Shutter Sisters

King of the Castle

By

Shooting the personal spaces of creative individuals is such a thrill for me – like getting a peak behind the magic curtain. Several months back I spent the day with my friend Mel in her home, capturing images and video of her, her paintings, and her diverse assortment of once-stray pets. Mel’s dog, Lucky, commanded attention that day and worked his way into nearly every image I made… wagging his tail, jumping on furniture, and pawing at Mel as she spoke and pulled out paintings from her too-full flat file. At one point, his nose literally touched my lens.

“When I first brought him home, I thought, gosh, I don’t know about this one. He’s pretty intense,” Mel confessed with raised eyebrows and a chuckle. Then she told me the story about how she had found him in an abandoned pen on a piece of property near her farm. The neighbors had moved and left him behind without a word, food or water. Seeing him here, pictured on his thrown with a clear view of his new domain, reminds me how lucky we are to have people like my friend Mel in this world.

Take us home and introduce us to your beloved pets.

Comments

  23. when we lost our beloved 14 1/2 year old terrier mix this summer, I thought it would be a long time before I felt ready for another dog. But, the dog-shaped hole she left was too large, and this OE sheepdog mix came up for adoption at the local agency. I’ve heard people say that adopted dogs attach to their new family with particular intensity, and I think that could be true. Certainly, with a whole lot of affection:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/limesally/3169053969/

  25. normally i would provide a link to my own photo or blog, but i don’t have pets, so i will provide one to my twin sister’s wonderful photos of her cat and chihuahua. she has so many good ones, and i wish she would post them all the time, but i can at least point to the ones she’s posted so far.
    here
    http://anjel-cake.blogspot.com/2008/11/least-innocent-cat-youll-ever-meet-with.html
    and here
    http://anjel-cake.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-love-my-pets-and-i-love-pet-faces-so.html

  26. These pictures aren’t really of "my" dog. But if I could fit this dog in my car (i’ve tried) I would take it home with me to spend the weekend though. He’s half great pyrenees, half black lab, and 100% friendly. He lives on my best friends farm and always follows close by when we explore. I like to consider all of her animals to be a little bit of mine too. Sorry so many links, but I couldn’t decide on which one i liked best. Shutter Sisters, meet Buddy 🙂

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lateriser/3285954367/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lateriser/3285951981/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lateriser/3173868160/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lateriser/3173033499/in/photostream/

  27. I am SO lucky to have found my best friend at a local shelter. I can’t imagine my life or my home without her.

    Simple portrait shot:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tippingpointphoto/3315536614/in/set-72157610809399360/
    (part of the 100 steps series, inspired by a previous post here)

    Helping her momma test out her wide angle lens:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tippingpointphoto/3308529834/in/set-72157610809399360/

    Bits and pieces of her that I love:
    Paws——http://www.flickr.com/photos/tippingpointphoto/3315537436/in/set-72157610809399360/
    Tags——-http://www.flickr.com/photos/tippingpointphoto/3314699587/in/set-72157610809399360/
    Ears——-http://www.flickr.com/photos/tippingpointphoto/3314698407/in/set-72157610809399360/
    Undeniably adorable face—–http://www.flickr.com/photos/tippingpointphoto/3315526304/in/set-72157610809399360/

    Thanks to everyone for sharing their furry friends! It’s additional uplift (beyond snuggling with my own pooch) while I’m home mending from a recent injury.

  35. Stories like Lucky’s break my heart and make me so mad at the humans who do that sort of thing. I have had a dog in my life since I was 11 or so and cannot imagine living without one. We currently have 3 on the large-ish side, one Lab and two strays that I tried to find homes for but ended up not being able to let them go:
    http://southern-exposures-cjbarker.blogspot.com/ scroll down to last Wednesday, Friday and Saturday
    (funny how I have just recently posted about all 3 of our fur children!)

  41. Pets make such a wonderful and sometimes amusing addition to many families.

    Kudos to those who rescue abandoned animals.

    I once rescued a lab/retriever puppy who was left behind with its parents when the humans got evicted from their rental. The parents ran away but the deputy was able to rescue the puppy. We instantly feel in love with each other. My daughter adored "Buttercup" until she passed away a few years ago.

    Today we have Snapple, a pure breed Dachshund.
    http://camerapatty.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/introducing-snapple/

    Wishing everyone a scent-sational day!
    Patty

  42. I just received a Canon XTi 400 as a gift after I mentioned i wanted to start taking pictures of my babies (dogs). After realizing that in order to get one good pic, you have to take hundreds, I’ve still decided i want to learn how to do animal photography – I love both – animals and photography. Still learning, but I’ve started posting one a day on my blog, and have joined a few Flickr groups to get me going.
    http:// http://www.princessfred.blogspot.com

  49. Last year we lost both our cat (18 years old) and our dog who was 14 1/2. It was a rough grieving but this past Spring I got doggy fever. We found our new buddy, Moose via a rescue group. I drove 4 hour, part way in a snow storm to visit another dog and fell in love with this sweet guy. He is part sloth as he sleeps whenever he can … but his tail goes twirls like an airplane propeller whenever he sees me or my daughter. He has developed a liking to my shoes which he does not chew, just drags them to his bed to cuddle with.

    Here is his sweet face: http:// http://www.flickr.com/photos/7724232@N03/3606008642/in/set-72157618113994670/

    and another: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7724232@N03/3609703562/

  51. Such an interestingly-timed post… our little kitty, Sierra, turns 6 years old soon. We got her at the pound weeks after hubby and I got married, our wedding gift to ourselves. While all the other cats looked at us cooly from the backs of their cages, she came right up to the bars and purred so loudly as she desperately tried to get our attention. She won our hearts, and has filled our laps with love (and fur) ever since, even tolerating an overseas move (and back) and a baby entering our lives. She’s the sweetest cat I’ve ever known… and I’ve known lots!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightymarce/3184147450/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightymarce/3390421056/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightymarce/3529567812/

  54. WHen I saw this I knew exactly what picture I wanted to show, one of the first I took with my, at the time, brand new Cannon Rebel. This is after about an hour of playing with the new camera and my poor puppy was worn out from the posing, but hey he had to help me out, the baby was asleep.

  60. Wow, I was working on processing a photo session all day yesterday. I should have taken a break. I have photos of my dogs all over: here at Flickr, at my photo journal, and on my website. Here’s a recent one of my oldest dog, Maggie. We have 3 dogs. Maggie is a very active English Springer Spaniel; Pearl and Austin are Australian Shepherds — Pearl was rescued from being caged all day in a crate. She’ll never ever be confined like that ever again.
    So here’s Maggie:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/27458974@N00/3612452516/

  62. My sidekick Dante, an Italian Greyhound, was adopted from a local shelter after being found wandering the streets. I’ve had him for just over a year and can’t imagine what I’d do without him now! He’s a constant subject, of course, but here’s a more recent shot of him bestowing some of his constant kisses on my dad:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/trudem/3574193761/