A while ago, I promised to send pics of the maturing Rottie kids in our last litter born on January 4, 2007. Well, here is a photo of two of the boys along with their grandma, Linda.

We have been blessed to have several of the kids from this litter living close to us and Jasper (Plum Boy) and Sundance (Green Boy) get to visit every week. They adore each other. Even though they are now at sexual maturity, they play and interact as if they were still in the litter. With the help of all that is blessed, that emotional connection will outlast the hormones of becoming "dogs". Call me an optimist, but I think these guys are going to be buddies their entire lives. At least I hope so.

So here, without any additional adieu, are Jasper on the upper level and Sundance on the floor with their grandma and my beautiful wife, Linda.



Enjoy. These guys are truly a wonderful pair of puppies.

Jim

They really are beautiful. You should be proud

Julie,
you will notice that in this photo, the mouths are open. We think that makes the Rotties look more accessible. I also have a few with both mouths shut but I like the smiles. They are both such happy boys that it seems more appropriate.

Jim

Having spent the day selecting the "right" image to use for advertising, here is the final portrait. As you can see, we used the black backdrop so we could essentially drop it out in the final image. Personally, I like this effect with black dogs. Kinda the opposite of high key.

Hope you like it.



Jim, Linda, Sundance and Jasper

That is gorgeous Jim! Great job on this. Did you photoshop much to get the darks in the background? Beautiful.

Interesting you chose a shot with both mouths closed! I like them both ways myself, can't go wrong with any expression on these guys. You are right your wife makes a beautiful model too!

Dee Dee,
we did a fair amount of PP work to get the texture out of the background but that was the objective going in so I knew what we were trying to achieve. I just needed to start with a basic black background and I did the rest in PP. I like this effect and will probably use it a lot.

Linda chose the mouths closed because we're going to use this image for a litter ad in the next issue of The Rottweiler Magazine. As I mentioned before, I also like the mouths open. It makes the dogs much more accessible.

Thank you for the compliment for Linda: she's lost 40lbs in the last 6 months and this is the first time she's let me photograph her in many years. I'm very proud of her and very happy that she's feeling good about herself. Of course, in our home, we believe in house averaging when it comes to weight so I've put on the 40lbs she's lost . Well, OK, not quite but almost.

Glad you like the final.

Jim

Love the one you chose for the ad. I think everyone in the photo looks great. Kudos to your wife for taking off 40lbs. That takes a lot of work and willpower.