Category: Photography

Not all things to do with Turkey are bad.

This is a delightful man-meets-dog story.

I was pondering that I really should return to sharing stories about dogs. After all this is a blog that is called Learning from Dogs.

Then I recently saw this story from Turkey. It’s about a stray dog and it is in Turkey and it’s from The Dodo so is republished with permission.

That did it!

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Security Camera Catches Man Sharing Adorable Moment With Stray Dog

In the early hours of Saturday morning, Metin Can Şener was walking home along a street in Turkey when a figure emerged from the darkness in front of him.

It was a pup — his tail wagging eagerly at the sight of Şener approaching.

Şener had seen the dog before, but apparently only during the day; he often hangs out at Şener’s local coffee shop, where this random encounter at 2:51 a.m. took place.

“He comes to that street all the time,” Şener told The Dodo. “I always see him by the café.”

On this particular early morning, however, Şener and the dog became much better acquainted. As if compelled by the same joyful spirit upon seeing a familiar face on that empty street, the two of them reacted in the sweetest way: “We started dancing,” Şener said.

The adorable moment was captured on video.

Şener and the dog were passing strangers no longer.

“We became good friends,” Şener said. “I already have four dogs, so I couldn’t take him home.”

Fortunately, despite apparently living as a stray, the dog appears to be well-fed — perhaps having endeared himself to people in the area. Their random meeting this particular morning certainly had that effect on Şener.

Neither Şener nor the dog knew at the time that their heartwarming encounter had been caught on film. The owner of the café had evidently reviewed the security footage and shared it with Şener the next day.

And since posting it online, the happy scene has gone viral.

“I was surprised to see it had been caught on camera. I thought it was so much fun,” Şener said. “I always like to dance with animals like this. I love animals even more than people.”

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The video on YouTube follows. But before I go let me comment about that last photograph, the one just above, because this is what having a dog in your life is all about!

Delightful!

Our trip to Utah, part five

And yet more of the photographs.

Yet another one of this fascinating rock face.

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The picture below is primarily of the different rock type that is laid crossways on the top of the ridge. It was the closest that we could get without a major climb.

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I think this is Zion National Park. The pillars above and the stream below.

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A much-photographed site!

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The final set maybe the day after tomorrow.

Our trip to Utah, part four

And a few more photographs.

I’m sure that there’s only so much you can take of our trip to Utah and back. So I have selected the more interesting photographs and will share them with you today and the next two days.

Saturday, 28th September

Vance, of The Flute Shop, gave us directions to some ancient petroglyphs that were painted on a rock wall quite close to where we were staying.

First, that rock wall. The petroglyphs can be seen at the bottom of the rock face.

Then a close up. It was amazing that although there was a great deal of name carving close by there was none on the petroglyph images themselves.

They were about 700 years old.

Sunday, 29th September

Today it was the long drive down to Kanab, about 200 miles, but we stopped frequently to take photographs of the never-ending marvels that we saw.

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Tomorrow some more photographs.

Picture Parade Three Hundred and Nine

A further collection of photographs from Utah.

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Marvellous, even though I say it myself.

Our trip to Utah, part three

We are very close to the point of this trip.

Friday, September 27th.

As soon as we were on our way, first thing was to find a bed for the night in the area of the Capitol Reef NP. This was a popular time of the year and so many places were full. Our ‘fall-back’ position was to sleep in the truck but I really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Eventually we found a room for just tonight in The Flute Shop and Motel in Torrey, just 10 miles from the National Park. Run by Vance and Elaine Morrill it was more than just a motel, it was a scene of much fascination. For Vance made flutes the American Indian way.

But more of that later.

Oh, and there’s a dog story as well. Again, I’m writing that up as a separate post.

On to the Capitol Reef Park.

Or rather a pause before we descended off the heights that surrounded this part of Utah down to the park.

The pause was to take a photograph of an intense rain storm that had a spot quite close where the remnants of a rainbow could just be made out. It’s hardly visible in the above picture.

It was simply stunning.

Beyond words.

I promised you a little more about Vance Morrill and his flutes. But apart from the photograph I will delay that for a while (until the draft of the post has been approved by Vance).

Here is Jean looking at them.

Finally, Vance promised to draw some routes in the morning to some of the lesser known spots in Capitol Reef.

Mitts died yesterday morning

We are now down to a single cat.

Mitts died overnight, sometime on the night of the 8th/9th October.

She died of old age peacefully and quietly.

Mitts enjoying the sunshine in September, 2015.

And another photograph of Mitts taken in my office, again in September, 2015.

The cats have adopted my office as their new home.

Later on today (the 9th) I will bury her in the garden.

Our trip to Utah, part two.

Continuing the journey.

