Skipper does Agility

The Tyee Kennel Club held their annual dog show over the weekend in Mill Bay and I took the opportunity to head up there to watch Skipper, my very favourite male Toller boy, do his thing in the ring. Skipper is Shanti's litter brother who lives with his parents, Bill and Janis McNeal, in Belfair, WA. I only had time to see one of the four runs he did that day and since I know next to nothing about agility, I have no idea how he did officially.
Unofficially, I thought he was wonderful!
Also a lesson in why you lug your good lenses everywhere with you no matter how much they weigh and annoy the heck out of you at times...the pics could have been something special but instead, they are just not. 
Oh well! At least the boy did a great job!

ACD Pup Time

I had a chance to shoot a litter of eight 5 week old Australian Cattle Dog pups on Sunday - what a scream! Visit my gallery to see a handful of the pics and there are more to come once I get a minute to process them all.
It was a wonderful hour and gave me the puppy fix I've been needing - nothing like getting mauled by a litter of pups to brighten your day!
Contact me for more info on the litter - looks like a few still need homes that understand the Heeler temperament ;-)

The Infamous Margarita Machine

Here is the margarita machine that Jerry built - I especially like the camo paint job!
Good job, Jerry and looking forward to seeing you at Montrose!
PS If any of the Texas Rovers are wondering why I haven't posted anything to their forum - like a thank you (oops!) - I am not only unable to log in, I am now blocked from my two IP readily available addresses so I can't even view the site! Don't know what I did to offend the internet gods but it is driving me nuts! Any suggestions?

The Canuck attends SCARR '07 - Part Four and Final Part

Writing on this blog is some of the most entertaining writing I do and yet it always takes a backseat to the stuff for clients so I am sorry it has taken me 10 days to finish this up!
Before I forget - Emily Watson and Africa doing the obstacle course Saturday afternoon.
After sleeping late because I had the gall to trust a hotel alarm clock - I finally got back out to Barnwell in time to be put in a front end loader and raised I don't know how many feet in the air to take the group shot. This a first for me and a little unnerving to say the least - the up wasn't bad, it was the tipping the bucket forwards to make sure it stayed even that felt a little odd. I now have a much greater appreciation for how smooth some operators tip their bucket - I am sure it wasn't as bad as felt but it felt pretty incredibly jerky from inside the bucket!
I am still waiting for someone from the group to send me a pic of me in the bucket to add to my collection of 'Odd Photoshoots I have Survived'. It should look good beside the one of me on top of some guys Disco at Moab last October on the 'Top fo the World' trail (if you've been there, you know the spot!) trying to organize a cover shot for the magazine. Amazing how bossy you can get when its 35 degrees Celsius at 8000 ft up with no shade on top of a very reflective silver Disco - great place for a red with no hat to spend an hour or two...
After the front end loader ride, I felt pretty safe in Clay Templeton's Disco II even though he classes himself at the 'insane' level of driving experience and the trails he took the group on are some of the most challenging at Barnwell. Don't believe me?!? See the pics - visit my gallery and click on the Saturday morning (Sat. am) shots! Judge for yourself! This was a photographers dream shoot - thanks go to Clay for letting me ride along!
We got back to the camp area around 1pm - just in time for the obstacle course. The rules were that anyone with under one years driving experience could do the obstacle course as you would expect - sighted. Anyone with over one years experience had to do it blindfolded with a navigator directing them from the passengers seat...yup, you read that right...needless to say the spot I picked a to photograph the event from had a nice thick tree between the trail and me and I was ready dive at any minute. Ended up not being me that nearly lost their life - have a look at the vid a few posts before this one and you will see what I mean.
The banquet was amazing - my first taste of Texas bbq and now I know I will have to come back and after dinner came the requisite raffle ticket draw. I have never seen so many raffle items donated - the generosity of the sponsors was something else! And I don't know if it was rigged or not but one guy of the Arkansas guys would have had trouble fitting all the stuff that he won into his rig to get it home.
Ever seen a homemade margarita machine?!? This was new for me too. It involved a brand new Garbarator and one of those huge drink cooler that you see being dumped over coaches heads after football games. And I think a generator was in there somewhere too. Anyway, made great margaritas and I wish I had taken a moment to take a picture 'cause I don't think anyone back here in Canada believes me!
Along with the bucket ride earlier in the day, I had yet another new and rather white-knuckling experience - off road driving at night. It took a little to relax and I don't know if it was the margaritas or the driver's skill but Scott Hildreth, who offered up his passenger seat to me, proved it didn't have to be as scary as it sounds. Most of the time. It had its moments. Next year I will have to bring a tripod and night shooting stuff to catch some pics as it looked cool with all the lights in a row bouncing all over the place.
We had to finish up driving for the night at 10pm and at this point I figured it was a good time to get back to the hotel to pack and download pics etc. Good thing I did 'cause it was still after 1am before I got to bed.
Sunday was a sad day with everyone packing up to head home. Christopher Pullen and his two boys drove me back to the airport - thank you Christopher! From there the real adventure began with flights two hours late, running for connections and ending up arriving in Vancouver in the middle of the night with no luggage. People ask why I never check my camera equipment and why I am more paranoid about losing my discs of the backed up pics then my passport ;-)
See ya' next year, Texas Rovers and thank you for making this Canuck feel so welcome!

The Canuck Attends SCARR '07 - Part Three

I better hurry up on this or I'll forget everything I did over last weekend! Or no one will care anymore....
Before I forget, I have started uploading pics to my gallery and boy, did I forget how how long it takes to deal with this many pics!
So last we left SCARR, I think JB was about to be sent to the registration desk and I got to go play on the trails with Arto Pullinen in his Disco, Sean Sweeney (thanks JB!) in his Range Rover Classic and Trigger (do we need any more than that?!? To me it is a name that says it all!) in his Defender 90.
This was my first real taste of Barnwell Mountain Rec Area and its incredible concentration of trails. In the matter of just a few hours, I saw more obstacles then at any other event I have attended in the same time frame. The idea of having a specific area maintained by various groups of off road clubs is an exciting one - this can't be the only one but it is definitely the largest I have ever heard of in North America.
Of course, they do everything big in Texas...
The afternoon was great fun and I think I took more pics of Arto's Disco then any other rig at the event. The Rutland Red is very photogenic!

After a few hours, we found JB again and as I had to head back to the hotel to download pics and recharge my camera batteries. Imagine my surprise when he handed me not only a beer but also the keys to his P38! I guess he didn't want to be my official driver anymore but whatever, a Rangie as clean as his is a treat no matter what!
That was it for Friday unless you want me to talk about the construction/oil rig workers who partied until midnight and then were up again at 5am...they were fun ;-)
Saturday started off as every Land Rover event day should start - an unexpected meeting of why these events exist...plus she gave the best quote of the weekend!
I was trying to find a cup of coffee worth drinking when a woman entered the breakfast room of the motel. Funny, she didn't look like a typical Land Rover enthusiast - she was older, a grandmother and had bought the Disco after seeing a Julia Roberts movie where she did the 'soccer mom' in a one. 'Africa' soon had rack, bush bumper, 2" lift and winch.
Quote of the weekend...."Every Grannie should have a winch!"
Definitely set the tone for the day!
Which I guess will be Part Four of this - time to watch the second period of the Canucks vs Anaheim game.