Author: Shooting The Dog

So, it’s August; which must mean I should be keeping you all updated on whatever has been happening in July. So here goes.

Let’s start with a top secret photo shoot I did back in June, it was for a July birthday so I can tell you about it now. It was a very hot day and we headed to the grounds of Dartington Hall to photograph the lovely Rubi and Luci. Conditions were challenging – very bright light (dimming to very little light in the trees), shiny coats, wet dogs (due to an unplanned dip in the river), and sun burnt photographer!

Most of July has been spent continuing with the re-vamp of the shop, mostly the shop front this month, but also some other bits and bobs out the back of the shop. Really pleased with how the shop front is looking now, just need to save up some pennies to get the main sign changed.

Hasn’t all been hard graft though, we’ve had time for a bit of messing about in the studio.

And hot summer weather wouldn’t been complete with out some beach trips and a bit of practice with the “in the water” gear.

Despite having mostly boring blue skies (well from a photography point of view, and that of the poor plants on my patio!), there was a fantastic sky over Brixham Harbour the other morning.

So the next step in the shop re-vamp is to sort out the window displays, the material I have lining the window areas has been there about ten years now, and has faded really badly, and is a real pain to keep clean. So I think that is next week’s job.

I’ll let Fidget have the last word on this blog.

Blimey, July already; the country is full of world cup fever, and Wimbledon fever, and in the middle of a heat wave – what on earth is going on?

Meanwhile, I haven’t written anything on my blog since May, so I had better get a move on and tell you all about what we’ve been up to.

Firstly, Fidget and I went on a short camping trip to Cornwall. We had a wonderful spot on the cliffs above Tintagel, a bit breezy but the view was awesome. Normally our May camping trips tend to be rather wet affairs, but we had wall-to-wall sunshine this year.

It was a bit of a shame to come home, but we had lots of exciting things we had to do when we got back. The revamp of the studio and shop needed to be done, and after much procrastinating we got on with it. The little studio area was changed around to give us more room, the back office got knocked about, and now Tom can work on the computer without having to move every time someone wants a coffee or to wash their hands; even the shop area got a bit of a change around.

We even got some pictures up on the wall in the studio, and even as we speak the front of the shop is now getting a going over as well – we’ll report back on this once it is complete.

Fidget kindly helped me try out the new studio layout, and some rather lovely new backdrops, by offering his services as a model.

He has also been busy making new friends, and helping me practice some “in the water” photography – which had some bizarre psychedelic results due to having a strange combination of filters on the camera – we won’t do that again (not accidentally anyway)!

Now it’s back to the excitement of sanding, and painting, and constantly being told “You’ve missed a bit” by well meaning passers-by, as we finish off the new improved shop frontage.

By the time you read this, I suspect England may well have been knocked out of the world cup, and the last Brit (even though he is South African) will have been beaten in straight sets – but we can live in hope, weird things are happening so maybe it’s our year.

So, Easter has been and gone, we’ve all eaten too much chocolate and now we are waiting for summer to arrive. It’s trying to do it’s bit, and here in Brixham we have had the odd lovely day interspersed with rainy, grey ones. There seem to have been a few tourists here over the Easter break, and, as annoying as they can be when you are trying get somewhere or do something, they are important to the local economy, so we just have to try and accept that; and hope they will come and spend some money with us.

The Framing Dept. has been as busy as ever, with the usual run of the mill framing requests, along with some slightly more challenging (and some might even say weird) requests.

Meanwhile, Fidget and I have been out and about doing what we do, me taking pictures, and him chasing balls and rolling in the mud … there is so much mud everywhere, please someone let it dry out; I’m running out of clean dog towels!

With a bit of luck my next blog will have puppies in it, and maybe even some “in the sea” shots if the weather warms up properly … we can but hope!