|
I was not expecting this today. I woke up and not long after getting on the computer I hear winds outside. I get up and look and it is a near whiteout going on. I grab my camera and head out to see the dogs early. While at my parents another good one comes through. |
|
|
Too bad it would only do this for a few minutes and then quit. |
|
|
Right after this goes through the sun comes out. I thought maybe there be some cool snow showers to be seen from up on the hill. Roy here is really ready to go. They give me odd looks when they are too lazy to pick their heads up. |
|
|
Jon waking up from his normal sleeping location over by the door. If that isn't an "I just woke up face" I don't know what is. |
|
|
Looking north from up on the hill. For whatever reason I enjoy these little showers as they scoot along on the horizon. I guess maybe that is because they often indicate spring is getting closer. This is a typical February/March scene here. |
|
|
Looking east at another over in Iowa. |
|
|
It was quite cold due to the added winds so we quickly went back down to the house. For some reason they were in super lazy mode today. The mouse gets no response. I was like, c'mon, get up.... nothing. Jon here. |
|
|
Roy is like, don't look at me. |
|
|
Wake up! |
|
|
Strrrreeechhh. (Yes I know I'm sad) |
|
|
Ok, for the reason I wanted him up. I wanted him up to get this very shot. He loves to snap at the cat(or the other car, or the other dog, or your leg if you are playing with him). If he is wound up it is like a nervous thing he does. He'll often start with his leg, nipping at it like he's biting an itch. If he sees a cat nearby he'll walk right towards it and snap. He won't hurt either of them and it honestly does not bug them, believe it or not. Siss here is the one that gets it the most and the one it seems to annoy the least. She's like, whatever. He's not growling or trying to hurt her, but just doing his normal snap thing that he keeps inches(or less lol) away from her. I thought if I could get a still of it that it might make an interesting picture. So no one thinks there is anything cruel going on here please see this set: http://www.extremeinstability.com/05-2-13.htm That is the same cat and the same dog. The picture is supposed to look worse than it actually is. Click image for a larger version. |
|
|
I kept trying to get him to do it but he seemed confused. Normally if we're by the cat he expects us to stop him. He'll start walking towards her to do it and I'll say something at the last second and he'll instantly pull his head and not do it. It is funny to watch him. The problem is you tell him not to and stop him, but then less than a minute later he's snapping. He normally does this when him and Roy are playing and Roy is getting the best of him. That and he'll do it from being jealous. Siss here isn't all that innocent either. She'll come flying across the room and jump from couch to chair as the dog goes between and try and tag him as he does so. She never does it mean either. |
|
|
This is most she'll do when he is doing his snapping. She'll hold her paw up and he'll lay off as he knows what will come if he doesn't. |
|
|
I was really bored this day. I wanted to get the cats running at the camera. This was no easy feat. I put the camera on manual and set it for the room lighting(intermitent clouds outside weren't helping this). I then focused it on an area so far out and flipped it to manual so it'd stay there. I needed to keep the lens at F/1.8 so the shutter could be as quick as possible. This of course leaves little room for things to be in focus(small DOF). This gave me 1/250 at F/1.8 with an ISO of 400. I then set the camera on a pillow on the floor and set it to timer mode. Now, how to get the cats to run at it? Dog food, lol. They love to chase dog food. Sometimes they eat it, most of the time they play with it until I throw another one. So I'd push it and run back to the wall and wait and guess while watching the flashing light telling me it is about ready to go. So this shot here you'd say, hey nice job!(even though she's short of the focus spot a tad). Well, to be honest, I was doing it for Siss and she(and my throw) were way early and she's already gone by the camera. Sally here saved the day by deciding to play too. I was like Siss, that was too quick...wait, Sally saves the day! |
|
|
Too early again and this time Siss stopped it anyway. Sally slow again jumping down off the couch. |
|
|
Siss just ahead of the focus spot and Sally just behind it a bit. They'd follow me over by the camera and I'd have to toss pieces back to the wall and then push the button. I'd then run back and try to quickly get their attention. It is pretty hard. I guess I could have ISO'd up to 1600 and got a better DOF for this. |
|
|
Well time for the boys to actually eat their food. Jon loves to give Roy a hard time when it comes to food. Roy normally gets Jon running and looking for me to break them up from their playing. When it gets serious Jon is simply the dominant dog and Roy knows this. Here was another shot I wanted to get. I feed them and often sit between them so Roy isn't affraid to eat(never matters). Jon loves to walk up to him and just growl a bit and show teeth. He won't actually ever bite him or do anything though. If Roy wanted I'm sure he could easily turn that table, but he is ok with it apparently. Well anyway, he'll be trying to eat and all Jon has to do is walk behind Roy any distance and he'll turns his head to look. Then as he turns back to his bowl he half leaves his eyes where they were watching Jon. It can be soooo funny the expression he has. This is an ok version of it. He'll turn his head even further with his eyes still looking back. They may act like this when it comes to food(Jon really isn't that bad at this) but 99% of the time they are best buds. One example is here: http://www.extremeinstability.com/04-10-14.htm |
|
|
Siss never gets enough of anything. Roy can't stand it when the cats touch his feet. He'll get up and bark all mean like and quickly walk away. Sometimes if he's laying there they don't even need to touch his feet and he'll freak out, jump up and bark. Now with that said this makes no sense. Siss here will walk right up to his bowl with him eating out of it and rub up against his chest as he eats. She will even take pieces out of the bowl and he'll just look at her. |
|
|
There are days where it is hard to get Roy to eat his food. It actually helps to leave Jon in the room and have him walking around. It'll get Roy to eat as he knows if he doesn't he might lose it to Jon. Well sometimes it does. Many times nothing short of adding real food to the bowl will. Then there are days where he'll eat his whole bowl out of my hand. I'll stop and he won't start eating out of his bowl. So I'll grab more and sure enough he'll eat it out of my hand. Other times it'll get him started and he'll realise he's hungry and just eat. He doesn't really care for the cats getting it even when he doesn't seem to want it. He won't eat out of the bowl but when I throw one to the cats he'll follow them till they drop part of it. He'll then clean up behind them. He is confusing when it comes to food time. |
|
|
Shhhh, I'm hiding from the snapper. She enjoys being under things. I've seen her climb up under the blanket on the couch and just lay under there for a long time. |
|
