When I was in Ireland last month, we visited Ross Castle in Killarney and there we met -- well, maybe not met since we weren't formally introduced -- a lovely Border Collie who just couldn't get enough of chasing a stick in the lake, or Lough Leane, as it likes to be known as. In front of the castle, a man tossed the stick and every time the collie came back with it, she cried and barked for it to be thrown again. It was pretty funny, she just wouldn't tire out. So of course I took photos. I didn't have my camera with me that does good action shots but I managed to get a few.And when I came back from Ireland, I saw that one image had a really good expression, just prime for a composite. But ...

Karen called because she has a mother and daughter pair of dogs, Olive and Oona -- beautiful Welsh terriers. Olive is 8 1/2 and Oona is 7. Karen wanted to get in a shoot before Olive showed her age... she looks beautiful now. Olive, you'll recognize, because she has the curlier coat of the two. Oona has a straighter, redder coat. It took me a while to figure it out.When we first talked, we were in the middle of the drought here in Los Angeles. Well, a good five years into it and everything was brown. But as luck would have it, by the time we could get the shoot on the books, the skies had opened up and it rained. And rained. And rained. And then when the sun peeked through, it turned green. ...

My previous post of my composite image Phoebe at Sea met with a little flack, to tell you the truth. I know, some of it had to have been in jest, but I had a few people concerned that Phoebe wasn't going to make it out alive. That her kind of dog sort of sinks, not swims. She was too far from shore. She needed a rescue boat or a piece of the shore in view. She was from the Titanic. (Huh?)She was rescued, I tell you, rescued! Rescue dogs are rescued and Phoebe is a rescue dog!!! Originally from a bad breeder, she's now living the dream!Plus, it's a make believe image, I don't have to tell you that.So shortly on the heels of Phoebe at Sea, I created one with my cat Kiwi. Now I'm not playing ...

Oh, it cracks me up every time I write this, which turns out is fairly often, but AVID readers of this blog -- get it... avid... we don't have any avid readers of this blog! -- know I love doing pet photography composite work. It's really fun because you can put a dog or a cat in a situation they would never be in. Then you put in the minute details to sell the whole of it. I did another one tonight based on the artist rafy A's Surreal Fantasy Manipulation Tutorial.Now for those avid readers, you might recall another pet photography composite I did back in March called Luna at Sea. I still love that one but it's completely different. Just go back and forth between the two of them, you'll ...