Merrylog

At the end of every year, it seems inevitable that we look back on the year that has gone before. And like so many of the years since launching Pampered Puppy, it has truly been a year to be thankful for. I’m thankful for:

• The princess; though we had a rough year of eye doctors and eye surgery, I am so grateful to still have my little munchkin, and that she can still see well enough to play ball and show the camera her beautiful brown eyes.
• My family, which has expanded hugely this year to include a stubborn old cat, a very incredible fiance and two wonderful stepkids of who I am so proud.
• My friends, who continue to harass me and give me “lip”, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
• This fabulous business and incredible staff, which has given me…
• All of you, whose camraderie, loyalty and support through the tough times has meant so much to me.

Happy New Year, all – and here’s to an even more incredible 2008!

Yes, I know – you’ve all seen tons of photos of the princess tilting her head on the porch. But somehow this pose never loses its appeal for me. She’s just so cute. Makes me want to cuddle her up.

The princess was very unhappy about me returning to work yesterday, and asking her to resume her modelling duties (since it’s very nearly time to post new Merryvaluations!). She would like a few days cuddled up on the couch to recuperate from the fun but busybusy holiday season. Frankly, pug, so would I! We’ll take a day off the first week of January and do just that, once the January issue is published… promise. :)

I know, I know, you all must be sick to death of Christmas photos, but I couldn’t resist posting this last one taken a few days ago. She looks so cute, so inquisitive, don’t you just wanna cuddle her up?

Apologies for not posting this last night – apparently all the merrymaking caught up with me and I crashed very early last night! :)

The princess had a ball of a day, got some new chicken treats and two cool new toys from Grandma & Grandpa, scarfed down a good number of homemade pesto biscuits we whipped up for her, begged food from people’s plates the whole livelong day, and got to cuddle with her favorite humans at night. A great day indeed.

Hope yours was the same!

Well, Princess, the waiting is almost over – just one more sleep! Grandma has a very exciting Christmas stocking for you to open tomorrow (not to mention being able to chase around all those pieces of wrapping paper!) – and Mommy will be baking you some homemade pesto biscuits just for you! It also goes without saying that you’ll be snuck a ton of food from people’s plates when Mommy isn’t looking. What a spoiled little pug.

Merry Christmas eve, my sweet Merry girl.

Christmas is counting down like crazy around here: we just had 13 in the house for dinner, with me playing chef for the entire meal… it was a lot of work but lovely to be able to get our families together, finally, for a meal and celebration.

The princess had a TON of fun with our two kids as well as their three cousins. Lots of doggie dressup games and fetch.

To answer Susan’s question: For now, I keep all the outtakes (frankly, it would just take too long to go through and choose which to delete). I back up on a 500 GB drive as well as on DVD (I keep a huge photo CD binder to throw the DVDs into), which is necessary since I also shoot RAW and the file sizes are gi-freaking-normous, aren’t they? Sheesh. For the Merry shots, I would want to keep them all anyway – even the blurry ones might capture some expression that I haven’t seen before, and one day I know I’d regret not keeping them all. They’re my record of my life with her.

Hope all of our readers are staying sane during this run-up to Christmas, if they’re celebrating!

The princess striking a pose in front of our Christmas tree. Hope you’re all enjoying the holiday photos, folks! :)

To answer Lucinda’s question: I can take anywhere from 10 to 200 photos in a single session. The average is probably about 50 or so photos. From that, I might be lucky and find four or five I really love – but sometimes there’s only one that really grabs me.

Honestly, it’s tougher when I find several that I love – because I don’t want to bore everyone by showing two or three shots from the same shoot, but they all might have a different appeal for different reasons – different expression, different lighting, different angle or framing.

It’s one of the reasons I am so glad that digital photography exists – because without it, there’s no way I could afford to shoot that many pictures, try that many things, to see if it worked out. Too expensive! :)

The princess known as Meredith decided to play a little peekaboo with me and sort of hid just out of camera range. I called her and she nosed into the shot, looking curious and bewildered and just so CUTE it makes you want to smoosh her tiny little face between your hands and cover it with kisses. Or maybe that’s just me. :)

Yet another of our annual Christmas shots. The pug seems to love ‘em as much as I do – mind you, she gets yummmmmmy treats after each pose, so that might be it… :) Hope you’re all enjoying the holiday season!