Bear and I were hanging out at the house and all of the Bark Gallery sessions were caught up so I said "Bear, Do you want to play in the snow?". He jumped up and away we went to Mount Charleston for the afternoon. I was hoping that the snow would still be up there as the temperatures have been climbing. It was a beautiful day on the mountain around 60 degrees with snow on the ground. Bear was clearly excited. He also saw two things that are always fun, my camera and his CHUCKit ball!  Bear is always a great model and knows the routine sit for a minute while I flick the ball over the camera, SMILE, CLICK and FETCH!  

The challenge with photographing Bear is constantly pushing the limits and bounds of what I have previously done. I have a few images in my mind of him that I am always thinking of capturing. This trip I was hoping for clean untouched snow with the pine and aspen trees in the background. After searching for two hours I found the location that would be perfect. The snow was waist deep and Bear wasn't quite sure what to think the first time he sunk down to his belly. Bear knows that he is always safe with me so he trusted and we got a little further up. He sat down and I was able to snap the photo I had envisioned. 

A common theme in this series of photos is that orange Chuckit! ball. That is the motivating factor for almost every photo ever taken of Bear. The funny thing is that while I am driving Bear will keep dropping the ball in an effort to play lazy fetch. The personality of Bear is endless.  

Bark Gallery - Rick Vierkandt

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