Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Photography


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Stormy barns

I knew a weather front was coming through yesterday afternoon…

Sun still shining on the corn, but dark skies overhead.

…so I headed out to see if I could find some open sky to watch…

White barns glow under rain clouds.

…and if there happened to be some barns around….

Red, green and navy.

…well, so much the better.

An old homestead buried back there.

Guess I got lucky – to the South of me were puffy white clouds…

Still pretty to the south.

…to the North was the storm with brooding dark skies…

Still pretty

…and distant thunder.

Not a barn, but interesting anyway.

It was all oh so pretty.

Amazing sky.


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Hilltop summer afternoon

Katie here.

Pretty flowers mama. Now can I have a treat?

I don’t suppose it actually qualifies as an adventure, but after spending weeks and weeks doing nothing at all I’ll take what I can get. Sometimes even a Princess can’t be picky.

You’ve all seen mama’s fun with her family, and I liked it a whole bunch when my Uncle and Aunt came to visit me. But I didn’t get to go on any adventures and then she went away for ten whole days! That’s about 70,000 days in dog years!

So you can see why I’ve been bugging mama to take me somewhere now that she’s back home. Somewhere mama! She keeps promising but nothing ever happens. Why I even had to raise my voice today to get her attention! And trust me, a sheltie-girl like me knows exactly how to do that!

This is not the way to treat a Princess!

But I guess it’s true that the squeaky dog gets the grease! (And I’d like mine to be bacon please mama!) After barking at her for hours she finally took me to a park today! And I even got to ride in dad’s truck! Mama says not to get excited about that, I only got to ride in the truck because our car is broken.

Whatever mama.

So we went to a park not too far away and I sat under a picnic table for awhile, just sniffing the park air. It’s definitely different and better than my own backyard air. Lots and lots of interesting things to smell at the park!

You done reading yet mama?

Then mama got done reading and said we were going to walk up this big mountain! Really mama? Remember I’m ten and a half, a senior doggie you know!

Hey mama! Running down this hill is fun!

But it was OK. We stopped along the way and mama took pictures of me in the pretty flowers.

And once we got to the top there was a lovely breeze blowing and I got to run around off leash! Mama says that’s because we could see where all the other people and doggies were from up there and we had the mountaintop all to ourselves. (OK, it’s not really a mountain, it’s just a sledding hill, but it’s huge compared to me!)

You called?

Mama took lots of pictures of me up there and on the back of the hill when we walked down the other side. We even sat in the grass together and just chilled out. I acted like a puppy, all excited to spend time with her, just her and me.

I’m just going to walk over here, OK mama?

Now I’m doubly excited because I got her to set up the tent in the backyard! I supervised while she put it up and made sure she put in my favorite pillows just for me. It’s going to be a beautiful night and I’m going to spend it hanging out with my mama. I can hardly wait for it to get dark outside.

This is my tent. I let mama share it though.

Gee, now that I think about it, I guess I don’t have so much to complain about after all.

It was a good day mama!


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4th of July parade…of a different sort.

Uncle Sam waits for everyone to show up.


How many of you went to a 4th of July parade this year? I suppose if you don’t live in the United States the odds are slim that you did, but if you live over here maybe you got to enjoy some patriotism on wheels! Or hooves as the case may be.

Time to check your phone before the start.

I was extra lucky. I was in the South, on a lake that just happens to have some very patriotic water lovers. Every July on the 4th a huge community of jet skies and boats circles part of the lake at full speed.

This year I got to shoot images of them as they went by. It was a big group, probably more than a hundred total.

Fully decorated!

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First there was the gathering of everyone. The waiting for the prompt 10:00 a.m. start. The chatting with friends. The smiles. The admiring of costumes and decorations.

Waiting and watching.

The increased anxiety for me.

You see we had been out on the lake the day before, talking to friends, telling them I’d be out there shooting. We told them to look for us and come by as close as they could.

We told them to smile.

Festive balloons.

I hoped I wouldn’t let them down. I’d be sitting in a boat moving up and down over choppy waters. They’d be out in the middle of the chop, moving fast across my bow.

Gathering for the run.

Anything could happen.

It was a beautiful day, bright blue skies, puffy white clouds, beautiful water. Perfect for a parade.

It’s gonna get crazy out there!

At two minutes to ten they took off. We high-tailed it to the other side of the lake and a particular point near where we planned on anchoring.

They’d have to go around us.

I was as ready as I could be. Extra batteries. Extra memory chips. And advice on shooting action shots from my friend Heather, aka Snap Happy Gal who does phenomenal work. You should visit her web site.

How did it turn out? Well, it was a blast. Here’s a slideshow of some of my favorite shots.

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It was a perfect parade. I didn’t notice the waves much while I was shooting. But when I took the camera away from my face and saw the waves heading toward me I sort of freaked. They looked at least 3 feet tall! They looked like they’d swamp the boat! I scrambled toward the back of the boat a couple of times, but we stayed sea-worthy.

It was an honor to photograph these people enjoying their holiday. I especially liked to capture the families that were riding the waves together. My brother has posted some of these photos to a lake Facebook page. I will post more soon.

I hope you enjoyed my representation of a 4th of July lake parade. But honestly? You should have been there.

