Life through a lens - Showcase Saturday, The Daftness of Dash

Callum chose the photo to use for this weeks Showcase Saturday. This is what we get if we don't fold up up our patio chairs. Even if we do he sometimes works out how to unfold them so he can get on top of the table. Why does he like to sit up there? Well he can then clearly see over the fences and survey the land, typical sheep dog. lol.

Life through a lens - Winter Wonderland Wednesday

I had to bribe Dash to come in from the garden with treats, can't belive he actually sat still long enough for me to get a shot. Only took a few minutes to get him in from the snow.

What better way to have a Winter Wonderland Wednesday than to waking up to a blanket of snow. Sadly Callum had to go to school (but not tomorrow!!!) so it was up to Dash to make the most of the snow. Seriously I've never known a dog to love snow as much as Dash.

Although not a brilliant photo it captures that crazy dog of mine perfectly, he'll run up and down this path for ages and use our backdoor as a sort of spring board to turn himself round to go run back down. Crazy indeed.

Life through a lens - Surprise Sunday, Dash

Dash

Back in 2007 my parents went on their yearly summer holiday to the farm house that's been in our family for generations in Southern Ireland. Little did they know that on their return they'd have a new family member with them. That little family member was Poppy a cute adorable cross breed Border Collie/Springer Spaniel. She'd been one of a litter of three and the farmer who owned her Mum didn't need anymore mouths to feed. My parents were badgered by my sisters Els and Frankie, my brother Joe and even Els' boyfriend Stu... and that's how Poppy became a new family member.

Now flash forward a year (2008) and my parents are getting ready to embark on the Summer family holiday. I was talking to my Mum on the phone and we were joking about stuff. It was coming up to my birthday so I said to her "Bring me a puppy back as a present Mum.". Yeah I totally learned that year not to have a joke with my Mum. lol

Dash the first day I got him. How cute?!?

Even though we've had many a sleepless night with Dash keeping us up barking, we've had to completely re-do our garden, have spent a fortune on flea treatment and worming tablets, gotten bruises on my hands from walking him, had the paint and wood chewed away on our kitchen and back door to name a few things (Yeah Marley the worst dog in the world is a saint compared to Dash!!) that little bundle that fitted into a flower pot when given to me as a birthday present has grown not just in size but in the place he has in our hearts. Daz spoils him rotten (he even sings to the dog!!!), Callum has adventures with Dash his Trusty Steed and I... well I have company during the day. Now we have a new family member due in just a few months and I'm intrigued to see how Dash handles having a baby in the house, I'm thinking the crying will drive him mad and the dirty nappies will be his favourite thing.

Callum and Dash playing with toy cars, I can't believe how small Dash was once.

Awwww, having a little snooze together. Of course now the two of them run around like crazy and don't snooze together.

Dash and I Summer 2008

One of my all time favourite photos of Callum and Dash, the dog loves the snow and snowball fights!

Yes the dog was daft enough to jump up on our windowsill and not be able to get himself down.

I was met one morning with Callum yelling for me to come help Dash. "Mummy Dash has got stuck and can't get down. He needs your help." I didn't expect this scene to greet me. Every day we have to check that our garden chairs are folded up or leaning against a wall. Why? Dash loves nothing more to sit on the chairs or if he can get to it the patio table and survey the land around him, typical sheep dog! lol. Oh he also doesn't realise that when Callum watches 101 Dalmatians the dogs are on the T.V. ... Dash is convinced that the garden has been invaded by a million and one dogs and he needs to go and play with them, which when Callum watches 101 Dalmatians two to three times in a row does become a little tiring.

Why did we give Dash the name we did? Well Daz and I can't agree on this. I know that my reasoning was because he had this dash of white on top of his head (which you can see in some of the photos), sadly that white has slowly disappeared and now everyone thinks we called him Dash because he ... well... he dashes everyone. Anyway Dash seems a suitable name for him and in a way he is a joy in our lives... just not at 3am when barking at something invisible.

Anyway I'll leave you with (hopefully) a litle slideshow of some of my flickr photos of Dash.

Life through a lens - Callum Part I

Callum

One of my favourite subjects to photograph is my son Callum. If you look through my flickr photostream he will probably be the subject I have most photos of. lol. Sometimes he is a willing participant and others not so willing and then there are the "secret shots" I get of him. I'm often asked which is my favourite photo of him and to this date I've never been able to narrow it down to just one and then of course my favourites can often change. There are some that I like because the capture the essence of Callum, there are some I like because it's just a good shot and there are some I like because it reminds me of the moment I caught that photo.

Here's a selection of a few of my favourite and why I like them.

Callum and Dash.

These two have a love/hate relationship. You'd never guess from this photo (well OK maybe you would by the fact it looks like Callum looks more like he is strangling the dog than hugging him) that they do but boy have they had some fall outs. Callum actually asked the other week if we could put Dash up for sale on EBay so that the money raised he could use to help save endangered animals. Hubby pointed out the flaw in this plan by saying they would be lucky to get just £1 for the dog and that wouldn't help the pandas out much. And don't be fooled by the husband, he loves the dog! Anyway I love this photo because both Callum and Dash have a nervous energy about them and it is so hard to get them on their own to stay still for a photo let alone together, this is one of those rare moments.

Summer Fun

Do you see how muddy that pool is? Do you see the bit of grass stuck in his hair? And do you see the bug he's is so interested in? I know all kids get dirty, muddy, play with buys etc, but I'm sure my little monkey monster is the best at it. Seriously that paddling pool had only been filled up a few hours before and look at how dirty he got it, but he doesn't even care he's sitting in a paddling pool full of dirt, stones, grass and lots of bugs. lol. I look at this and think "Yep that's my boy." What I also love about this shot is how long his eye-lashes look. One of the first things people comment on about Callum is his big blue eyes and his very long eye-lashes, seriously he has eye-lashes to make any girl jealous.

No, no, no, no, no!

See he isn't always co-operative, but I can use that to my advantage sometimes. lol. Also this shot reminds me of how he can always get rips in the knees of his jeans but that won't stop him from wearing them, heck even when we had snow earlier this year, enough to shut down the schools, he still went out to play in the snow with jeans on just barely held together at the knees by a thread. Another thing... the boy doesn't stop growing, he costs us a small fortune in jeans, trousers etc.

Snow is my favourite and my best

Although technically this photo isn't good it is one of my all time favourite shots. These two loved the snow so much and I just couldn't get them indoors. Callum threw snowballs at Dash who jumped up and wanted more thrown at him. It's what childhood is about.

An ill spider-callum

This is one of hubby's favourite. He looks at it and tells me it's just a brilliant photo. It's also a rarity to get a shot of Callum like this, even ill he never rests up.

My own little water babe

Everyone I know who sees this photo loves it... and then they ask how wet my camera and I got. Not a drop on either, that's what a zoom lens is for. There is so much to love about this shot and it's one of those "secret shots". It was a hot summer's day, not a cloud in site and the sprinkler on with music blasting out in the background and my little monkey monster enjoying playing with the water. He'd keep running and jumping over and through the sprinkler and giggling away. I look at this and think what it would be like to be a kid again and enviously wish in a way I could.

So there you have it a few of my favourite shots. I have a lot more but I didn't want to bore you rest assured though I'll do another of my favourite shots post.