Dogoshop

Basically Blaze is my lighting and Photoshop "lab rat". Oops, did I just say that?
I put him to sit in for various lighting setups and then I airbrush him i Photoshop until he's somewhere between Goofy, Pluto and a Chocolate Lab crossover. If the photo is good I put it up for sale , if not they land on the blog. Good means various things: lighting , clarity , noise , color, isolation on white, theme etc. Sometimes i get from the agencies: " too many photos on the same theme" and they leave a crappy one to pass and cut off the good ones. Whatever they had as pizza topping that day at lunch, or however crappy day has the reviewer. But the shutter goes on.

International Women's Day

Today is the International Woman's Day  and Blaze is showing his love and affection.

Mockin' it !

Beside being photographed a bunch, Blaze has not settled with his achievements. Not just yet. He is getting ready to immerse himself into Obedience. Taking weekly classes and daily home and park training it's a continuous "thing". We had a crazy busy weekend, but still found some time to take Mr.B out to the Stampede Grounds where we had a dog show going on this past weekend for an "after hours" mock trial. Quite a few people participated, as usually we were the only people with a V-dog and I was the only human male around the ring, not considering the security guy and maintenance. Generally speaking I think the male/ female involvement around here is about 20/80 in the dog world of competition. Anyways, Mr.B, did OK, in my opinion, some said he would have passed, I say there is a little need for correction, not a huge , but at least we know where we stand with him. It's all good except the final jump to the handlers heel, he kind of got lost in checking out the nearby dogs with his eyes. Then I exited for the period of stay-don't move which resulted Blaze scanning the building with his eyes to find me. He did not move just continuously scanned the terrain with his eyes. I think it's better that I stay beside the ring, so he knows that I'm there.

Um, no photos.

The shutter goes on

Piling up photos is my duty lately. Less with Blaze, as I mentioned, more with other stuff.I squeezed him in wherever it was possible for a few shots dough. Yesterday he was frantic dough as we had a toddler and Blaze was super duper jealous for all the attention the baby gotten from us, so we had to cool his pants( Blaze's) " OK dude , you're not in danger, gotta get used to it though!". He finally cooled down , but oh boy, he threw a a little excitement scene for a moment.

 New bed, comfy !

 Can you hear me breathing?

 Our 10 months old model, going for DJ

Blaze learning new skills.

Hot dog dog

So I had this idea popping into my aging brain one day " dog with hot dog in mouth". I was totally convinced that the internet is loaded with such photos. Especially the stock photo sites. Well, I was quite surprised with the result returned by Google and so on: none.  Just run a search and let me know..

So here I'm off to the grocery store, bought a 12 pack of HD's and buns, just in case. Down to the studio , get it into Blaze's mouth and wait for the outcome: 3 seconds from teeth to tummy. No. He sat there holding the bun and the hot dog inside of it. I was surprised to be honest. I knew he improved his obedience big time, but, dude, there is a real hot dog in his mouth, not less. Here's the outcome:

and yeah the reward for being such a good puppy

Blaze the model

Yes I have taken a bunch of photos, more than a bunch...bit less with Blaze though. Although it's almost impossible to have a photo-shoot these days without Mr. B marching right into it. I have to hush him out of the picture. He walks slowly out giving me the evil eye, just to march right back in few minutes. One day he was basically depressed, with nose in the ground, looked like he will throw up in seconds. Soon as I said " OK , come here, you can sit -in few shots" he cheered up and he was all happy from there on. So now to keep the dog happy ( ?8^O ) I have a mini photo-shoot with him after each session. Go figure. Got to keep the dog happy by photographing him.