Category: Photography

Picture Parade One Hundred and Eight-Four

Continuing the theme of everybody needs a friend.

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Not a dry eye in the house.

Big hugs to you all!

Picture Parade One Hundred and Eighty-Three

Everybody always needs a friend!

(With many thanks to dear neighbour Dordie who passed these on to me to share with you all.)

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Have a great week.

Stupendous!

From the sublime to the amazing!

First, the sublime.

As in this stunning picture from the latest Cloud Appreciation Society newsletter.

A cap cloud at sunrise over Mount Rainier, spotted from Seattle, Washington, US, by Elaine Thompson (Member 41974).

“Though outwardly a gloomy shroud,
The inner half of every cloud
Is bright and shining:
I therefore turn my clouds about,
And always wear them inside out
To show the lining.”

[From ‘The Wisdom of Folly’ by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler in Verses, Wise or Otherwise (1895)]

Then to the amazing!

It’s hard to comprehend the sheer size of objects in space, but take 2 minutes and give it a try!

This video is from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) comparing the sizes of Earth, our sun and stars.

Max, our dark Prince

Another crossing of the Rainbow Bridge

Yesterday, in came an email that brought a tear to my eye:

Dear Paul,

I came across your blog this morning and saw the post on ‘We shall not forget them’ to pay tribute to our fur babies.

My black Labrador, Max, crossed the Rainbow Bridge on November 28th. He’s on my mind all the time and I have constantly been trying to do little things that make me feel his presence.

I was hoping I could pay a tribute to him on your blog. Please find a small poem and a portrait of him that I had penned down earlier. This is the original picture I sketched of him.

The email came from Samyuktha Sridhar and it is a wonderful honour and privelege to offer Sam’s tribute to Max.

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Max, our dark Prince

by Samyuktha Sridhar

Max, our handsome black labrador who was eleven and a half years old crossed to the other side of the Rainbow Bridge on 28 November, 2016. We miss him like crazy and it hasn’t yet fully sunk in.

There is no way we can make the pain go away, but we need to move on and learn to live with the beautiful memories. Every person has a different way of dealing with loss and sadness. I like to put my thoughts on paper. It helps me get things out of my system.

So here’s what I did..

If memories could bring us closer, if tears could bridge the gap

I’d cross the oceans to see you, in warm wet hugs we’d wrap

I opened my eyes to reality, to warm wet tears instead

The pain in my heart was real, as the voices in my head

Echoed, “No teary goodbyes were exchanged, no words of farewell spoken,

Would it have made it easier, if we had that chance?” I’m torn!

If I knew t’was the last time, that you’d look into my eyes

I’d have cradled your head upon my lap, stayed by you as you lay.

Were you in pain that fateful night, when the big brown clock struck three?

Sadly I’ll never know, would I? If you’d reached out to me.

With every breath you took you filled, my heart with so much love

You took a piece of my heart with you, the piece that belonged to you.

ooOOoo

Again and again we are reminded of what our dogs mean to us. So beautifully expressed by Sam.

Please, if you want to offer a tribute to your dearly departed dog do share it on these pages.

A beautiful boxer named Sophie

The third goodbye!

Last week, I wrote up the beautiful and touching memory of Buddy from Jim and Janet Goodbrod, and the memories of Diego by Laura Bruzzese.

Over on the We Shall Not Forget Them page there had been a tribute from Susan Leighton for the loss of her Sophie back in 2014.

Here is Susan’s tribute as a separate blog post that will be linked to as with the others.

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A Beautiful Boxer Named Sophie

by Susan Leighton
Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful Boxer named Sophie. My husband fell in love with her at first sight. He had to talk me into taking her home. It didn’t take long for me to see the light. The next thing I know I was carrying her in my arms.

She grew and filled our lives with joy. We loved her Boxer curl and the way that she would sit on the couch with us and just lean against our sides. Then around her 7th year, we noticed that she lost her appetite. Concerned like any parents, we took her to the vet. We received the worst news possible.

She had cancer that had metastasized in her liver. Her last few months with us were precious.

The vet had her on steroids and there for a time she returned to her happy-go-lucky Boxer self. We were fortunate to give her one last Christmas.

Our darling passed away in the early morning hours on January 31, 2014.

It has been two years but the pain is still there. Every time we see a beautiful Boxer, we see our Sophie in his or her eyes.

Thank you for allowing us to remember those companions that have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. They will always be in our hearts.

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They will always be in our hearts!

Picture Parade One Hundred and Eighty-Two

The second set of photographs by Russian photographer Andy Seliverstoff.

The first set of these stunning photographs was last week. I shall repeat the background to the photographer that was also published a week ago.

Little Kids and Big Dogs

Andy Seliverstoff is a 58-year-old professional photographer from St. Petersburg, Russia. A few years ago some of Seliverstoff’s friends asked him to take photos of their daughter Alice in a park. They had their gigantic Great Dane, Sean, with them, so they decided to incorporate him into the photos. After seeing the results, he knew he was on to something special.

Seliverstoff did another shoot with a child featuring big dogs, and told BuzzFeed News that he was “deeply touched” by the work. That was four years ago and he’s been a dog photographer ever since.

The project has become his passion, which he chronicles in a book called “Little Kids and Their Big Dogs.“

All of the photos are taken in St. Petersburg. Its extensive parks and colder climate help create some spectacular shots.

Seliverstoff said the goal of the series wasn’t just to create beautiful pictures, but to capture the interaction between the children and the animals.

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Beautiful almost beyond words! These were sent to me by Dordie from next door. Dearest Dordie has sent me another set of stunningly magical photographs that I will be sharing with you from next Sunday for a few weeks.

Remembering is so important!

I am speaking of our departed dogs.

Last year I instigated a new ‘page’ on Learning from Dogs. It was entitled We Shall Not Forget Them. It was introduced by me as follows:

For millions, the relationship between a person and their dog is precious beyond words. Do you still grieve the loss of your wonderful dog? Let us all know what your dog meant to you. Write whatever you want. Leave it as a thought to this page.

Then it became clear that this was not going to work properly. Because each note of remembrance was, in effect, a comment. And I discovered that under WordPress it is not possible to insert a photograph. I struggled to think of a better way of doing it. Then earlier yesterday it came to me.

I will make each message of condolence, each reflection on how special the dog was, a new and separate blog post. In other words, each dog gets their own post for a full day.

Then each time a condolence is sent in, I will update the We Shall Not Forget Them post with the name of the departed dog, the date and a link to the blog post that has the details and memories of the animal.

I hope that makes sense!

To underline how it is going to work, I am starting off with the words of loss, and photographs, of Jim and Janet’s Buddy.

That post will be published in an hour’s time and will be linked to as I described above.

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So I am reaching out to Susan, Asha, Katrina and Whisperofthedarkness – each of you has left a memory as a comment to here.

Please do email me some photographs and any further recollections you would like me to post, and I will do for you as I have done for Buddy.

(Laura, I shall go to that link and republish what you wrote.)

Picture Parade One Hundred and Eighty-One

Sent to me by Dordie Lamphier from next door.

First some background to the pictures that are presented both today and in a week’s time.

Little Kids and Big Dogs

The project has become his passion, which he chronicles in a book called “Little Kids and Their Big Dogs.“

All of the photos are taken in St. Petersburg. Its extensive parks and colder climate help create some spectacular shots.

Seliverstoff said the goal of the series wasn’t just to create beautiful pictures, but to capture the interaction between the children and the animals.

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