It’s a quiet Sunday. It’s overcast and cool, the kind of late fall day we all love here in Florida. The Labs love these days as well, especially for staying out in the back yard. We still have the same house and the same back yard we raised both our girls in. When we moved into this house nearly 30 years ago, we needed that big back yard even then for Rhett, my wife’s first yellow Lab. Over the years we’ve had a multitude of Labs live and play out back, up to and including our two current residents, Max and Ruby.

Max is a good 14 years. These days, he doesn’t run about the back yard nearly as much as he once did, preferring to just lie in certain spots and watch the world do its thing. His favorite objects to watch are the butterflies about the flowers, which is why we tend to refer to him as Ferdinand.

On days like today Ruby prefers to rest indoors next to my wife. And even though she’s now six, she still has something of the puppy personality about her, including her puppy-like face. You can tell she’s a little girl with her long eye lashes.

After spending his morning out back, Max mosey’s on back in for his mid-morning nap. He builds his strength up for his evening walks, which are still a good one to two miles long. Not bad for a 14-plus year old yellow Lab.

With all that’s happening in the world right now, I’m so thankful to have my quiet back yard, the Labs, and most importantly, a wife who understands all of this.

Technical

I’ve long since given up talking photo technique, but these are special enough to me to mention. I’m using the Olympus E-M10 exclusively these days with either the M.Zuiko 1.8/17mm or 1.8/45mm. These were taken with the 45mm. Post processing is with the Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 pluggin in Lightroom 5.6. I’ve been playing with toning, vignetting, and moving the sliders for contrast to the left to decrease contrast, especially in the shadows, for a softer, more romantic look. Exposing to get close to the look in camera is vital, but post processing gives me the final look I saw in my mind’s eye when I took these photos.