But, on Sunday I joined the other spectators and took along my camera. Sunday consisted of a Double Lift Final and there were many wonderful runs, the first one was spectacular and ended up being the winner!  I was very excited to have captured much of it.  I talk a lot about herding on this blog and I am sure that many of you sort of get it, but don’t truly understand what it is about.  I am finding herding to be one of the most challenging endeavors I have ever taken on. It is all about the communication and respect between the handler and the dog and then you throw the factor of the livestock, in this case, sheep, into the equation and life gets interesting very quickly!  As a handler, you have to be able to read the sheep and dog and then be able to communicate to the dog where you want him to take the sheep.  It is not an easy task…….!  The man in these images is Alasdair MacRae and Nap, who incidentally is a Border Collie.

This story begins with a man and his dog!

They enter the field.  They have been given a course, which consists of a series of tasks that they have to complete in a specific order and within a certain time!  There are two separate sets of sheep in the very far distance, which they must group together and begin the course. This is referred to as the Double Lift Outwork.  During this time, the handler has to remain at a post, send the dog to the sheep  and do all  communication  with his dog through whistles or voice commands.

As you can see, they were quite a distance from the post.  The 2nd group is way off to the right.

At this point, the dog has gathered all of the sheep into a group and is moving them towards his handler.

Once the sheep are too the handler, the dog drives them around the post and starts moving them through a series of panels.

The judge is watching for how calmly and consistently and accurately  the sheep are moving throughout the course!

At this point, you are probably wondering why some of the sheep are so fashionably dressed in red bows!!!

Next comes a part of the run known as an International Shed.  If you notice, there is a track in the grass in the picture above which creates a circle. The dog , Nap, with instructions from the handler is moving the sheep into the circle.  At this point, the handler leaves the post and comes into the circle.  Their task is to shed/move the sheep without the bows to the outside of the circle.  If a red bow gets out, they have to bring them all back in and start over.  This particular shed was pure magic IMHO!

Mission Accomplished!!!

…..and with that they are off to the pen, which is the final obstacle!

Bravo Alasdair and Nap!!

I absolutely love the challenge of herding with my Australian Shepherd, Spyder.  I keep telling everyone that it is much more fun than doing crosswords and certainly strains my brains every bit as much!  We are definitely at the beginning of this journey and will start trialing soon, but it is wonderful to have such a vision of  possibility for the future!

On a side note:  For those of you who know a lot more about this than I do…….I apologize if I have been inaccurate about anything.  This was all from a fairly new to the scene enthusiast!

Such a setting provides many opportunities for photography, although my main ‘focus’ was on herding. Here are a few images to help tell the story of a wonderful week!

We had the opportunity to herd ducks.  For those who don’t know, there is a course of obstacles that you ultimately want to quietly move the ducks through! It can be quite a challenge at times, but is great fun!

We did spend most of our time working with sheep.  A young dog is often started in a small pen.

There is much to learn about the communication with your dog.  Special terms are used to tell the dog what you want it to do, along with the use of body language and for more advanced teams, whistles. It can be very confusing for all involved, but when it finally works, it is such a wondrous feeling!

…..and getting a really great pen is always time for Celebration!

We had many opportunities to spend very special time with our wonder K-9 partners.

We all made new friends!

….and this is why we do what we do…….!!!!!

This last image totally portrays the serenity and peacefulness of a handler and her dog in total communication, moving a group of sheep in a relaxed walk-about…..job well done Pat and Woody!

Oh, and just to prove that I really was at camp, here is one last photo that another camper, Mary Peaslee took of moi and Spyder!

You may view two photo galleries of images from Camp at:

Dancing Dog Event Photography

Click on Dog Event Galleries at the top on the menu bar. There are two different galleries from camp. Please use the contact link if you have any problems.

For those of you who want to see even more………tomorrow I am going to put up a video that I made from several of the photos that I took at camp.

Kevin was a wealth of information and I can barely lift the notebook of information that he sent home with us.   Two other photographers were also available to  inspire and educate us!

Craig Strong, the inspiration behind Lens Baby, shared much information about his own photography journey.  We had the opportunity to play with and experience Lens Baby’s and most of us now have new lenses in our bag of tricks.  I am loving mine and will share images in the future. I encourage you to take a look at these, I promise that they will open up a whole new world of photography creativity!  Oh yes, and I might add, Craig is from Portland, Oregon!  We do have such talented people in Oregon…..LOL

Vicki Taufer and Jed Taufer of  V Gallery spent the week with us as well.  This was a very special bonus for me, as Vicki has very successfully incorporated pet photography  into V Gallery.  I learned much from her and am hoping to start implementing it into my own pet photography business…..stay tuned!  Her husband Jed was frequently surrounded by groups of campers learning various techniques in photoshop.  My favorite was taking three images and incorporating them into one…..I have tried this in the past, but I know have several new secrets up my sleeve!

There were also several awesome people from Kevin’s staff, ready at the raising of a hand to rescue us when we got stuck or confused!   The food was fabulous,  Happy Hour was greatly appreciated, and the accommodations were perfect!  We even had a fun game to play all week.  It is called the Lying Down Game!  It was a great stress release as well as a fun and creative challenge!  You have to do something crazy at camp….don’t you???  I unfortunately  did not take any of the Lying Down images, but did participate!  The rules are simple….take an image of the person lying face down with arms at their side……The fun part is to find creative places to do this!

We also had opportunities to photograph models at Camp.  Shooting in a large group always creates a challenge, but I was pleased with what I captured!

In case you are wondering about the photograph at the top of the page………..prior to photographing our models, I happend to catch  Kevin polishing his gorgeous red Mustang, which we later used as a major prop in our images!  I must explain the gnome in his front seat though!  We were all told in advance that we would be submitting images for  a slide show on the last day. Some of our group members came up with the fun idea to all insert this gnome into one or two of our slides as a joke for Kevin…..thus the driving gnome!  LOL!!!

Our Wedding Scenario Models

Our Senior Model

My family had to say goodbye to our dear four-legged friend, Taylor, on March 24, 2010.  Taylor had been a much loved and important part of our family for over 14 years.  Taylor had developed health issues over the past few years and probably spent a couple of years living on ‘borrowed’ time.  She was a trooper.  Taylor was one of those gentle, kind souls who was always steady in who she was, always happy for new experiences and never knew an enemy!  She really, really loved her cookies and her belly rubs!

She was always a patient and accepting subject of my  numerous photography sessions.  In this one, I was practicing  taking self-portaits.  As a photographer, I usually don’t have many images of myself with my dogs, so I do treasure every one.

Taylor gave us a real scare a few nights before my daughter’s wedding and became very ill.  All of the dogs were supposed to go to the kennel for the duration, but we could not do that to Taylor, so she stayed home.  She designated herself as the ‘guard’ of the wedding dress!  Now that is true loyalty!

Taylor had the opportunity to mentor 3 additional canine family members!  I know that it sounds crazy, but I do sense that they really miss her as well.  Up until the very last few days, she did everything in her power to keep up with her buddies.  She and Spyder always seemed to have a special bond, even though he is the youngest and most rambunctious, he was always very careful with Taylor.

In looking for personal comfort this past week, I came across this little poem, that really defines the moment when Taylor passed on.  She was surrounded by people who cared for her very much and she went peacefully.  I really believe that it was her time.  She will be dearly missed.

Von Stocker’s Taylored To Perfection

11/1/1995-3/24/2010

~Rest in peace sweet Taylor~

Image by my friend Tish.