Felix is Felix

I cannot remember which one of my hunting buddies coined the term "Felix is Felix". What I do remember is that we both agreed to settle on that short three-word description of a dog we had been unable to describe in any other way dispite hours of trying.

Felix is Felix.

A great looking, hard hunting pain in the ass.

A hammer-headed freight train of a dog who has shown me things in the field that I thought were near impossible... and who has given me more grief around the house than a leaky roof.

He is by far, the smartest dog I have ever encountered. And if you think that a really, really smart dog is a good thing, think again. Any dog smarter than the average college graduate is more than a handful for a mediocre dog trainer like me....especially if there is a streak of evil in the genius.

Yesterday morning I took a photo of Felix that shows him in all his glory. He is fully aware of our policy with regards to standing on the furniture waiting for the cat to pass by so he may launch a surprise attack. It is not allowed. In fact, I had given him a very specific order to lie DOWN and wait for me while I made tea in the kitchen. Yet here he is, ready to spring the trap on a poor efeminate 16 year old cat named Calou.

Somehow though, he must have known that he was in the most glorious, golden light of the day. He must have sensed that no matter how pissed off I was, there was NO WAY I was going to miss this shot. And he was right. As soon as I saw him there I immediately grabbed the nearest camera and took the photo. And he actually posed for me. He held his head up, puffed out his chest and waited until I had composed the shot and tripped the shutter.

He then stretched, got off the couch and went backt to where I had told him to lie down.

I just looked at him, shrugged my shoulders and thought:

"Felix is Felix"

Black and White

I've been doing more and more of my personal work in colour lately. I still shoot a lot of black and white though. The other morning, I loaded some black and white film into a super-cool vintage Minolta Hi-matic 7 camera and set about photographing the dogs.

Here's Felix at the window monitoring the entire neighborhood and barking at anyone who dares come within eyeshot.


Souris decided to join in to scold the wrongdoers outside.


Meanwhile, Uma in ultra-mellow French style, simply lay back and let the grey monsters fight the battles for her.


Want to know more about the Minlota Hi-matic 7? Click on the link below.

Sunday Morning

It's Sunday morning. Warm yellow sunlight is creeping through the curtains. Time to load up a camera and take some photos.


I love the light we get in February and March every year. The sun is in just the right position to give us a beautiful warm glow almost every morning.



As I snap away, Lili is in the kitchen building the perfect cup of cappucino.



I have to work today.....the final class in a lighting course I've been teaching since just after Christmas. I set up a small gallery of photos I took the other week of the particpants in the workshop. I used my 1970's vintage Canon QL17 rangefinder and Ilford XP2....a great combo! Click on the link below to see the images.

Fetch!

Well here it is, my first post to the dogblog!

Let's start with a photo shall we? Here is Uma-Chantal having a bad hair day. The style is a sort of French Mohawk, very "in" right now, non?

Every morning, I spend a few minutes with a camera taking shots of things around our home. Yesterday I shot a roll of Fuji NPH in my father's vintage Zeiss Contaflex. Among all the cameras I have (I lost count at 30+) it is my favorite. The lens is breathtakingly sharp, the camera as well fitted as a Rolex watch. All of the family photos from my youth were taken by my dad with this camera.

At this time of year, the sun shines through our dinging room window for a few minutes early in the morning. The dogs enjoy basking in its warmth. I can't resist snapping away. So as they lay there, I got down on my belly and took a few shots.

I seem to be paying a bit more attention to Uma lately as a subject for my early morning photos. As our "third child" she is somewhat underrepresented in the photo albums. I guess I am trying to right that wrong. She is not the most photogenic dog of the bunch, but what she lacks in looks, she makes up in personality.

Of course I could not resist taking a few shots of the grey monsters as they lounged around as well.