I had a few minutes the other morning with the kids still in school and enjoying some time off on vacation to take some photos of Luke, our chocolate labrador retriever. I had a few ideas of how I wanted him to sit in front of the Christmas tree, but he had other ideas. 

First, he had laid down in front of our fireplace and was not about to move. I took the opportunity to get low on the floor with him and shoot some images with the fireplace in the background. He was not very amused.

Having my fill of the fireplace background, I shutoff the fireplace ... see how I out smarted him there ... and tried to get him to move to in front of the Christmas tree. No luck. So off to the pantry I went to get him a few treats to persuade him to move. Now, who is the smart one?!? 

With treats in hand, I again tried to pose Luke in front of the Christmas tree. While fixated on the treats in my hand, he had no intent of relaxing and providing a pose.

Giving up on the Christmas tree poses, I moved him to our big arm chair where a blanket was draped over the arm. I had better luck here as the light was streaming into the window and Luke was complying ... of course there were more treats in it for him. I managed to get a few decent photos while he mostly sat still on the chair.

All photos here are taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and either the Canon EF 135MM F/2L or EF 55M F/1.4 lens handheld. Photos were most processed in Lightroom CC and for a couple photos Photoshop CC with Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro II and Color Efex Pro II was used.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Click on the thumbnails below for full screen images.