Last Ball

This is Jinx. She is, or should I more properly say "was" an amazing animal and friend to Tim Hill and his family. When I started to create the composite for Tim, I was doing it more as a Portfolio Piece. Just something to have so that I could show people another fun way that they could portray their dog.

Tim , who's a PPA Certified Professional Photographer, in Southlake, TX, gave me several photos of Jinx and just wanted to see what I could come up with. All of the shots were of Jinx jumping into or jumping out of the swimming pool. I thought that I was going to create something fun and funny.

As it turned out, Jinx had recently passed away and my dog, Cooper had just passed away. To say the least, I wasn't in a very funny place and the remembrance of the two dogs put me in a more emotionally sullen place.

I created the piece as my way of dealing with Cooper's death. It was cathartic.

I didn't know what Tim would think about the piece when I sent it to him. So I sent him a series of Text Messages. My texts are in the GRAY BOX:

"They almost made me cry." That is the single best compliment I have ever gotten on a photo. They did make me cry for Cooper. I truly miss him and I keep going back and forth as to whether or not I really did everything that I could for him. Was I a good enough dad?

My biggest regret is that I didn't take enough pictures of Cooper while he was alive. I do have one good picture, but I wish I had taken more.

I'm on my Pet Photography journey, in part, so that other people don't make the mistake that I made. So they do have pictures of their pet friends; a member of the family.