Finally--A Christmas Card Picture!

For the last 10 years, we've taken a picture of our dogs for our Christmas card. This year proved to be a bit of a challenge. I think because I had in my mind the picture I wanted, and despite all the effort, it just wasn't coming together like I envisioned. I lost track of how many rolls (yes rolls) of film I've taken the last several weeks trying to get the "perfect" picture. Last Saturday during our big snow fall, with a little bit of film left, I took my 35 mm camera out into the yard and I snapped a few pictures of the dogs enjoying the snow. As I was walking back to the house, the dogs were in a line in front of me and a couple of them had laid down in the snow...I snapped this picture...When I saw this picture, I realized that even though it wasn't "perfect," I loved it, and I knew I had the one I wanted to use for our Christmas card. I also remembered a lesson I'd learned when I started taking "dog pictures" 10 years ago; which is that if you want a good picture, just let the subjects be themselves and the camera can and usually does capture that.