We’ve been spending a bit less time in the woods, but we still made it there a few times.

We took Roe to the beach for the first time, but I forgot to check my camera battery and it only had enough juice for one photo. I’m a little sad about that. He was obsessed with the smells as first, maybe a bit nervous, and the waves freaked him out initially. We switched his leash to a 50-foot long line and let him explore. After a few minutes he discovered that loved the beach. He loved being chased by the waves. He got so excited he got the zoomies and ripped laps around us.

We recently found a new area to explore. Every time we go there we discover another side trail.

Heading out early means I’m dealing with early, low light. I’ve mostly given up fighting it and I’m just embracing it, even amping up the effect a little.

I also caught a few photos where the focus was on the grass. I actually really like the effect.

Having the sun low in the sky is also perfect for silhouettes.

We climbed a sand hill. The dogs love this kind of stuff.

This is why Roe can be a challenge to take photos of. Especially when he’s excited about something. For example, sand. I crouch down, aim the camera, and…

And just in case you were worried he doesn’t sploot out in sand anymore… He’s actually progressed to sliding down sand hills on his stomach.

Jordon is always complaining there aren’t any photos of me. Hey, I’m usually behind the camera. I’m not used to facing the lens, so it’s hard to act natural whenever I am and I end up photographing really poorly. But I decided to try for a photo on this hike. I had a silhouette with the dogs in mind, but Roe was just too amped up to sit still for that so I hefted both of the dogs onto my shoulders. The camera clicked just as Roe decided he wanted to steal my glasses. This photo captures their personalities so perfectly. As soon as I saw it I loved them. But, ugh, I had a double chin and the huge steam burn on my arm was visible. I googled how to remove that. It was midway through trying to figure out what the heck the liquify tool was that I realized Suki doesn’t care that the back of her legs are still bald and Roe doesn’t care if the photo angle makes his butt look big. Whatever it is, they just don’t really care if they look perfect. And I realized maybe I didn’t care either. Because this photo makes me smile every time I look at it, and that’s pretty damn perfect.