Recently I was challenged to do a “100 Day Project” where you make a picture of the same subject for 100 days straight. It sounded simple enough and since my dog, Ms. Nikki, is with me everyday it seemed pretty straight forward. That was it … I would take a picture of Nikki every single day! What never occurred to me at the time was how difficult it really is to photograph the same dog for 100 straight days and still keep it fresh. How do you come up with something different each day? (And I probably should mention here that Nikki does not like my camera … as in get-up-and-leave whenever the camera comes out.) So it should come as no surprise that about halfway through the project it really started getting difficult. Day 52. What on earth do we do for a picture today? And all Nikki wants to do is go out in the backyard!
At times like that, you just have to let the dog do what the dog’s gonna do … so grab a squeaky toy and head on outside.
… Once we got out there, I grabbed her toy and started squeaking it and then flung it over a lower branch. That was all it took to start a new game around here. She had a fantastic time “catching” the duck and then racing around the yard with her newly captured prey.
Our 100 Day Project officially ends this month with the picture we take on July 27th! In one way, I’ll be glad to complete it, but at the same time it has been a great project. I have images of Nikki that will warm my heart for many, many years and as an added side benefit – she’s started getting over being camera shy!
