After a bad shin splint forced me to cancel hitting Dupont with my friends, I was inspired by the photo of a lovely shelter dog (who has since been adopted) and me in my mom’s article “Help Wanted: Dogs” (about working dogs) in the March/April issue of Yes Mag, the Science Magazine for Adventurous Minds (Canadian, hence the spelling). Unfortunately the results weren’t what I was hoping for!
I was hoping for a really great recent photo of Toby and me to go in the sidebar. I got a photo where Toby looks cute but I’m far too vain regarding my own self to put it in the sidebar. It’s at the top for those of you who want to see the reject photo. If I cropped it to just Toby’s cute expression, it’d actually be pretty good (in my nonphotographer opinion).
I did get a photo where I’m holding Nikolai who cuddles much more than Toby. However, in the photo where I got the light correct, Nik ended up moving and looks a bit like a furry blur. He’s a cute furry blur though, so I’m using that as my photo for now because, well, I am vain 🙂
I should have learned my lesson with the magazine photos. A professional photographer friend (who is also a vet tech and awesome with animals) and another shelter volunteer both helped me try to get a good photo with one of the shelter dogs. My mom was writing her article and the editor (who seems incredibly sweet and who my mom always loves to write for) had suggested a photo of her daughter with a shelter dog since my mom doesn’t play with them herself (this has been explained elsewhere in this blog). I am in awe of animal photographers. We tried two different dogs both inside and outside. We ended up getting a cute photo of Nya and me where she’s looking away but still adorable.
I’ve since learned that patience, treats, a friend, and lucky timing are the key to great human/animal photos. Animals on their own are always cute. It’s just more difficult with a person involved!
We humans always mess up a good thing with our vanity.