Snapping a picture of Tucker was not an easy feat. “He doesn’t sit still much,” says Al Whitaker, the photographer and owner of the 1-year-old Morkie, a Maltese and Yorkshire terrier mix.
The hobbyist admits it took five or six shots before capturing the ideal image. “I envy the person who can sit there and take the perfect photo,” Whitaker says. “It’s more time-consuming than people think. The difference between a photograph and a snapshot is the time you spend trying to construct the photograph.”
Luck met preparation to create a photo opportunity one hot day this summer. Whitaker happened to have his Olympus camera on him when he noticed Tucker resting on the sedum groundcover in his backyard. Positioned atop three tiers of landscape boulders, Whitaker explains that from where he was standing, Tucker was even with the camera. “It made for a nice shot, being at ground level almost,” he says. “He was just sitting there in the groundcover, just taking in the nice, cool leaves.”
Tucker Beats the Summer Heat won first place this year in the Pets category of Lens on Lake Minnetonka photo contest. This is the third consecutive year Whitaker has participated in the contest and entering the Pets category was a way to try something new. Although Whitaker has been taking pictures on and off for the past 30 years, he believes practice makes perfect. “You just get better at it as you snap off more photos,” he says.
