The Photo: Wee Thing

Tuesday's Child Is Full of Grace

We used to take our two dogs to a community dog fair every year, and I always had my camera out—it was a great opportunity for candid shots of people and shots of dogs.

Other people’s dogs are often just as cute as other people’s kids, but taking pictures of a stranger’s dog doesn’t trigger any suspicion or possessiveness. Quite the opposite: one year, a man saw I was taking pictures and asked me to take a picture of him with his dog. I did and I asked him for an email to send it to. That turned out to be a good idea in that it was a really nice shot, but it didn’t work because he gave me a non-functioning email (on purpose or by accident, I’m not sure, though he certainly seemed like he wanted the picture).

Anyway, this is one of my favorite shots from those years just because this puppy seems so impossibly small—the woman’s boots next to him feel gigantic by comparison.