Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my blog followers!  I hope you enjoy the holidays and have a fantastic, photography-filled 2012!

I goofed around with some X-Mas tree shots last night, but I had been drinking Kahlua and eggnog, so they turned a little psychedelic fairly quickly LOL!  Enjoy...if you can!

Calendars!!

I am now offering calendars filled with my images woop!  (Just in time for Christmas too!)  There are two options, a 12"x18" coil-top bound for $50 or an 11"x17" centre bound for $40.  They are really nice, I just made up one of Isabelle and it turned out great!  You can pick out your own twelve images from my site or I can chose for you if you'd prefer.  Send me an email if you're interested (sooner the better if you want it before Christmas:)

Here's an example of a centre bound one, the pic doesn't do it justice sorry.

 

The Golden Pond

Finally got my butt in gear and drove out to the "Golden Pond" for a mini shoot this morning.  I'm looking at it as a practise shoot since I didn't get the shots I was hoping for.  Having a three year old with you isn't the best way to get birds to approach you LOL!  Next time I'll go solo, pick a spot and sit and wait.  I'd like to get some good wood duck shots...maybe some wigeons too.  Today all I got were mallards, not terribly exciting.  The water looked good though, from the right angle it looks like liquid gold!

Water

We went out to Goldstream a couple of weeks ago and the fall colours were fabulous!  It was also nice to see the salmon earlier in the season when their colours were still vibrant and they hadn't started to die off yet.  For some reason I was hooked on capturing the textures and colours of the water moving over different objects, so this is a watery blog!

I tried to get shots of the salmon coming out of the water when they were jostling each other around, but it was really tricky...the pics didn't really turn out that well...

And, a shot of Izzy too of course!

Eurasier Puppies

I had the most amazing day last Tuesday!  I got to visit two litters of puppies in Cloverdale!!  My friend, Margaret, has a handsome Eurasier stud named Chester.  (Pics of him can be seen here: http://emilymacdonaldphotography.blogspot.com/2011/06/pausing-for-breather.html )  Two of his latest litters of puppies were sired this past summer and were born within less than two weeks of each other, on Sept15th and Sept 28th.  When Margaret invited me to go over with her to see them I jumped at the chance!  There's nothing I love more than fuzzy, chubby puppies :)

For those of you that aren't familiar with the breed, Eurasiers were originally bred in Germany as companion pets.  They are a combination of Chows, Wolfspitz and Samoyeds.  Chester is the first of his breed that I have met, but if he is any indication of the temperaments of the rest of the breed, they are wonderful dogs!  Very friendly, loving and loyal dogs who love to be with their people.  

The puppies we went to visit belong to Judi of Edelweiss Eurasiers:  http://members.shaw.ca/EdelweissEurasiers/

Here is the first litter, they were just shy of six weeks old when we saw them.  (Mom, Faith, is in the first shot.)

The second litter was almost four weeks old.  They were so roly-poly and had the cutest little whimpers.  At one point they all started barking, it was the cutest sound ever!  They were trying so hard to be tough but they sounded so sweet that we couldn't help but laugh! Their mom is Ajona :)

And, some real tangible proof of their cuteness (in case the pics weren't enough haha!):

Alix and Cicily

I had so much fun taking riding pictures last week!  Alix rides at my barn and her mom asked me to take some shots of her riding her horse, Cicily.  Cicily is a Trakehner and absolutely gorgeous!  But, not only is she beautiful, she is super friendly and people orientated.  I don't usually "click" with mares to be honest, but I can't get enough of her, she's so lovely and sweet:)

The weather wasn't great, raining then spitting then raining again, but Alix didn't seem bothered and gave me lots of photo ops!  She's a fantastic rider, I can only hope to be as good as her one day. 

Sneak Peek ~ Puppies

I got to go visit not one but two litters of puppies this past week!!  I was one happy camper that's for sure!  Here's a sneak peek to tide you over until my editing is done:)

Sneak Peek

I did an impromptu photo shoot of one of the girls at the barn riding this past week.  The weather was less than perfect, but I think I got some good images.  Took a few hundred shots of Alix riding her beautiful horse, Cicily, so it will be awhile until I get through editing them...in the mean time, here's one of my favourite pics so far :)

Hoot Hoot!

A big thank-you to Margaret for pointing this out to me while we were walking yesterday!  A beautiful Barred Owl perched just down the road from my house.  Not very often you see owls in my 'hood, especially at noon!  Poor guy (or gal) was desperately trying to sleep but people, dogs and cars kept going by.  His public perch was good for me, but I'm sure he's tired today.

Horses!

There are so many beautiful horses at the barn where I'm leasing now, that I had to make up a blog to show some of them to you!  These are only four of the aprox. twelve horses that are boarded there, so I'll have to get busy capturing the rest soon.

First off is Cicily.  She is absolutely stunning, I can't take my eyes off of her!!  She's also a real sweetheart and loves to be petted (so much so that I had trouble getting shots of her because she was right in my face LOL!). 

Next is Vogue.  A big, pretty Warmblood with lots of personality!  Will have to get some full-body shots of her next time she feels like posing.

The huge Belgian, Zack.  He's a big teddy bear and has the best mane, I love how it cascades around his ears!

Last but not least, my fav boy Chance!!  He's only just turned five, but he's the sweetest thang ever!  Love him to bits!  He's so gentle and soooo handsome, I'll really miss him when he leaves (he's only there temporarily).  This is my favourite pic too by the way ;)

And, I had to include this shot for giggles!  Not very often you see an upside down horse haha!