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Description

Where: Vintergatan, Sweden
What: Forest
When: January 4th, 2017, 10.45am
With What: Hasselblad 500cm & CFV II, (Plus Kodak Tri-X) Zeiss 80mm C Lens on 8 second selftimer, tripod, 60th Sec, f5.6, iso 50

This image is dedicated to Ronja, a massive, loveable, amazing and vocal Leonberger.

The house we were looking after in Sweden came with 3 dogs, 5 ducks, 2 rabbits and two cats and the occasional rat and a host of starlings when the windows were left open in Spring.

When we first got to our Swedish home, the owners said that two of the animals, who were rescue dogs, did not like to walk too far and we were advised that it would be best not to take them out for too long if we did. We could see that two of them had previous injuries from road accidents which had never properly healed and two of them limped. But they did not seem to be in pain, so we did our best to make sure they were as comfortable as possible.

Never the less they seemed to enjoy life including our company and when they first met our Springer Spaniel (who is stupidly fast and full of energy) it seemed to bring new life into the old dogs.

Little did we know, that these dogs were far from decrepit and were certainly resourceful when it came to escaping or any kind of devious behaviour.

One was a mongrel cross called Laska, she was super super fast and if anything faster than our Springer Spaniel, she also loved to dig her way out of the garden, Mr Big was a lovely huge fluff ball, a timid Leonberger Labrador cross who loved to bark, he pretended most of the time to be unable to walk. When he was not being watched he would gallop around like there was no tomorrow, he also did not seem to like the warmth of the house and preferred a log hut outside with so much straw in you could barely see him. Then there was Ronja, a great lion looking dog, she was super clever and had amazing tracking skills. She kept the other dogs under control with either a look or her hefty bark.

In Sweden they have a thing called Allemansrätt which is a right to roam - anywhere, this may explain why nearly all of the fences and minimal enclosures in Sweden are super low.

This garden was no exception. All of the dogs made little effort in jumping the thin wire fence and would run off when something took their fancy in the forest. So I spent a month reinforcing the fence to make it higher and stronger. But they found weaknesses and got out anyway.

I eventually spent another month creating an awesome fence which managed to contain two of the dogs, Mr Big and Laska. Ronja however, would wait until we were out of sight before she tested the fence for weaknesses. She would find one and get out, more from her brute strength by just smashing through the fence head first or chewing the fence to pieces or just jumping it by landing on it and falling over it with her sheer weight.

Although she and the others were walked or swam as much as our dog they could not contain themselves in the garden, especially if I had left them behind to go on a photography expedition. Many a time I spent hours roaming the forest looking for them only to give up because it was too dark or in winter because I'd fallen over in the snow looking for them in poorly insulated clothes.

They would just show up an hour later by the front gate, sitting patiently to be let in like nothing had happened.

Fletcher, our springer spaniel, had been trained to play hide and seek and although he could find us, it did take him some time to eventually track us down while on walks he was super random in his search technique.

Ronja on the other had was like a heat seeking missile, It was almost impossible to hide from her. In the end it became a game of where I could hide to see if she could not find me. I would double back, go over my same tracks, change shoes mid walk, rub myself on the floor or snow, climb rocks or trees. Nothing worked.

Fletcher would spend ages hunting around but Ronja would find me straight away and jump up in joy that she'd found me always knocking me to the floor as she was taller (on her back legs) and much heavier than me. Totally amazing.

This particular day I had walked the dogs at 4am and left them behind in the house.

I'd left early and my wife and daughter were still in bed so figured I had a good mornings photography in hand to myself. The light was slowly coming up as I made my way into the deep forest.

About twenty minutes into my photo set up, I heard a rustling over the early morning wind in the trees which were blowing the newly settled snow from the trees. Just then, out the corner of my eye was Ronja, bounding up and launched on me. Before I could get a chance to brace myself I fell with a thud got a few hefty licks in the face and then she was off into the forest chasing a noise or smell she had caught.

Bewildered I got up and the camera previously set on the 8 second timer took this shot by accident.

This shot is me just standing up wondering what the hell just happened.

I hope you like it.

Shoved into Affinity Photo 4 stitched images blended into one, turned into mono and a signature shoved on it.

© Copyright – redtree.me – All rights reserved.

