On a Photo Shoot with a Control Freak

I have a first-rate nose. When we are out hunting, Fido recognizes this. When I sound the hunting call--"Hey, kid; over here!"--he comes without question. Even Boss seems to correctly interpret my hunting call as meaning that we are in danger from coyotes or dragons.

Yesterday, I had the rare opportunity to be out on a photo shoot with L. We were investigating the ripe, smelly part of town known as The Industrial Tract or Lower East. When L. points her Canon 5D, something like a sense of smell begins to take over; she becomes a different person. You can see it in her stature, the way she appears to be drawing an entire scene into her being.

The story really starts here, as Boss is fond of noting in his classes and workshops. It starts with my being out on a photo shoot with L. and having taken in the scent of a six-year-old male Lab, having peed on the wheel of a tractor, a fact I immediately called to L.'s attention.

Did she come trotting over to see the way Fido might? Yeah, yeah. She continued her focus on a small, shack-like building, seeming to like the windows and over-all symmetry, completely ignoring what could have been a true find, something that would have done C.-B. or S.proud or even that lady who shot the migrant workers up in Nipomo.

Well, okay. Laissez faire and let laissez faire, I always say, and so I let her have her building, which I proceeded to check out for trances of possible rodents, of which family a gopher is a member. You guessed it. Zip. Nada. Not a trace of rodents. No dog pee, not even a cat. C'mon! You want to shoot pee-less buildings--go for it.

I tried one more time. It was a large trash container adjacent a large, squarish building with an extended eave. Two dogs and one human had peed toward the rear. L. seemed to get the point, and I was pleased when she stood back to get a perspective, but then she began shooting some stenciling on the side of the container, completely
missing the drama.

I barked. Not there! There!

Good Sally she said, and went on bracketing the stenciled lettering instead of the pee-sites. Good dog.

Please!

Good dog. Gimme a break.