Spotted Photo Meme- August: Animal Love

A new blog meme from iHanna….Spotted Photos.  As in, spotted as being a theme that occurs in our everyday photographs. The theme for August is “Animal Love”.  Well, animals certainly is a theme in my photographs!!

I went way back in my photos…which is easy to do since I have them organized in Picasa. I love going back and looking over old photos and this meme gives me a great excuse to do so! I pulled a few of my favorites from over the years.  And I also visited my photo-albums from the old days before digital.

The first 2 are oldies but goodies and still rank as some of my all-time favorite photos. A horse in a stable taken in England way back in the late 1970’s:

and these ducklings nesting in an azalea bush in a London, England park in 2000: I didn’t get the perfect photo since mama duck wouldn’t turn to face the camera, but I love it anyways: cuteness…way off the scale!!!!

The single most-photographed subject in my “portfolio” is our second dog Casper…a meek and gentle Australian Shepherd(aka Aussie) that we got in 2002. He was a real sweetie-pie and would never hurt a flea. Everyone in the neighbourhood loved Casper and we were not the only ones with tears when he died at the too young age of 10 years: The upper right photo shows him posed with this favorite toy(Mr. Burglar) and the bottom photo shows him playing with the boy next door. Notice how he matches our 1970’s carpet perfectly!!!!

The remaining photos show the range of situations where animals appear in my photos…with family, on vacation, at home, in the city, in the province….everywhere I go!

This lovely border collie pup, Ace, belongs to my sister and her daughter, and this photo was taken just days after they adopted him. They had brought him over to meet Casper:

A  bus trip to Minneapolis for some sightseeing, shopping and casino night led to an opportunity to feed the sharks at the aquarium in The Mall of America. That was way more fun than shopping:

I spent many happy hours photographing the harbour seals during a week-long stay in Victoria, British Columbia. They were very willing to pose on the off-chance that they would get treats:

 

 

 

 

 

A few years ago I travelled to Santa Fe, New Mexico to learn about the art and history of New Mexico and to visit the studios of several well-known quilt artists. As well as photographing all the gorgeous scenery I found myself snapping photographs of Aussies because I was homesick for Casper. The red merle Aussie on the left was photographed just outside our hotel while the black tri-coloured Aussie was photographed at the home of Katie Pasquini Masopust(her daughter’s dog I believe):

 

 

 

 

 

Aussies really are the world’s best dog!!!

A visit to Phoenix in 2011 for some Art Unravelled workshops yielded this slightly blurry photo of a grackle, which I have used in my “art”, as a stamp and a stencil and a mask for gelli-printing etc.

I call him my “Grackle with Attitude”!

A visit to my mom’s cottage in 2011 resulted in many, many photographs of the very friendly deer:

A return visit the next year led to even more deer photos. This one shows my sister feeding 2 deer at the same time:

We had taken my nephew’s dog Arlo with us, and he had a great time running wild along the lake-side cliffs:

Bison is the official animal of the province of Manitoba and I have a few photos of this lovely animal.  This statue of a young bison is right on the sidewalk of our main downtown street:

Another bison photo-op: Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg is a favorite photo-spot for me and at the zoo I spotted Blizzard, a rare albino bison. What a beauty, even though it was molting season:

Another visit to Assiniboine Park to check out the flower gardens, but I got sidetracked by this Highland Cattle, a statue made of grass that was “living” in the Children’s Garden:

Amazing how real it looks!!

A trip out to Grand Beach a few days ago resulted in some animal photos along with the mandatory beach scenes. This Richardson Ground Squirrel had been cruising the parking lot and was obviously delighted to find a huge stash of sunflower seeds:

And lastly, what is probably going to be the most photographed subject in my “portfolio” ever! This is our second Australian Shepherd dog that we got in 2012, Stewie…who is the complete opposite of Casper. He is a wild and enthusiastic dog…and built solid like a mini-fridge. His goal in life is to destroy whatever stands between himself and whatever he is seeking. If his toy is behind a bush…he doesn’t go around the bush…he goes through it, chewing off any branches in his way!!! Don’t let the innocent look in his eyes fool you:

So, yes, animals play a major role in my photographs, a perfect starting point for the Spotted Photography Meme.

Looking forward to September’s spotted photo theme…favorite color. If you want to join in, click on the pink iHanna badge at the top of the post to get more info. I am hoping birds might be a future theme since I have a zillion photos of many birds, thought the meme is wide-open to use whatever “spotted” theme you wish! Thanks iHanna…I love this meme!!