Merrylog

I have an enormous white puffy blanket on my couch that Merry loves to stretch out on. Plus, can I tell you how much I’m loving this new lens? Seriously, folks. (It’s a challenge, though, after so many years with the other camera, to learn how to take good shots with this!)

As is our new custom, holding your mouse over the image will give you the techno-photo-geeky details.

One of the prettiest things about Merry is the curves of her face. She’s got such a cute, sweet face and a teeny flat nose and yet doesn’t suffer from any of the “gotchas” pugs can suffer from when they’re bred this small and cute. :) I was very, very lucky to find her.

And as of today, for photography enthusiasts: please hover your mouse over each day’s photo to see a bit about how the photo was shot – exposure, shutter speed, etc. This is on a go-forward basis; I will not be going back to add this info to old Merrylog posts.

This weekend I finally picked up the new camera I’ve been planning to get for months. As many of you know, I’ve been shooting Merrylog photos for years with my Canon G5. Actually, when I started the Merrylog back in 2004, I was using a point-and-shoot Olympus digital (I think it was about 1.2 megapixels, the horror) and very shortly upgraded to the G5.

But it’s 2007, which means time to get my new groove on with a lovely, lovely Canon EOS30D, a full digital SLR. I picked up two lenses to start with – for those who are interested, a 50mm 1.4 and a 100mm 2.8 w/macro. I’m very excited about the new possibilities!

Some of the sidewalks in our hood are completely covered in ice. This has shown me that boots have yet another function: they provide better grip than little paws. On paws, Merry slip slides like Bambi. In rubber-soled boots, she has such great traction that if I’m not careful, she’ll pull me off my feet!

I’ve been getting half-disgusted, half-plaintive looks from the pug for over a week now. After the earlier fall-like winter in December and January, we’ve gotten slammed with snow, usually followed by freezing rain, and then again by snow, and rain, and you get the idea. Trouble is, this means a) the princess has to climb UP somewhere to go potty and b) that UP she has to climb to is variously dangerous with ice, thick/thin crusts that sometimes her feet go through and end up soaking her boots, and such high snows she has to basically plant in the snow and ice to go wee. She is most decidedly NOT happy about this and keeps looking at me like in the photo above: “Mommy, where did you put all the GRASS? I can’t LIVE like this!”

Every morning the pug crawls under the covers with us and happily snores away until I drag her, feet first, out from under the covers into the light of day for our morning routine (eyes cleaned, folds cleaned, teeth brushed, morning walkies). I have no idea why she sleeps this way – feet buried in one of our armpits, usually, and with only her top half under the covers. But it’s absolutely adorable.