"Breakfast" - For Dogs

I like to think I'm pretty funny. I'm certainly no Louis C.K. (I saw one of his stand-up specials yesterday. Hilarious.), but I've been known to make people laugh from time to time.

My kids certainly think I'm funny. I do a game of peek-a-boo that keeps them laughing for hours.
"Wheeeere's Mommy?"
"Peek-a-BOO!"
<insert children laughing here>

Anyway, in a project like this, when I'm lacking serious inspiration I tend to look for the joke.

"So, they want me to photograph breakfast, huh? Well, I can't think of anything good to shoot, so what else can I do to fulfill the assignment and amuse myself at the same time? Hey, you know who eats a lot of breakfast in my house? The dogs..."

So that's how I came to take pictures of dog food.

I actually put some thought into it too. I took the pictures in my living room. Okay, the dogs don't actually eat in the living room, but allow me some creative license here.

I also waited until late in the day because the sun shines brightly into the living room at sunset, so it most closely resembles the lighting early in the morning.

I actually seem to have put a little thought into the framing this time. The brightness of my off-white carpet is a bit garish though. I think it is a bit blinding, even when I try to adjust the photo to compensate.

Actually, now that I look at it again, I kind of like the white.

Well, for kicks I took out a maroon blanket I had handy and retook essentially the same photo.

Adding a little more brightness to the kibble makes it a little more interesting, and brings focus to the dog bowl.

Of course, I wish I'd done a better job of ridding the blanket of dog hair, but they're my losing battle these days. I've just about given the house over to them.

It was at about this point that I remembered that I can only dream that the kibble would stay so neatly contained in the dog bowl when Yellow and Brown eat their breakfasts.

Whoops. The sneaky flash went off. Let me fix that.

There you go. Spilled kibble is real. Spilled kibble is life. Spilled kibble is leaving smelly crumbs on my blanket...

But wait.

What's this picture missing?

An actual dog, of course.

I called in Brown and made him sit and smell the food. But since it wasn't actually his feeding time (and he's actually allergic to this particular brand of food) I cruelly had no intention of allowing him to eat any of it.

I'm truly heartless, which is why Brown was not initially inclined to play along with my photo shoot.

C'mon, buddy. Look longingly at the food, will ya? I'll give you some bacon!

Did someone say bacon??

Much better, but I thought later on that I needed to crop it more tightly and improve the colors a bit again.

Poor dog. If I only had some bacon to give him...