My Favorite Photo

The above is my favorite photo of the babies for several reasons. It was almost impossible to assemble those three dogs together for a photo especially when one dog is as high-strung and hyper as Andy was at the time and another dog, Father, hates the hyperactive dog and doesn’t take instruction so well. Of course my sunshine angel beauty queen Abby was perfect! It was in early winter of 1999 the day this photo was taken. Abby was 3 years old; Andy was a year and a half old, while Father was 8 to 10 years old or possibly older. I was down from NJ visiting my family during the Christmas break. We were in the backyard--the three dogs, my mom and I. I was standing on top of the sliding board which is why the dogs are looking up at the same point in that photo. I had a toy in my hand which I would throw and one of them would retrieve. It was every dog for his or herself in chasing the object, which was most likely a ball but it may have been a Frisbee.

I don’t know whose idea it was for me to climb on top of the sliding board. It was freezing outside, so it’s not like I was going for a swim. We had been playing fetch with them that early evening and obviously were taking pictures. I’m fairly certain that I climbed on the sliding board to bring the dogs together as closely as possible to try to get all of them in one shot. I know it wasn’t a perfect photo. Some of Father’s legs were cut off as was some of Andy’s tail. The lighting wasn’t great, and our camera was a point and shoot. I’ve learned that with a point and shoot, the developed photo doesn’t always seem to come out the way that you remember that event when the picture was taken. Despite all that, we captured all of them in one picture. It took a bit of work, but looking back it was well worth it. Even though it’s a still shot, you can see how Andy is ready to explode the moment I tossed that ball. Father, too, is ready on his mark whenever the chase would commence.

I always thought Father was a pretty dog, but many of his pictures didn’t do justice to how handsome he was. The lighting was bad, or the contrast was poor quite often when we took a picture of him. It always seemed like the background was dark, so that Father’s black hair blended him into the scenery and didn’t contrast his distinguished features. However, on this day in early winter, when the Bermuda grass had faded to a dull, light brown, Father’s face and body showed really well in this photo. Everything fell together just right on this day for this group photo of the babies.