trim the hair with scissors, otherwise he gets what my brother calls "afro paws". Tufts of hair sticking up on top of his paws and between the pads. Spencer knows that excessively hairy feet is never a good look so he grudgingly puts up with regular paw trims.

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Even the back of Spencer's head is adorable. Look at his ear fluff! And I so love the soft late afternoon light.

45/52

Playing catch up again. This is bad, I really must put more effort into taking photos and posting them up on time. Starting next week...

44/52

The silly brown dog jumps over the purple rod.

Hilarious out-take:

43/52

In my excitement about finishing work early and having a four day weekend in front of me, I almost forgot to take this weeks photo. I remembered just in time though, and took this shot before it started raining. I'm loving the sky in this photo. And Spencer's regal look.

Every day when I get home from work (grooming salon) I say to Spence, "You're the best looking dog I've seen all day!".

42/52

I have an action shot for your viewing pleasure this week. Make the most of it, cos they're pretty rare! I decided to try panning and managed to get one keeper. Poor Spence was made to stay while I threw his ball, got into position, checked camera settings, and then finally released him. We did it over and over for this one shot. I think it was worth it, Spencer's not so sure.

40/52 & 41/52

Posting my photos from the last two weeks finally. The first one is pretty terrible. Boring, noisy, blah. I do like Spencer's happy smiley face though.

Week 41. I think I probably spent more time making this daisy chain than I did taking the photo.

39/52

I almost fell off the wagon during these last two weeks, but just managed to hang on. I'm so close to the finish that I don't want to give up now! After work on Friday the light was gone and I had to take this photo inside under crappy artificial lights. I decided to embrace the necessary slow shutter speed and deliberately move the camera during the exposure. I have to say, I quite like the end result. It looks like Spence is just sitting there in a fog while the world passes him by. Kinda like how I feel sometimes! 

38/52

This post is way late and I feel terrible cos this shot was taken on Spencer's 10th birthday. He didn't even have a special birthday photoshoot, just a few quick snapshots so I wouldn't fail my 52 Weeks project. Sorry pup! He did get a lamb neck for dinner that day though, so he wasn't completely neglected.

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Spring has sprung! The flowers are blooming and the weather is warming up. When the weather is nice Spence and I spend hours on the weekends lying in the front yard reading and enjoying the sunshine. Okay, I read, he sniffs around and snoozes.

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"Even the tiniest Poodle or Chihuahua is still a wolf at heart." - Dorothy Hinshaw Patent; Dogs: The Wolf Within.

This photo was such a fluke. I couldn't believe it when I saw that Spencer's shadow looked exactly like a howling wolf!

35/52

I love my boy. He's such a goofball. As you can see by his silly happy derrr face below.

                                                    

I'm not sure what he was doing here, but he sure looks blissed out. Maybe he was thinking happy thoughts to keep his mind off the camera being in his face again.

34/52

I didn't have the best day yesterday, but my walk with Spence at the end of the day made up for it. It was late afternoon and the light filtering through the pine trees at the park was fantastic. This photo is definitely a new favourite.

And another shot that will be included in Spencer's book.

I love using back lighting to photograph Spence. It shows off his nice lean body shape better than front lighting and makes his feathers glow.

33/52

I know, I know. This post is late. I wish I could say the wait was worth it, but um, it would be a lie. 'Tis just a snapshot from Saturday before last when I saw Spence lying in the tiny sunpatch by the front door.

Ahahaha!

If looks could kill Steve would be busily consuming my body and this post would be non-existent. Fortunately they can't kill, they can only say "I'll get you for this, Human!".

32/52

I'm a little bit in love with this photo. The vibrant colours, the expression on Spencer's face (apparently lounging around on the couch is a Very Serious Business), his paws hanging over the edge... And Spence is obviously getting good at this modelling thing. I orginally had him sitting up in the middle of the couch, but during the shoot he decided to move over and lie down. So I can't really take any credit for the framing in this photo. Spence followed the Rule of Thirds all by himself. Clever boy!

The other funny thing is Spence isn't actually allowed on the couch, but after I'd finished taking photos he decided that he IS allowed on the couch now. I let him sleep on it during the afternoon, but we got busted tonight when mum was sitting on the couch and Spence hopped up next to her. Oops. After she ordered him off he disappeared for awhile before coming back with her phone in his mouth which he delivered to her. What a suck!

