I’ve been looking through my old photography to find some of my older pictures that may have gotten overlooked and never posted.  During the summer of 2008 in the lone photography class I’ve taken, I was given an assignment to capture an image that expressed the emotion of “joy.”  I didn’t really know where to start at first, but soon realized that our golden retriever, Rusty, was the perfect depiction of joy when you gave him tennis balls.  I’m glad I didn’t end up with slobber on my lens – even though it looks like he’s just staring at them, this picture was taken in between bites and gnawing and constant attacks on the tennis balls.  Most tennis balls we gave him didn’t last more than a week or two, but he loved every second of tearing them apart and chasing them down when we would throw them across the yard.  Rusty died last year after almost 10 years with our family.  He brought us lots of joy, but probably not as much pure joy as those tennis balls brought him.  This is still one of my favorite pictures that I’ve ever taken – I hope you enjoy it too!

Pure Joy