Awards and Recognition

Challenge 1 was to photograph the subject (dog) against a bright, colourful background.  Diesel was perfect and we received Top 20 out of 103 wonderful photographers!

Challenge 6 was to photograph the subject (dog) looking straight up at the camera, making sure that eye contact was exact and that the eyes were sharp while everything else fell out of focus.  Early on, when my grass in my small backyard had yet to be mowed, I had a plot of violets blooming. I knew I had to try for my soul searcher image on that background. I started with my own Teddy, but that did not quite work out of course. I also got an image of Beckham at my local green area.  Also not p[erfect.  So I called on Baille one rainy afternoon, to come over quickly with Cooper before the flowers died.  No sun meant great even light on Cooper's face.  We spent 20 minutes trying for this shot and only this one.  I had a couple choices to choose from, but eventually went with this whole body view.  I was right and received my first Top 10 placement.  So thrilled!!

Challenge 7 was to photograph the subject (dog) in a city or urban environment. Certainly not my strength.  I struggled to find a location that tickled my fancy and captured my eye.  Nothing did until I went to Parkwood.  The images from that session are wonderful and I finally settled on the image of Cooper in front of the back steps of this historic building.  I was right and received a Top 20 placement.  So thrilled!!

Challenge 9 was to photograph the dog doing a classic head tilt.  A lot of dogs will do this when hearing certain high pitched sounds or key words like "that?" or "walks" or "bath".  I met up with Beckham at the beginning of the summer soon after finding out what all the challenges were about and he had an excellent head tilt.  Although I did photograph a few other dogs that did this, I entered Beckham's image and was thrilled to receive another Top 20 placement out of 103 photographers world wide!