…from me to you.  I am so very grateful for your business in 2012.  And wish for you all a 2013 in which you can do what you love.  Every. Single. Day.  As you have enabled me to do.  xoa

What has become now my earmark for the coming of summer, on a painfully beautiful day last weekend, I photographed once again for the annual Oregon Humane Society Doggie Dash.  Though my task at hand was to focus on capturing the businesses and sponsors that come out to support this amazing event, I couldn’t NOT allow myself to document participants of both the 2-legged and 4-legged variety, who did not disappoint in keeping me well entertained and inspired by their stories.

And no small feat in this browbeaten economy, OHS surpassed their fundraising goal and brought in a total of $394,274!

As they do at OHS, so shall I sign off with…. For The Animals.

Oh…did I mention the *free* mimosas?!Pulling out all the stops for fundraising efforts.“You tell anyone you saw me in this getup, and so help me dog….”

Kathleen came to me by way of a friend who had put Pathfinder’s professional and life coaching services to work almost 10 years ago during the course of a career crisis.  It completely changed her life, and Kathleen remained a trusted friend.  After spending an afternoon with this most warm and generous woman, it was easy to see how that is possible.

The Oregon Humane Society recently hosted their annual telethon, broadcast live on KATU2.  In one afternoon, they exceeded their fundraising goal of $320,000 and successfully adopted out 70 of their furry faced charges.

And I was there to document all that fabulous generosity + cuteness.

For the record, the last time I photographed this event, I found myself walking out with my cat Sweetpea, who has served me well {as well as cats can serve their masters}.  It took nerves of steel not to walk away from this one without Mr. Wrinkles {as you might have guessed, a sharpei mix pup} + Jasmine {a sweet as can be rabbit…I know, who knew?} tucked under each arm.  Ala Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids.

And if you haven’t overloaded on all things OHS, this coming weekend I’ll be photographing for their annual Santa Paws event…please consider bringing your furry lover to a Fred Meyer store near you to get their picture taken with Santa.

Last weekend was upside down crazy busy.  And as much as I *loved each and every job, I’ve been upside down crazy busy with edits ever since.  The upside to edits, however, being that I get to share the results with all two of you…two being the optimists guess at the number of people reading this blog {every bloggers fear}.

My Saturday started with one of my favorite events of the year, the Oregon Humane Society Doggie Dash.  Last year they had over 4,000 participants of the two-legged kind…making it at least 8,000 total if I’m doing my dog-math correctly…and this year I believe they surpassed it, raising over $300,000 to benefit Oregon animals in need.

My next event of the day was a princess party, followed by an auction to benefit Ethiopian Orphan Relief.  The thread of course being that despite the insanity of the day and corresponding mountain of edits, I was surrounded by people making other people {and pets} very happy.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

this next guy reminded me of Sgt. Floyd Pepper from Electric Mayhem…and how can you NOT smile back….