“I’ve been around dogs all my life but Lobo was the first dog I owned myself.  He was a stray that I found in the middle of a major thoroughfare in Lansing, Michigan. He was thin, smelled of diesel fuel, and was obviously terrified as he dragged a long rope and avoided any human interaction.  It took nearly two hours to catch him and only after many offerings of lunch meat and quick lunges for his rope.  In time Lobo adjusted to his new life of regular meals, veterinary care and a warm bed to become the sweetest, most gentle and loyal dog I’ve ever known.  He had a special aura of tranquility.  I came to call him the Doggi-Lama and I think his extraordinarily peaceful, loving spirit is apparent in the photos.

If Lobo represented the peaceful side of life, Luna was emblematic of its chaotic side. My Mom gave me Luna a year after I found Lobo, as a birthday gift.  We picked her up as a seven week old pup and almost immediately she became ill.  I almost lost her to a terrible viral infection.  She demonstrated real grit in surviving and seems to have been determined ever since to maximize each moment.  I would throw ball or stick or bumper over and over and over again but could never wear her out.  She was go, go, go, all of the time.  If she wanted to play, she would sit before me and lecture me about the virtues of chasing a stick with barks and yips and other strange noises.  She’s vocal in other ways too.  She doesn’t like other dogs (she put up with Lobo only because I made clear she had too) and never misses a chance to talk trash to a passerby.  Like the photos of Lobo, the pictures of Luna capture her personality – her aggressive, driven and playful nature.”

We had a lot of fun at our session, working both indoors and outdoors, and decided a coffee table book was the best way to feature all of the images.  We just finished designing the book and I know it is going to be gorgeous. Here are a few pages.

We’ve been waiting patiently here in Virginia for some real snow.  And today, it happened.  I took my two dogs out to a field near my house and took some pictures.  Juno is a character – as you’ll see in the images.  Chica is my sweet, quiet girl.  (you’ll be able to tell who’s who)

And this is me attempting to get artsy .  .  .

This next one is an angle I’ve never tried before - I call it “don’t look up”.

————Happy Birthday, Ali!————

Northern Virginia Dog Magazine had it’s premiere issue and we photographed a story about bringing dogs to Mount Vernon.  For all things dog in the greater Washington DC area, you have to check out this magazine:  Northern Virginia Dog - Oh, and if you enter this code:  NOVAD2 at checkout, you can get $1.00 off delivery.   Here are a few more images from the session we did with Autumn, a beautiful golden retriever, at Mount Vernon:

The image below on the left is the front of Mount Vernon and the image below on the right is the back.  In addition to it’s historic interest, Mount Vernon has an incredible view of the Potomac.

We were honored to have an image of Snowyi picked for the cover of the Maryland SPCA 2009 calendar.  You can read more about Snowyi in these past blog entries: http://pawprintsgallery.com/blog/?p=16 and http://pawprintsgallery.com/blog/?p=34

Elan Magazine featured us in the January 2009 issue and used one of my favorite images on the cover.  If you click on this link, you can see the article:  http://www.elanmagazine.com/featured_artists/burkett.html

Now, if there is any chance you read the article, there is a reference to a photograph that I took as a kid (and developed in the darkroom in our laundry room) that was my first official published work.  It’s shown below – it was a black lab that my sister rescued named Jet and I dressed him up as an editor.  My mom sent the image into our local paper and they published it.

One of our images from a greyhound event was chosen to be on the cover of the 2009 Celebrating Greyhounds Desk Calendar.  The greyhound is named Bosha.  You can’t tell from the calendar image but he is a tripod.  Here’s another photo of him on the battlefield at Gettysburg, PA:

Here’s a quote from his human mom:  “I will be traveling to Ohio State at the end of September for Bosha’s THREE YEAR ANNIVERSARY as a cancer survivor – he is such an inspiration to the Oncology Department at OSU – continuing to beat the odds in his fight against osteosarcoma…  He had been such a support to me over the course of the last year and one-half.  He always has a positive attitude and loves his life – living life to the fullest each and everyday.”

And last but not least, Torch, the cat, was featured on the cover of the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria (AWLA) calendar.  Torch has a wonderful story.  I photographed him as a kitten a year ago (while I was photographing Boomer, another cat with the same owners, for the 2008 AWLA calendar) and it wasn’t certain he was going to live.  His owners were feeding him with syringes because he wasn’t able to eat any other way.  Well, after they figured out what was wrong and after a few surgeries and lots of patience and love - he pulled through with flying colors and is now a healthy, happy, full grown cat.  Here’s Torch as a kitten:

And this is Torch a little over a year old.