Shih Tzu in flight

My Shih Tzu Oscar just after he picked up the ball I threw for him!
Most dogs have a strong fetch instinct but Oscar’s was hidden away until we discovered it earlier this year. Now he loves the phrase "where’s the ball Oscar?"

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/320s

Shih Tzu and the Ball

Shih Tzu dogs love to play ball! We only found this out after a dog trainer came to the house and “ruffled his fur” a bit and in the process Oscar became a lot more relaxed.

Now he adores playing ball and even one mention of, “where’s the ball?” and his tail wags and he looks up expectantly for the ball!

This was a bit of an experiment. I’m not so sure how this will look on the web, but full screen the textures of the grass and his fur contrast nicely – rough, hard, and sharp versus soft and cloudy. Not your usual pet photo but why be boring and ordinary eh?

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 59mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/160s

The groomed Shih Tzu

Our pet Shih Tzu, Oscar, has been suffering under the unusual August weather. It’s actually quite warm, and his long coat is more useful for colder weather. So this morning we had him groomed and doesn’t he look cute?

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/250s

Oscar! Come here!

Imagine the scene. Out on a pier, I’m lying on the wooden beams over the low tide surf on the rocks below and I’m calling to my dog. Thankfully Oscar obliged and I made this photo as he walked towards me with his tongue half-hanging out of his mouth. There’s Jacinta in the background, she’s almost 9 months pregnant in this photo, but you probably can’t see the bump in this small image!

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/125s

Shih Tzu playing ball on the beach

Our pet Shih Tzu, Oscar with a tennis ball in his mouth on Garrettstown Beach a few weeks before Adam was born last April.
He loves running after the ball, but the poor little doggy is a bit lame right now. We took him to the vet who couldn’t find anything wrong. This has happened before and he recovered so fingers crossed he gets better this time too.
The strange thing is, it only affects him when he’s walking on pavements or roads. On grass he’s almost fine, and at home you wouldn’t know it from his running around! Dog psychology?

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 225mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/1250s

Cute little dog

A King Charles Spaniel with his owner in Paul Street, Cork a few months ago. I don’t like seeing dogs in the city because it’s so stressful for them but it was really quiet. Little fella looks worried though doesn’t he?

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/100s

The dog and his bone

Oscar, our pet Shih Tzu, pictured with a bone shaped biscuit treat. Actually he doesn’t like them much. He prefers Markies, but they’re bought now so he’ll finish them! 🙂

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/60s

Eye of the Shih Tzu

This is Oscar, our Shih Tzu. He has been a part of our family for just over a year now and he’s very devoted to my wife Jacinta. He loves playing with me too, but I know who he’d save from a sinking ship!

We were worried what would happen when the baby came along, but Oscar has been great. For the most part he has ignored Adam, but if a stranger should lean over Adam and his mom then Oscar will be out to growl and sometimes bark! That would be great if there was any danger but it’s almost always a friend or family so it’s become an annoyance we need to look out for.
Poor Oscar doesn’t get the same amount of attention as he did before baby but in general he behaves better, so that’s a good thing! I think he got a little cocky and just a little too confident of his place in the family hierarchy.

Aperture ƒ/4
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/60s

The curious dog

While wandering about on St. Patrick’s Day this year I spotted this adorable little dog. I got a few snaps and his owner didn’t seem to mind. The doggy was more than happy at the attention and sniffed eagerly at my lens!

Aperture ƒ/6.3
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/100s

Animal Care Society Collection

Volunteers from the Animal Care Society were out in force on Saturday collecting to raise funds.
We bumped into Beamish and his owner and I forgot to ask her name, but hopefully she’ll see this picture as I gave her one of my cards. Beamish was lovely and very placid, perfect tempermant for dealing with the crowds on a busy Saturday in town.

Aperture ƒ/8
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 10mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/125s

The patient springer spaniels

Pictured outside Tesco shopping center in Douglas, Cork last year. These springer spaniels waited patiently for their owner to come out of the shops.

Aperture ƒ/11
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 12mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/200s

The soaking wet happy springer spaniel

This is another photo of Ruby, a springer spaniel that lives in Myrtleville. This time she followed us over to Fennell’s Bay where she dashed off into the shallows after stones. She was deliriously happy!

Unfortunately the same could not be said for a group of teenagers higher up on the beach who threw stones at us and into the water very close to us. Their malevolent laughter spoiled that moment for us and put us in real danger. They weren’t locals and by their accents it wasn’t hard to figure out where in Cork they were from.

There’s more of Ruby here and here. We were down in Myrtleville last weekend and didn’t see her at all. I hope she’s ok and was tucked up at home in front of the fire instead of at a cold and wet beach.

Congratulations to Gavin@Headphoneland for winning best photoblog at last night’s Irish Blog Awards! Get well soon!

There’s definitely something up with Flickr’s “Blog This” function. The URL of the image it passed to my blog was borked and displayed the infamous, “This photo is currently unavailable”. I reported it yesterday but I guess it’ll take longer than that to fix.

The ever vexxing question of privacy arrises on Kevin’s blog here and here. In the USA it’s perfectly ok to use someone’s image for non commercial usage as long as the photo was taken in a public place. I can understand why that woman is suing Yahoo! but I guess it’s the money she wants rather than protecting her privacy. (Is there a difference?) I covered the issue in the past, where things could be a little different in Ireland – the expectation of privacy extends to a private conversation in a public place. Vexxing indeed!

The Digital Photography Show interviewed Bert Krages, the author of the PDF, The Photographer’s Right on the subject of photographer’s rights. I haven’t listened yet but it should be good as he knows his stuff. Obviously laws will change from place to place so do some research locally before shooting on the street! The interview is also mentioned here and here.

Aperture ƒ/7.1
Camera Canon EOS 20D
Focal length 18mm
ISO 200
Shutter speed 1/125s