212/153

Over night stay at the hotel ~ $100, tickets to Balloon Fest ~ $60, watching the mass ascension of over 125 hot air balloons ~ priceless.

211/154

Really, what can I say!

210/155

What the heck is going on with Blogger? Last evening I tried, unsuccessfully, to add a Flickr feed to my sidebar. Then this morning upon opening and viewing my little cyber place, I found the format was entirely mess up, the arrangement of sidebar, photos and text were askew. I tried numerous times to reset the format but had no luck.  This was the best I could get and I don't have the time nor the patiences to play anymore this evening.  So for today it will stay this way and maybe even for tomorrow and the day after that.

209/156

Most photos I post of Shyla are that of her during her off time. During which, she can just be the fun loving young party girl she is. But it is part of my job, as a puppy raiser, to teach her what behavior is appropriate for the current situation and surroundings. Much like children need to learn their loud outside voice and running around at the playground behavior is not proper while in class at school, what is appropriate at the soccer field is not appropriate in church. Shyla has plenty of time playing, swimming and ball chasing, but as a potential Seeing Eye dog she must learn the difference between work and play.

Last evening my group of raisers met at a local ice cream parlor. We walked to the boardwalk and down into the amusement ride area. It was terrific exposure for the puppies. The crowds of people, both young and old, lights and noise, the smell of the ocean and all the boardwalk food can be overwhelming and learning to ignore the hands reaching out to pet her is most difficult. She did wonderful.

I was hoping to get a blog worthy photo of Shyla in her working jacket and admittedly I did get several nice photos.  I preferred this one of her watching as a group of teens enjoy a ride on the twisty turny scrambler.

208/157

Sorry for the rant today. Yesterday I tried to make light of the adventure Phriend and I were on. But seriously, we should have thought it through. We have seen no less than 1000 photos of the Barnegat Lighthouse and in our quest to capture something a little different. I suggested driving over to the barrier island across from the lighthouse and shooting across the inlet. We haven’t seen many, if any photos, from this view point.

That should have been a hint. Yesterday, we undertook the task of capturing these photos. It wasn’t easy. We had to walk a total of 3 miles through the NJ sugar sand. It’s soft and your feet sink under, making it difficult to walk on. It was high tide, so as to avoid getting the cameras wet, we were unable to walk in the cooling water and we blistered our feet walking on the burning hot sand.  To make matters worse, not realizing we would have to walk such a distance and spend that much time in the sun, we hadn’t used sunscreen. We’re fried, extra crispy.  And I will not mention the number of greenhead fly bites we have.  No wonder, we don’t see many photos from this angle.

I have spent $1000s on my camera and lenses, spent hours learning to edit and texture my photos. Viewed millions of others photos, all in the hopes of improving and learning about my photography. Than with a right click someone else steals the photo and uses it as her facebook profile photo. Really!!

So do I say something, let it go, defriend, or just remain confused as to why people think just because a photo is posted on the internet they have a right to it?

207/158

There is a story to go along with today’s photo. It involves two women with what they thought was a really good idea and ends with two women with blistered feet from burning hot sand. It includes two sun burnt bodies and four incredible tried legs from a three mile (unexpected) walk in fore mentioned burning hot sand.

When Phriend and I discussed capturing our lighthouse from an angle not often seen, we should have taken this as some sort of sign. What were we thinking!

206/159

Ordinary everyday objects look so totally different when seen in a marco shot.

This just some beach sand.

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