Siskal’s with their 3 dogs rescued at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley from Campbell, CA

Last year, Nigel and I decided to participate in the Walk n’ Wag fundraiser for the Humane Society of Silicon Valley. We had a gorgeous booth given to me by Cyclonix of Morgan Hill and donated a portrait session on location in the South Bay as a raffle prize. I think we got very lucky as the winners turned out to be very dedicated volunteers of HSSV with 3 very special dogs. All are rescues and one happens to have only 2 legs named Oliver, who is a power house, Chihuahua Mix. Oliver is the smallest. Their other dog, Charlie, has 3 legs and finally their big girl, Gia, who has all 4 legs and is very protective of her two little buddies. They chose to be in the portrait with their dogs and happened to love our location at home, Rancho Nacho so here they are. One very happy family of five.

Buster of Menlo Park- Tibetan Spaniel Champion

Here is Buster who has won 96 blue ribbons. While just a wee little dog, he lives with 4 Tibetan Mastiffs and happens to be ruler of the house. Goes to show how you can’t judge a book by its cover.

 

Buster, the Tibetan Spaniel ruler of the house

Daily Horse care cutting into blog time

Here I am doing my 2x daily flushing for our boy, Hot Wheels. He tripped while my husband was riding him on a flat smooth trail down the road from us. He didn’t completely fall but somehow his left steel shoe sliced open his right knee. So we cancelled our ride this month and in June and now doing a wait and see for our Tevis Cup ride on August 4th. Crossing our fingers. Downside is this boy cannot stand still with his ADD brain. A very active horse complicates things. What can you do.

Jeremy Sutton, Master Painter gives me a gift using his pinhole lens at Lisa Evans workshop in Danville, CA

 

THank you Jeremy for this gift as you are so very talented. Hoping to take a Painter class with you soon. I had a blast those 4 days and really enjoyed getting to know you. You definitely think outside the box and I’m working very hard at it. I love to be blurred too.

Portrait of a girl on location in the East Bay

Swing of the Past

Legs moving together in Morgan Hill-fine art equine portrait

Wrinkles of Woodside, California

OK. Had to add another couple of this girl.

I'm so cute!

Wrinkles on top of the mountain

Family portraits of the Reinhardt’s from Salinas, CA taken at Rancho Nacho in Morgan Hill, CA

Havanese beauty in Mountain View, a small dog living large.

Morgan Hill portrait of Shirley & Charles for their 60th Anniversary

One type of portrait work I really have fallen in love with is photographing couples who truly are soul mates and best friends. After college, I worked as an Occupational Therapist with my main focus on head injuries. But for a long time, I worked with the older folks who tended to be my favorite population as they accepted life so easily, were tolerant of not being 100% and ready to get back to their lives without harassing me too much. They could see the value so much easier than young adults as my job was to teach independence to the maximum level.

The Sedgwick’s are a couple who have such a loving relationship that I aspire to have with my husband Nigel. While we are not high school sweethearts, I plan to spend the rest of my life with him. I met Shirley at the Los Gatos History Club at a fundraiser event earlier this year in 2011. She loved my portrait on display and was ready for a professional portrait of herself with her beloved Charlie, both of Aromas. They came to my house in Morgan Hill for their session and were up for anything I wanted to do. I really enjoyed my time with them and have now become friends with a fabulous couple. Lucky me…

Wonder why I have a non animal related story posted here? Shirley’s husband, Charles happens to be Dr. Sedgwick who worked at the the San Diego Zoo treating and caring for all of the animals there. Talk about listening to some incredible stories. He has them and I can’t wait for our next dinner date.

Morgan Hill portraits