Frieda's love
I still call Frieda the Helldog, and she still is, sometimes. She can run off, be explosive, charge at other dogs, go hunt things and bring them. She is also extraordinarily loving, and she has a beautiful way of giving herself over to us.
I’ve now taken my third video: Letting the dogs in, which shows me going to get the dogs to feed them, getting them to stay while I walked back down to the farmhouse, and then letting them in (that ending vanished somewhere)
I have a lot to learn about videos. When I started taking photographs, I decided to share the process – put up the images, the good the bad and clunky ones. I followed the Beavis & Butthead theory – because I don’t know what I’m supposed to think, I can think freely. I am not abandoning the word or still images, just adding this the repertoire, another way of telling a story. These are clunky, but I will keep at it.
Having four dogs is not simple. We have a fenced in area in the back where they can do their business and run around. I don’t believe in “push” dogs. The dogs wait for me and leave and enter spaces behind me. I go to the gate, open it and tell them to stay – “Stay Dogs.” It was no small accomplishment to get these four to stay. Rose is the most restless. Frieda stays very well, as does Lenore. Izzy stays, but hangs back. Then I release them and they come into the house to eat.
I have to think about videos. Images seem to come alive on them. I wouldn’t want to do video landscaps or barns, I don’t think, but we’ll see. The sky was amazing tonight, and for once, I didn’t bring the camera. I always regret leaving the camer, but there will be more skies. And more videos.