On the lake. Can’t get better than that!


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Visitors

What are you doing out there lady?


We’ve been enjoying the orioles again this spring, as well as lots of other pretty birds.

Tonight I took a chair out into the yard, trying to get a shot of the orioles glowing in the evening sun. Boy they are suspicious birds.

Do I have jelly on my beak?

Though I was sitting far away from the feeder, and using my long lens, they were still skittish. Especially when this face appeared in the window only inches away from their feeder.

Hey mama! What are you ….ooops…sorry mama!

Even with the distraction the male and female oriole each showed up for a few fleeting moments.

You can’t see me if I hide behind this pole. Can you?

The goldfinches, on the other hand, are much less finicky about paparazzo like me.

On the lookout. The food lady needs to fill the thistle feeder.

Earlier today we had a visitor who had a hankering for jelly. He’s been here before, and has, in fact, enthusiastically chewed the feeder trying to get the last drop.

Hey lady! It’s not my fault if you don’t have a squirrel baffle on this feeder pole!

And yesterday Mr. Grosbeak dropped by. He’s not shy at all, and told me right away that I had inadvertently allowed the safflower seed level to drop to an unacceptable level.

This is unacceptable lady! You are a slacker!

I fixed that immediately. Sorry sir.

So hard to keep peace among the youngsters.


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Shelties know how to paw-tee!!

Paw-TEE!

Katie here. I’ve had to bug and bug and bug mama to let me tell you about the Sheltie get together held over at one of my parks. Mama says there are more important things to write about and it’s not my blog, but as we all know there is nothing more important than me, and of course this is my blog!

Mama is getting old and a bit senile if you ask me.

Anyway. Last Sunday was the 2nd annual Sheltie Meet and Greet. Maybe you were even there! If I didn’t get to meet you I’m sorry. I did stay a little stand offish; being a princess and all I let people stop by to meet me! I didn’t do too much mixing and mingling because it was very hot and mama knows I can get a bit cranky when I’m hot. And I don’t allow any butt sniffing either. No way. A princess does not tolerate that at all and I tend to snap at any doggie that tries. So mama didn’t let most dogs get too close.

Lots of sniffing going on. I did not partake.

Mama said the party was all about the people getting to see all the gorgeous dogs and less about us dogs getting to meet and play. I think she’s delusional.

A special sheltie.

My goodness there were a lot of beautiful dogs! Ninety shelties said they’d be there and bring their people. We didn’t count, but there sure were a lot!

There was plenty of ear skritching…

That’s the spot!

…and tummy tickling.

Don’t stop!

I got to visit for a few minutes with Cookie and Zohan and their folks. We met them at last year’s sheltie party. They were just as calm and collected as I remembered, hanging out with their parents in the shade.

Going with the flow, hanging out with mom and dad.

And I met a new friend named Blue and his mom. He was calm too and we liked hanging out together.

Hey! Got anything to eat?

But you know what I did? (Seems like I always do something at these things that embarrasses mama.) Blue’s mom got him a piece of doggie cake, and when she put his plate on the ground he was sort of sniffing it and nibbled off a little piece, just testing you know? And I swooped in and grabbed the whole piece and gulped it down!

I’m sorry Blue. I shouldn’t have eaten your cake.

All I left him were a few crumb! Mama was mortified. I was lucky Blue didn’t bite my nose off, but all he did was calmly lick up the crumbs. He even stayed my friend. Mama says I should apologize right now, so I will. But geeze mama, why didn’t you just go and get him another piece! No excuses that it didn’t occur to you, mama. As I said, you’re starting to get senile.

Blue was a gentleman, and even after I stole his cake we were able to settle down together and watch all the other shelties. It’s a comfortable friendship.

Hanging out together.

I had a good time, other than when we all marched up to a hill to get a group picture. It was so hot I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to sit in the sun. I didn’t want to be next to a whole lot of other shelties and people I didn’t know.

See me sitting by myself over there toward the left? Mama was taking a picture!!

Mama didn’t make me sit there very long. We got up and walked back down the hill, I went to sit under a picnic table in the shade and mama took more pictures. I’m a good girl and sat patiently under that table while she tried to get the whole group in one shot.

Only part of the group.

It was impossible. There were just way too many people and beautiful dogs. Shelties of every size and color…

Big and little, sable and blue and tri and more.

…every face was beautiful…

Such a sweet face.

…every dog was adorable…

Want to play?

…and lots of fun was had by all.

Can’t stop grinning!

I didn’t play at all, and only interacted with a couple dogs, but I enjoyed watching the rest of them greet each other….

Emily Ann, the rock star, meets Harvey one of the greeters.

….and play with each other…

Attack!!!!

…still, I had a good time. I want to thank the organizers and hosts, Linda and Ty, and anybody else that had a hand (or paw) in putting this together. I know it was a lot of work and I appreciate you giving me a chance to take my mama to my park and hang out with so many other nice dogs and people!

Look at all these shelties mama!

Mama is always coming up with something new to do and I appreciate her effort. But I think our next adventure should include air conditioning. Can you work on that mama?

I’ll go take a nap now in preparation.

Love ya mama!