we're in brookings, south dakota this weekend for liz & ryan's destination wedding. they have two four-legged children vizslas, penny & maggie, which happen to be dash's distant cousins. and here are a few snaps from this morning:

here's another of dash's friends, jessie, a wonderful example of a hybrid mutt designer dog, part chihuahua/lab/spaniel:


jessie reads quite well:

lady & chopper, a pair of dash's distant pointer cousin friends, offer the reinstra family some sporting excitement in kingston, washington featuring their new, handmade pattern & paw collars.

chopper captures a rare glimpse of the sun during the pacific northwest spring:


lady's eye on the prize (a stick):




if dogs could talk, lady would speak pearls of wisdom :)

i've embarked on a new little project with pattern and paw. details will develop soon, but for the time being i wanted to share a few favorite images. first up, here's baby tia:





and bella:


bella's sister, maddy:




and 85lb max:


and, of course, our gooberiffic, dash:


if you'd like your pooch shot, contact us and we'll fill you in on the details.

merry christmas from kern-photo! we hope the joy of the holiday season has been with you and your family!

the last several days have been spent with family in oklahoma and colorado.

i promised this entry for my parents in oklahoma before we left for the bahamas for my brother's wedding.

duke and holly, dash's yorkshire terriers cousins, were a big response to my parents' empty nest syndrome. cute as a button, these pedigree pooches have won over my parents. in addition, they were a big party of my brother's bachelor party last weekend. 18 months old and weighing in a 3.5 lbs, here's holly:


and big brother duke:


this shot was one of the hardest shot to get of two independent minded canines up on the ping-pong table :)

i've had the pleasure of getting to know tom pehrson and his booming wedding videography buisness, peak impact productions. we recently gave him an early christmas present and photographed him, his wonderful wife tina, and their family of beautiful pooches. this evening tom wrote the following note to us:

"I just wanted to say thanks for agreeing to work with us last weekend.  It was great to see your style in action.  I got Tina to finally take a look at your blog and [she] loves your work.  Once she started looking at the photos, she went through every entry.  That's a good sign and hopefully everyone who visits your blog has the same experience.  By the time they get done, they're ready to hire you.  She says she really loves how people's eyes seem to stand out in your photos.  So, thanks again!"

then comes the hard part:

"On a sad note, we had to put Sophie down this evening.  She was a good dog, but she took a turn for the worst in the last few days and it would have been cruel for us to keep her alive with no hope of recovery.  We're really glad that we got you to capture her and thanks for working with us on such short notice."

this blog entry is dedicated to sophie.

here she is in her glory:


feel free to write your condolences in the comments section below. your comments will be great appreciated :)

here are her siblings:


dogs and fire hydrants go hand and hand.


here are the pooches with full attention on a floating knit hat:



if we had a professional videographer at our wedding, without reservations we would higher him. here's he is with his videography tool:


here's tina and tom:


and the whole gang:

kelly, tony, and little hudson met up for a portrait session recently in denver. r. j. has known kelly since his gis learning met up with her gis training source years ago. kelly is a phenomenal teacher, and one of the best when it comes to gis trainining. tony is the creative brains behind the graphic design studio, ragu. CLICK HERE FOR SLIDESHOW. and here's some of the fun that was shared with our lens:


hudson was determined to step on every railroad track plank.


kelly & tony.


the smallest wonders of the world pointed out by hudson.



the pooches deserved a candid portrait as well.



here's gis training sensei, kelly:


ultimate frisbee stud, tony:


mmmm, chicken fingers taste like chicken.

in perfect kern-photo light, bella "i love raw trout" overby had her royal portrait taken in style. bella is a beautiful, lovable shar-pei + bullmastif mix who is pampered by her owners, joey & nicole overby.

dash, our beloved hungarian viszla, retrieves a tennis ball during the final days of summer at the scott carpenter pool in Boulder, CO. Boulder, one of the most dog friendly towns in America, allows dogs to swim in the olympic-sized pool days before the summer closing. the Viszla is among the most popular breeds which take advantage of this opportunity, along with retrievers and labs. cody & gomez, fellow dog friends, and with our good friends, jayme and ryan, seemed to enjoy this second annual festivity.


every felt like this before?

she-bee, a fellow 2-year-old vizsla, gets schooled by dash as she learns to swim in a small lake in clements park. she watches, then learns quickly. dog breeds know their kind and let it all hang out when they romp.

if walmart had a portable photo kiosk at the park, we would probably pay to get this shot.




sometimes dash doesn't share well.


dash becomes a groundhog for a moment.


dash leads from behind as he shows shee-bee the ropes of swimming

dogs remind us of simple joys of life, often forgotten by a world filled with parking meters, flight delays, and warm beer.