31/52

I've been working every day this week which means I haven't really had time to do a proper photo session with Spence. Such a shame cos we've had some great weather. I finished work early today and managed a quick 10 minute shoot before the rain clouds rolled in. Hopefully I have more time next week to be a bit more creative.

30/52

I don't even know whether I like this photo or not. It looked different (ie. better) in my head.

Hello old friend

I've been using my 50mm 1.8 and 24mm 2.8 lenses for most of my photos. The other day I dusted off my 90mm 2.8 and took some shots with it. I originally bought the lens for macro photography, but discovered that a) I'm no good at macro and b) it doesn't really interest me. Luckily the 90mm is also great for portraits.

Here's an old photo of Steve taken with the lens. I think he'd just spotted a bird!

And a macro shot. It looks like this little guy had a pretty successful pollen gathering expedition :)

29/52

You may have noticed that all of my photos of Spence are taken whilst he is stationary. There's a good reason for that: I suck at action shots! This week though, I bit the bullet and decided to practise shooting a moving target. I'm happy to report I came up with some keepers (along with the usual blurry stuff).

Incoming! How cute would Spence look with prick ears??

Holy Moley!

I logged into blogger tonight and found I had a follower! My first ever! I think this best sums up my reaction:

Spencer was more like, "Well who WOULDN'T want to follow me??".

I'm guessing my mystery follower is a DOLer cos my stats lists DOL (that's dogzonline for the uninitiated) as a traffic source. Thanks heaps for being interested enough to follow me; please leave a comment and let me know who you are!

Bad to the Bone

I got home from work today to find that Spence had stolen and eaten nearly 100g of my good 70% cocoa Lindt dark chocolate. Not happy. And he didn't even have the decency to have a stomach ache or anything!* Just managed to look a little sheepish. He's just lucky he's so damned handsome...

*Disclaimer: I am well aware that chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is toxic to dogs. I rang the vet to ask what symptoms I should look out for and have kept an eye on Spence all night. Luckily he's perfectly fine :)

28/52

The primary school down the road had a new gym built recently, and some of the textures of the building are perfect for photo backdrops. Today we had a little photo session in front of the brick wall. Because of school holidays and cold cloudy weather, the place was deserted which meant Spence could work off leash. And the roast chicken I brought along ensured his attention was focused on me!

27/52

The weather has been decidedly wintry this week so I decided to shoot Spence modelling his hoodie. I don't know who he thinks he is, but he has the celebrity 'back to camera and look over shoulder' pose down pat! Sorry to burst your bubble kiddo, but only the girls do that.

26/52

I'm halfway through my 52 Weeks project and still going strong despite a few little hiccups and 'omg I can't be stuffed taking a photo right now' moments. I think writing down ideas as they come to me and having an idea in mind when I pick up the camera has helped.

It definitely helped this week when I had to drag myself from my sickbed to take this photo. I already had this idea in mind and it was super easy to set up and execute.

Saturday With Steve

I had fun shooting Steve in the kitchen this morning. It's been too long since I photographed him. I think I might work towards making a "Book of Steve" with all my photos of the little dude.

25/52

Spence isn't impressed with me smelling of strange dogs when I get home from work. He wouldn't even accept my peace offering. Maybe I should have offered a cookie instead of a flower.

24/52

I actually got myself organised and took this weeks photo early! Lucky, or I would have had to come up with ANOTHER 'painting with light' photo.

Here's Spence showing off how clever and obedient he is. HA!

23/52

I've been working all week and it's been dark when I've gotten home, so I had to do another light painting. This didn't turn out exactly as planned, but it's the best I could do.

One of those days...

Bitten on the thumb by a dog at work, tetanus shot, huge antibiotic tablets to take...AND dropped my kindle! Blah.

Luckily my kindle is okay. Phew!

22/52

Spence is all set for winter with his giant Queen sized blanket. He can lie on it like a bed, bunch it up and use it as a pillow, or snuggle up under it. The single bed size would have been fine for him, but the Queen size was the same price - $16. How could I possibly pass that up??

21/52

Poor old Spence was diagnosed with quite advanced arthritis in his hips on Monday. He'd been limping on and off for a couple of weeks. I just thought he'd strained his leg a little with all his struggling when he was last at the vet. He hadn't been limping or had any stiffness at all before that, so I'm hoping we'll be able to wean him off the pain meds he's on at the moment.

Anyway, I thought I'd try an 'old folks' theme for this weeks photo. Here's Spence rugged up in a shawl, lying on the front porch with a cup of tea. Unfortunately we don't have a rocking chair!

And here's a silly out-take!