Christmas Pictures!

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Hi Friends!

So couple things about me: I LOVE holidays and get childishly excited about them. Also I am a "camera sergeant" as my brother calls me. I have to take pictures of everything and that includes my dogs which means they are subjected to pictures that I'm sure they would rather not do, but we now have a great routine and they know this means many treats followed but bully sticks (the only time they get them). 

Having black/dark colored dogs is such a drag for someone who is always whipping out their phone to take a picture only to realize that the lighting/ background/ flash/ window/ and who knows what else are not in your favor for the day. But I love my boys and do what I can. I do not have kids but my furkids are my babies so in conjunction with the DK card exchange I thought it would be fun to send one out to family and friends and decided to get the boys all dressed up! Let me tell you how perfect they were! I'm sure you guys know but it takes soon much to set up for good pictures, your flashes, your lighting, your dogs-lol! 

Moose had eyes on the treats the whole time and after deciding that the pilot light on the fire place wasn't going to eat him he had a good time! He even forgot he had things on his head and was just so excited to have people looking at him and really just looked happy! He even got to wear some antlers to go with his name! Loki on the other hand was only in this for the food. Now the big difference between my boys is that Moose is a good liar and Loki is not. If I come home and look at something chewed up I know right away if it was Loki because he looks so guilty however if he looks happy as a clam it's Moose for sure. Moose always looks like he's the life of the party and constantly has this puppy smile on his face. Loki on the other hand wears his expressions plain as day. If he is ticked off or annoyed he lets you know with his expressive doodle eyes. My favorite picture I have ever taken of them is below. Moose looks happy as ever and his forgotten that he even has antlers on his head however about 30 seconds before I took this picture I had to tell Loki to "leave it" because he kept trying to eat the antlers... Here's the expression he kept on his face for the next half hour (and hid behind Moose)...

They say if looks could kill... I think part of what makes Loki a great therapy dog is that he is so expressive. He will be sitting with a patient and look like he is truly engaged in their conversation and you almost wonder if he does know what is being said. 

Dogs are amazing like that. I really think that dogs are so much smarter than we will ever realize or give them credit for. Here's another one with Loki not so happy about not being able to munch on the decorations.... Anyone out there have super expressive doodles? I find them so funny and cute! With Moose he always looks is happy and it's great but sometimes I find myself wondering what he's thinking. Loki on the other hand I never have to wonder because it's

almost like he put a billboard up just to make sure I got the memo. 

Moose was such a champ! He even wore this goofy little hoody thing from petco complete with little bells. 

Question I have for my photography wizards out there. How do you guys get rid of the weird "doggie eye gleam"? This picture to the left is an example of an issue I kept running into. I used a good about of indirect lighting and set of a slave flash as well and most of the pictures turned out great but every now and then I would get this gleam in Loki's eyes. Anything else I can do to completely eliminate it? I had to play around a lot with the lighting just to get them to show up because of their dark fur. I used the red eye corrector to tone down the weird eye gleam but wasn't sure if there was anything else out there that I might try. 

Overall this post is just an excuse to post pictures of my boys because I was just so happy that I got not one but a handful of good pictures of them! I do realize that I am giving away most of their christmas card for those who are doing the card exchange but seriously I needed to show these pictures to someone out there! People who are not dog people don't have the same love for pictures of happy dogs.  Hope everyone is having a great holiday season and I can not wait to see everyone's christmas cards!

Happy Howl-idays!

Jess, Loki, and Moose!

[Ruth Sommers]

Love the pictures

[Lucy , Alex and Madison]

Love their pics! Reminds me of the phrase "Santa knows who's naughty or nice!!"

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Julie- Thanks so much! i was very proud of them!

[Julie and Max]

What beautiful pictures! You did awesome and so did they :D

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Jane- thanks so much! I love bandannas on dogs! Loki always wears his like a champ but Moose will try to shred them if given a chance so now they only come out for special occasions!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

The pictures are great....and I LOVE the bandannas.

[Bonnie and Kona]

Jessica, It sounds like you have the culprits well sorted out. ;o)

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Nancy- thanks! We are the opposite, I think since bringing Loki home I have taken one good set of pictures with them outside, all the rest suck.

Jenny- Thanks so much! And yes, they do get most of the credit!

Lonnie- Thank you! The holidays are the best time to be dragging a camera everywhere!

Julie- Thank you so much! Good luck with your girls! That is so true with"Woohoo I'm here!"That perfectly describes Moose where as Loki seems very expressive but very no-nonsense too! Your two are adorable, I hope you have some luck taking their picture!

Bonnie- Thank you! And oh my! That's really funny! I sure hope I'm not blaming the wrong one, usually if someone has had an accident and I walk in and say "I smell poop!" Loki will either sit right behind Moose and glare at him as if to say "this is the jerk who made my den smelly" and if it was Loki, I have found him with his head shoved underneath my bed and his big furry butt sticking out! Doodles are too funny!

Roslyn- Thanks! My siblings say the same! I guess I haven't been are relentless with them now that I have two dogs who love the camera! It's a win win!

[Roslyn and Nana]

Oh my goodness these are great! 
I do the same with taking pictures my grown children are really happy that I have a new baby to take pictures of so I will leave them along... ;)

[Bonnie and Kona]

I just love these photos of your boys! Thanks so much for posting them. I am completely unable to get a good photo so it's really fun to see others'. Loki and Moose are gorgeous!

BTW... as far as the guilty party...we had two Goldens before our doodles. One wore a guilty face and the other was as cool as a cucumber and regal as could be. When the cool, regal one died, there was never again missing butter or anything chewed up. We'd been blaming the one that looked guilty and praising the cool cucumber by mistake!