Marley

I was in the studio working on some lighting set-ups, Marley kindly stepped in to be an impromptu model.

Studio Test

We spent some time in the studio today basically playing with lighting. Our model was the long suffering Marley who has pretty much grown up with cameras.

376

Poor old Marley has been under the weather for a couple of days but he still managed to pose for a picture.

355/365

Thomas and Amy were off to a Christmas party tonight - Marley got ready but they wouldn't take him.

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Where's Bob?

Poor old Bob spent the day at the vets - ended up having 19 teeth removed. Marley didn't really settle all day

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Marley likes having his picture taken. Since he was a puppy he has always been in front of the camera - he is a natural model but I can't get him to smile.

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Marley passed his Bronze Award at Dog Club tonight. I have to say that he did really well with his one minute sit - stay and his heel work was great. I was concerned though because barking at the Boxer and trying to hump the Golden Retiever probably didn't score us many points.

192/365 Marley's Birthday

So Marley has made it to his first Birthday. Amazing how many stories I have to tell from such a short period of time. Marley spent most of today in the garden chewing on a massive bone. I spent the day patching up after him!! The pond had to be emptied to recover all the things he's dropped in - he had even managed to pull out the fountain pump and chew that. Let's hope the next twelve months are as entertaining as the last.....watch this space.

174/365

Another throwaway... this project doesn't get any easier. I have a week off work so imagined this week would be a breeze. No chance - Monday we ended up at the vets with Marley and a poorly leg then today Thomas broke a tooth, so it was an emergency trip to the dentist.

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In the past I've moaned about Marley for his antics. Today however, he was a real star - he didn't wake this morning until 10:00am which was a real treat. This probably means it will be 05:00am tomorrow!!

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Nothing to do with the picture.....
Easter Sunday started off much like any other morning with the ritual dog walk. On arrival at the recreation ground I did my normal visual checks to ensure there were no little dogs around for Marley to terrorise or children with footballs. In the distance I could see some 'friendly' dog owners so I let the dogs off lead. Marley headed across the field to meet his chums but quickly changed course and headed for the pavilion, I noticed with dismay someone sat on the steps repairing a remote control helicopter. Marley saw someone new to play with!! It was only a matter of seconds before he had got hold of the helicopter's battery pack and was bounding around encouraging the owner to take chase. I ran across the field and was advised to recover said object from dogs mouth. I politely explained that although this seemed a good idea in reality it was not that easy. I did manage to recover the battery pack but not in time to save it. This little incident cost me £50.....

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A long time ago I was into skateboarding - I was OK at it but didn't have the 'no fear' attribute necessary to be really good. My son came in this morning with this board, his friend has leant it to him in a bid to get him into it.

Nothing to do with the picture at all but we went to the cinema to see Marley and me tonight. It made a nice change to get out as a family. After getting over the shock of the ticket price - we only wanted to watch the film not purchase shares in the company - we settled to watch the film. I knew it was going to be sad and it really was a weepy ending - many red eyes were visible when the lights came up at the end.

So I was a wimp at skateboarding and cry at sad films...

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It is interesting where this project takes you. At the start I thought it would be much more a diary of my daily life but it quickly became much more photography, rather than subject based. I would never have believed that I would be spending so much of my free time taking pictures on inanimate objects. So much, that when I post a picture like today's I almost feel like I have let myself down - which is clearly stupid. I think part of this has come from joining the Flickr groups where we wax lyrical over out of focus pictures of bananas. I have learned a lot from some fantastic photographers but need a bit of a reality check!
Anyway, enough waffle. Today's picture was taken at Dog obedience classes and features my daughter Hannah and Marley, who collectively are very much stars of the show.

PS. Watch out for my out of focus banana - coming soon ;-)

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No single decent picture today but a collage of shots taken one handed whilst being dragged around by Marley.

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My beautiful daughter Hannah, (fortunately she gets her looks from her mum) in a rare co-operative moment. Possibly because she needed the services of Dad's taxi. If I'd had more time I would have put the flash outside of the window which would have given a much nicer light. The only problem is I have mislaid my flash gels and Marley (the dog) attacks my light stand if it is outside.

This wasn't my intended picture for the day but once it was 'in the bag' it seemed a shame to take anything else.

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I got the old trumpet out today, under the misconception that I might still be able to play it. I got a note out of it but it wasn't promising. The dogs, well Marley in particular was not impressed. I think he hates it - he howls, not sure if he is trying to sing along or is in pain. The saying in band circles was always - if you can't play it, clean it - or invest in a set of expensive mouthpieces. Well I am not going to do either of those because even more of the lacquer would come off and my problem goes way beyond mouthpiece choice. So, the only useful thing I could do was take a picture and to keep with the musical theme I laid it flat and kept the focus sharp...aaahhh - I need to get out more.

009/365

Another busy day and sadly the daily picture did not receive much focus - pardon the pun! Apart from normal work Marley had to go to the vets - nothing serious, just to get his nails cut. As the nice vet lady went to grab him I noticed what looked like poo sticking out of his rear end. It was one of those awkward moments where you either pretend not to notice - risking more embarrassment or just say something. So I pointed it out and she politely explained that it goes with job - but then she started to pull on the foreign object. "Has he been eating grass?", well not actually grass but he does like reeds from the pond - about 30 inches of reed actually. Anyway the tenuous connection is obviously, reed, pond, Goldfish. I will try much harder tomorrow - could do with some people pictures.

003/365 Kingsdown beach

The weather was great today which meant we could take the dogs to the beach. We drove to Kingsdown and had a nice walk. Marley went and introduced himself to a some fisherman then stole some of their bait - raw squid. I went and apologised but they weren't too bothered - in fact they told me they didn't expect to catch anything anyway. I managed a reasonable picture of Bob but next time I will take my light stand and umbrella.

Bob

In a previous post I mentioned that we were supposed to be getting a retired sniffer dog 'Bob' but the arrangement had fallen through. We got a call this week and were told that Bob was now looking for a home and we had first refusal. On Saturday morning we took Marley to meet Bob - we needed to know if the two dogs would get on. Bob as ever was very calm and almost timid - Marley displayed his usual psycho Lab puppy tendancies but they seemed to get on. We brought Bob home with us and we will see how they get on. We have had an undisturbed first night and as I type the dogs are charging around the garden in the snow flurries. Hopefully today Marley will be less of a thug and Bob will settle down and come out of his shell a little. Oh, and by the way I feel a real numpty shouting, 'Bob, Marley'

Marley - gardening