Description

Where: Vintergatan, Sweden
What: Forest
When: January 4th, 2017, 10.45am
With What: Hasselblad 500cm & CFV II, (Plus Kodak Tri-X) Zeiss 80mm C Lens on 8 second selftimer, tripod, 60th Sec, f5.6, iso 50

This image is dedicated to Ronja, a massive, loveable, amazing and vocal Leonberger.

The house we were looking after in Sweden came with 3 dogs, 5 ducks, 2 rabbits and two cats and the occasional rat and a host of starlings when the windows were left open in Spring.

When we first got to our Swedish home, the owners said that two of the animals, who were rescue dogs, did not like to walk too far and we were advised that it would be best not to take them out for too long if we did. We could see that two of them had previous injuries from road accidents which had never properly healed and two of them limped. But they did not seem to be in pain, so we did our best to make sure they were as comfortable as possible.

Never the less they seemed to enjoy life including our company and when they first met our Springer Spaniel (who is stupidly fast and full of energy) it seemed to bring new life into the old dogs.

Little did we know, that these dogs were far from decrepit and were certainly resourceful when it came to escaping or any kind of devious behaviour.

One was a mongrel cross called Laska, she was super super fast and if anything faster than our Springer Spaniel, she also loved to dig her way out of the garden, Mr Big was a lovely huge fluff ball, a timid Leonberger Labrador cross who loved to bark, he pretended most of the time to be unable to walk. When he was not being watched he would gallop around like there was no tomorrow, he also did not seem to like the warmth of the house and preferred a log hut outside with so much straw in you could barely see him. Then there was Ronja, a great lion looking dog, she was super clever and had amazing tracking skills. She kept the other dogs under control with either a look or her hefty bark.

In Sweden they have a thing called Allemansrätt which is a right to roam - anywhere, this may explain why nearly all of the fences and minimal enclosures in Sweden are super low.

This garden was no exception. All of the dogs made little effort in jumping the thin wire fence and would run off when something took their fancy in the forest. So I spent a month reinforcing the fence to make it higher and stronger. But they found weaknesses and got out anyway.

I eventually spent another month creating an awesome fence which managed to contain two of the dogs, Mr Big and Laska. Ronja however, would wait until we were out of sight before she tested the fence for weaknesses. She would find one and get out, more from her brute strength by just smashing through the fence head first or chewing the fence to pieces or just jumping it by landing on it and falling over it with her sheer weight.

Although she and the others were walked or swam as much as our dog they could not contain themselves in the garden, especially if I had left them behind to go on a photography expedition. Many a time I spent hours roaming the forest looking for them only to give up because it was too dark or in winter because I'd fallen over in the snow looking for them in poorly insulated clothes.

They would just show up an hour later by the front gate, sitting patiently to be let in like nothing had happened.

Fletcher, our springer spaniel, had been trained to play hide and seek and although he could find us, it did take him some time to eventually track us down while on walks he was super random in his search technique.

Ronja on the other had was like a heat seeking missile, It was almost impossible to hide from her. In the end it became a game of where I could hide to see if she could not find me. I would double back, go over my same tracks, change shoes mid walk, rub myself on the floor or snow, climb rocks or trees. Nothing worked.

Fletcher would spend ages hunting around but Ronja would find me straight away and jump up in joy that she'd found me always knocking me to the floor as she was taller (on her back legs) and much heavier than me. Totally amazing.

This particular day I had walked the dogs at 4am and left them behind in the house.

I'd left early and my wife and daughter were still in bed so figured I had a good mornings photography in hand to myself. The light was slowly coming up as I made my way into the deep forest.

About twenty minutes into my photo set up, I heard a rustling over the early morning wind in the trees which were blowing the newly settled snow from the trees. Just then, out the corner of my eye was Ronja, bounding up and launched on me. Before I could get a chance to brace myself I fell with a thud got a few hefty licks in the face and then she was off into the forest chasing a noise or smell she had caught.

Bewildered I got up and the camera previously set on the 8 second timer took this shot by accident.

This shot is me just standing up wondering what the hell just happened.

I hope you like it.

Shoved into Affinity Photo 4 stitched images blended into one, turned into mono and a signature shoved on it.

© Copyright – redtree.me – All rights reserved.