Dogs

Photographing What I Know

Dogs / December 1, 2022 / By

Eighteen years of walking the same parcel of land, even a parcel as large as sixteen hundred acres, results in a particular sort of casual mindlessness. Not really a taking for granted but more of a forgetting that whatever habitat one lives in is extraordinary because you get to live in it.

Living a life with livestock and dogs means travel to different places is an option not often open to me. As a result I’ve learned to take photos right where I am.
But to see to the same place anew time and time again requires a willingness to lift one’s head and look up and look out. The camera and the dogs help me do just that.

black dog on prairie

More specifically of late is the craving I seem to have for capturing photographs of the dogs amidst the prairie, in particular, on the prairie trails that crisscross this place or the one gravel road leading in and out of here. My aim is for the images to be more about mood and less about a particular dog so some distance between subject and viewer is required. It is far tougher than it looks to capture such an image since the moment I stop forward movement all the dogs take notice and look back or return to my general vicinity. But I enjoy trying, so much so that I started a new photo collection of these images (under the photography tab) which I'll add and remove photos from as I get better at capturing what it is I am after.

Among the Crowd

Dogs / September 7, 2022 / By
sheep with livestock guardian dog


There are blissfully unaware of how they stand out in a crowd.

The flock had just moved into a new pasture when this photo was taken. The pastures looks a little bleak and they are, however, there are greens lying close to the earth and hidden by all the dying tall grass.

Guardian Dog To Farm Dog

Dogs / September 3, 2022 / By
kangal livestock guardian dog

Unfortunately, or maybe it is fortunate from his point of view, this fellow has become a farm dog rather than a guardian dog.  Over two years of time and effort toward making him a guardian dog and I have to concede that he won’t be the flock dog we need. He is active at night, and I hear his barking way off in the distance, most often in the direction the sheep are located. I trust he’s serving some purpose in that regard, even if he’s not sitting with the sheep at all times. On some mornings he is out with the flock but on most mornings he’s waiting for the Kelpies and I and he joins us on our daily walks now.

The alpha pair of livestock guardian dogs have taken it upon themselves to carry the work load so I know part of this youngsters failing to stay with the flock is due to not being allowed to be with them. Another part of his failing is due to his nature and his lack of bonding with the sheep when he was a wee pup.  Sometimes dogs can also slip through the cracks and not get what they need when they need it.  Since selling dogs seems to be a permanent hardship for me, he’ll likely stay around for awhile which will be both an ease and a frustration.