Thursday, September 26th.

So, on the road again soon after 7am.

The countryside was enormous, a phrase that I will probably repeat. Our cattle experience of yesterday was repeated, albeit in a different way, today. Cattle feasting on the grass over hundreds of acres.

Then we came across this fine statue of a horse.

It was on the property of Crane Creek Ranch, another enormous homestead.

On and on we went.

The scenery gradually changed and more rocky land came closer to the road.

But we eventually got to the Salt Lake flats and continued to Loa, Utah, population less than 600 persons!

Where we stayed at the Sunny Motel. There was only about 20 miles to go, to the East, before we reached Capitol Reef National Park.

Tomorrow is another day!

Our trip to Utah and back, part one.

The story and photographs.

I’m going to post every other day or so trying to give an idea of what we experienced.

Monday, September 23rd.

This was a barn that we stopped at to photograph on the way through South-Eastern Oregon.

We had Brandy with us and he was loving the journey.

But after we reached Lakeview where we stopped for the night we found that he didn’t enjoy the motel.

Tuesday, September 24th.

So in the morning there was no question about what we had to do. Drive the 4 hours back to Merlin, reunite Brandy with his doggy friends that he missed too much, and then drive the 4 hours back to Lakeview!

(As it turned out this was a very good decision by us. There were too many places where dogs were not allowed!)

Wednesday, September 25th.

First thing in the morning we took a closer look at the water that is the origin of the name Lakeview.

Then followed a long drive, a very long drive, out of Oregon and into Nevada. They were in the main lonely roads.

But stunning scenery alongside the lonely road.

Including a spectacular sight of the mist in the bottom of a particular valley.

Then we came across a herd of cattle being moved along the road.

It was unique to our eyes.

So, that’s the start of our travels.

Picture Parade Three Hundred and Eight

Well it’s not a true picture parade but nonetheless it’s lovely.

Taken from here.

Photo Credit: Laurenda Marie Photography

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Wild Deer Crashes Wedding Shoot To Eat The Bride’s Bouquet

Wedding crashers aren’t usually a good thing. But for one Michigan couple, an uninvited guest made the day even more special.

Morgan and Luke were celebrating their nuptials on the Felt Estate, in Saugatuck, Michigan, when photographer Laurenda Marie Bennett stole the couple away for “golden hour portraits.”

“We walked over this hill and made it to a field where we saw just over a wooden fence was a deer,” Bennett told The Dodo. “As soon as we arrived, the deer looked up and just casually walked over to the bride and groom.”

The friendly deer greeted the couple and quickly spotted the bride’s bouquet. The spray of flowers was too tempting for the deer to resist.

“[He] started reaching his neck over and grabbing flowers from her bouquet and just chewing away,” Bennett said. “Then he steps over the fence so he’s standing in front of them, and he’s just hanging out eating her bouquet.”

After the initial shock of the wildlife encounter wore off, Bennett started snapping photos of the bride and groom. “We were all kind of giggling and looking at each other like, ‘What’s going on? What should we do?’” Bennett said. “Morgan’s expressions were priceless — they just kind of made the photos.”

As it turned out, this specific deer is a bit of a celebrity in the area. He’s even made it to the news for photobombing a few engagement photo shoots earlier this summer.

“Never in a million years did I think I’d run into him, especially when photographing a wedding,” Bennett said. “I felt like it was meant to be.”

The deer would stop at nothing to get the flowers, so the bride eventually decided to give the hungry animal her bouquet. She had to borrow one of the bridesmaids’ arrangements for the bouquet toss — but it was worth it for the hilarious photobomb.

Videographer Patrick Hellenga, of Patrick James Films, was also on-site to capture the sweet encounter on film.

When the couple returned to the field later that night, they found that the deer had left something behind for the bride — a little wedding gift.

“When we walked back to the area where we dropped the bouquet, the deer was gone but there was one white rose still intact,” Bennett said. “She picked it up and joked, ‘It’s the final rose.’”

That’s a lovely story!

Picture Parade Three Hundred and Seven

These are really gorgeous!

And republished with full permission!

My wife & I do volunteer work for a breed specific dog rescue, the Shiba Inu Rescue Association. Actually my wife does the work & I drive the car, offer words of encouragement and take photos. Yesterday we met up with Several Shibas & their owners. For those not familiar with this breed, they are a small Japanese dog, averaging 18 to 20 lbs although some are as small as 10 lbs & others 30 lbs or more. They are, genetically, still very close to wolves. Their coat color varies a bit but primarily, as seen below, either red, black & tan or creamy. We have over the years fostered and placed in new “forever homes” approx. 25 dogs. They are extremely intelligent and very “cat like” in their temperament.