Meet Banks and Maxwell.  Banks is a beautiful yellow lab and Maxwell (aka Max) is a handsome mix who was adopted from the Homeless Animals Rescue Team (H.A.R.T.) Last year when we photographed Max, he had just gone through surgery for cancer and had a large shaved area with a scar.  That’s all gone now, and he and his dog brother are as handsome as ever.  Here is Banks last year – he’s no longer chasing balls like he used to, but he’s still a very happy and energetic boy.

Our main goal for this session was to photograph them with their human kids.  Those are coming up in the next post so please come back to see them.

It was a beautiful day and the yellow ball was having a nice time floating in the water.  “Hello, nice poodle, don’t you look handsome today  . . .”

I hope to create more horse images this year.  I actually had a horse for a few years as a kid.  He was more of a pony, actually, (13.5 hands) – and his name was Frank.  If you can believe it, his full name was Frankenstein.  He was a very sweet pony and spending so much time with him made me very comfortable around horses.  I broke my arm when I fell off once, but my sister made me get back on and ride home – it was a good move – otherwise I think I would have held on to the initial fear of falling off.  (thanks, sis!)  I am one of those people who loves the smell of a barn.  Here are a few of my favorite images after getting up early to hang around a barn just for fun.

These images were created at the Northern Virginia Animal Swim Center.  It’s really cool to see the horses swimming in a pool.  I used to take my dog swimming there as well – they have a separate area for dogs.

If you’re trying to picture what a horse swimming pool looks like – here it is:

You can see the ramp on the far right – that’s how the horses get into the pool.  No diving boards here.

Great things happen when the local pool goes to the dogs!!!!

                                                          Clyde

                                                              Josie                                                              

                                                        Jaws!

                                                         Carwash!

                                                  Like ships  . . .

                                                              Tug!

                                           Not the usual suspects

                                                 Look Ma, One Paw!

To see all of the pictures we took, (and we took a lot) – click here.  If you want to see some of the pictures from 2008, click here.