minneapolis pet photographer :: mexico pup
While in Mexico there were 4 animals I wanted to take photos of; a goat, a street dog, a donkey and a cat. Never did get the shot of the donkey but managed to get photos of the other 3. My favorites are of a dog I met on the beach. She seemed really pretty nice but also uninterested in the ‘average-joe’ with no food. She did seem to have an amazing life – wander around the town of Mazunte, crash on the beach for a bit, get food from tourists, snooze again, go swimming, repeat. Nice.
She was super relaxed and didn’t seem to mind me putting the camera in her face, which was lovely.
Yep – photos of beach dogs has the same effect on me as photos of the beach itself … I want to go back.
*sigh*
well, at least I felt warm weather the other day and know that before TOO long we will have our own beachy days.
I love Minnesota – I do – but I REALLY love warm weather also. Come on Sunshine!
minneapolis photographer :: mexico … pt.2 …
When we last left off Mur, Margee and I had gone up to Hierve el Agua for a dip in the springs up there. It was fantastic.
Duh – that shouldn’t be a surprise …
After more eating {which really is never ending on trips with the Perdues 🙂 } we returned to Oaxaca for the night and then headed down to Mihuatlán the next day. Mur and I totally lucked out – we met up with one of Margee’s friends who happened to have a car and loved to shop 🙂 he showed us some of his favorite places between Oaxaca and Mihuatlán to find amazing Mexican crafts. AMAZING. I couldn’t help myself – everything was so beautiful! And all of it was handmade and super cheap. I feel like I got quite a few things but seriously, I wish I bought more!! I know what I’m doing next time I go down – shopping lots!
There was black pottery …
… amazing wood carvings!
This one is actually not from this trip but was a gift a few Christmases ago. This at least gives you the idea about the amazing pieces we were looking at!
… lastly, there were textiles. Quite possibly the best purchase I made on the whole trip was this shawl. It is really hard to see from this but it is really large, warm and wooly and of course, beautiful! It was amazing up in the mountains…
So after a long day of shopping, driving and eating we crashed {Thanks Salvador!!!} and headed up to San Jose Del Pacifico the next day. With my rusty Spanish skills and a pretty archaic map (Thanks Margee! 🙂 ) Mur and I got on a bus instead of taking a taxi up there. But hey – it was an experience!!
When we got up there, we were amazed at how beautiful it was!
We stayed at Cabin 17 which was waaay down the side of the mountain. A good workout, that’s for sure! And town was really close so it was nice to be able to just trek our way there …
In town I felt like we hit the Jackpot! While I love Mexican food, I also love just plain old bread. And wine, instead of beer. It was what I needed right at that time and we found it all in this tiny tiny town.
We came back to the cabin, plunked down on our deck, I took photos, Mur drank wine and we chatted until it got dark and cold. It was amazing! We then ordered food and was even able to have it brought to our room! It was one of the best meals I had the entire trip – soup with rice and a big huge chunk of chicken. Simple but again, soooo amazing!
ha … gotta love self timers! hooray! happy Mexico trip 🙂
In the morning we made the windy-steep-curvy-mountainous ride down to Mazunte which was a lot less nauseating than I had anticipated. I had worked myself into a tizzy hearing the horror stories of pretty much everyone getting sick on their way to the coast but really, it wasn’t too bad! And boy, the ride was WORTH it! … see for yourself!
When we got there the surf was so huge that it wasn’t safe to swim in this area. That worked out well since TropicalBStorm-LeatherFace rained on our parade and we had to head to the other beach anyways. We got to our abode for the next few nights and saw this from our porch:
not.too.shabby! It was worth the hot and tiring hiking despite what my facial expressions said at the time 🙂
And the beach was also the place that Mur fell in LOVE with Piña Coladas. As a note, they are definitely better had on the beach in Mexico instead of your kitchen in the dead of winter in Minnesota. Maybe we can compromise and take a pitcher of goodness down to the beach in Minnesota this summer. I bet that would be good!
