Izzy relaxes by lying in mud and watching me. He is fascinated by me. I have always believed the soul of a dog is measured in the impact the dogs have on people, and Izzy has had an enormous impact on me.

  August 17, 2008 – I’ll be honest, I am a bit overwhelmed by beauty today, a strange thing to say. I took pictures of a lot of beautiful things this weekend, from Izzy, above, to Steve McLean and his granddaughter and Marion and Lenore.  These images are filling up my head. That sometimes happens when I write, but now the photos are in there too, and it gets crowded. There are lots of images in the world, and I am seeing a lot of them.
   I am putting the camera down tomorrow.
   I have more photos of Marion, the dogs, the farm, the farm animals,  farmscapes, landscapes and sun streaming through leaves than I can possibly put up, or even absorb, and they seem to have a force of their own. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Washington County Fair, and this year I am deeply absorbed in the fair in a variety of ways.  Izzy and I will be spending a lot of the time in the Hospice Booth, set up in the health building at the fair.
  To be candid, people going to fairs don’t generally want to deal with hospice issues, but they do come and see Izzy, and we will be helping to set up the booth tomorrow and hanging out there all week. I will also be working in the Argyle Volunteer Fire Department Chicken Barbecue Chicken Stand during the fair, in exchange for taking photos of the work crew. I will be hanging out at night with the families who sleep with their animals, with the carnival workers, as well as several farmers have hired me to take photos of them and their cows. This is still a vigorous agricultural fair and I hope to get time for some animals shots as well. Last year, my photos of the county fair really brought me to consciousness as a photographer. I hope I get to another level this year, and am zeroing in on the tractor pull and some portraits.