And just for good measure, how about one more photo from the beach…
… ok! Part 2 – in the books. Stay tuned for the 3rd and final chapter of ‘Mur and Jess see Mexico.’
minneapolis pet photographer :: Ms. Roxie
A few weekends back I got to spend a bit of time with little Ms. Roxie, which was great! Roxie is a much more reserved lady than the rest of the animal-clan I hang around with. Our paths have crossed only a few times before but it wasn’t until the other day I really understood why she wasn’t like the other yippy-jumpy-fetching-hungry pups of the family…
Roxie’s first life was as a breeding dog. They figure she probably had 2 litters of puppies a year for 10 years until she was finally rescued. When Caren, Pat and Roy {her happy new family} got her she was not house broken and it was about a year before she started wagging her tail. Along with her tail wagging, her general demeanor has changed and she now makes it clear she is a happy {old} pup!
Roxie is now 12 years old and has learned two tricks {sit and beg} and is somewhat interested in fetch, yet she has no idea what that really and truly is. Her house mate Tai love-love-LOVES to play fetch and Roxie loves to race along next to him as he retrieves his goodies.
When we met up she was a complete sweetie and even kept me company as I slept! I snoozed on my mattress and she snored in her kennel right next to me. She also seemed to feel pretty comfortable with the rest of the pack of critters at the Pruchnofski household.
Hooray for Roxie and her happy happy home!
… and while I’m a fan of the last photo because I think it’s neat, I’m also a fan of it because when I look real close, I can actually see my camera and self reflected in her eye. And Caren giving her treats 🙂 Neat, huh?
minneapolis pet photographer :: products galore
As I mentioned loosely a while back, I’ve had a busy couple months. Part of what I’ve been doing is getting new stuff designed and printed so I can have some fancy-smancy new samples to show clients and new cards to hand out to interested pet lovers. It’s been so fun but quite a long process!!
However, on Friday night, the stars aligned and the cards were at last all bundled… so I present to you my new stuff!!
One of the other reasons I’ve been getting new fun things is because I am getting involved with a dog rescue org and going to be donating 2 sessions to their silent auction to raise some money. The organization is called the Minnesota Pit Bull Rescue and as their name suggests, they are out there rescuing Pit Bulls and putting them in happy, healthy homes with families who love them and will take care of them. They are doing fantastic things for an important cause!
With the help of Mur’s woodworking talent, I am now the proud new owner of an ‘old’ tool box in my Chocolate Moose teal to display some photos or just store stuff when it’s not in use. Woo!
This little package is what is going to the auction – can’t wait to hear how it goes!! The auction is on May 19th from 6:30-9:30 and sounds like it should be a great time!! There are several local businesses that have donated wonderful goodies to help benefit the organization. If you are interested in attending tickets are still available!! Go to this site to purchase tickets. It is being held at Stella’s Fish Café in Uptown, Minneapolis which is fantastic in and of itself.
Beyond my donation display, I also recently ordered a new sample album! I’ve had ideas and plans of making an album for some time now and every time a client has wanted an album I say “trust me – it’s amazing!!” but I thought it was probably due for me to actually make my own with some of my favorite images inside…
it’s a flip book! so, 1/2 of the book has the cutest pug on the planet (Gwen) and the other has the cutest little bear on the planet (Barrett). I think it’s pretty neato, if I do say so myself!! I did all the designing on this which was so much fun. I was inspired by the work of Miss Tiina who does awesome doodly-kind of drawings. I used some of her digital scrapbooking elements in my sample book and think that jived really well with my style of images.
Lastly, for Christmas last year I gave the Perdue family a copy of these lil’ guys…
They turned out suuuuper cute, if you ask me. Perhaps a new tradition? We’ll have to see ;)these are cute lil mini books that are jam-packed with images. They are roughly the size of a wallet and about 1/2” thick, so they fit in your purse amazingly well. And they are magnetic! So they can be fridge art too!
And while I’m on a roll, I might as well share some photos of the book I made last year. It’s still really cute and a perfect option for those wanting more of a slim coffee table book…
And the comparison + orange circles …
The album is quite a bit thicker and feels similar in weight to a photo album while the book is thinner but still amazing for a coffee table or even a brag book for a purse or desk at work… The options are endless!
And lastly, some fun photos from my lil set up here in the living room …
phew! so that is a smattering of the new stuff I’ve had up my sleeve. Fun but a lot of work, that’s for sure! But it’s so great to see it all materialize in paper form – I am a paperholic and despite also being a big believer in ‘going green’ I still can’t get enough of paper. I may singlehandedly keep the paper industry afloat 🙂
Happy Sunday, everyone!! And an even better Monday! 🙂