Shackleton Gas Pumps

These classic 50's style pumps sit abandoned at Shackleton, Saskatchewan. While I was here I had a visitor. I had just started the exposure and I was getting ready to do some lighting when I looked down the road and saw the shadowed form of an animal approaching. As it got closer I could see that it was a dog. Now, when you come across a strange dog in the middle of the night you just never know what you'll get, but the dog was clearly heading straight for me, probably having seen the lights and flashes in the distance.

Rather than chewing off my arm as I had expected, the dog wandered over, sniffed my tripod, licked my brand new 17mm lens and plunked herself down right in the middle of the shot, rolling over for a tummy rub. The shot wasn't ruined yet since during a time exposure, objects don't register on film unless they remain in one place for too long. While trying not to disturb the position of the camera, I struggled to literally drag the friendly pooch out of the shot where she could get her tummy rub without appearing as a strange blur in the bottom of my photo. I quickly wiped the doggie slobber off the lens with my shirt and continued the shot. As I completed the lighting, I frequently returned to occupy the dog with an ongoing tummy rub in hopes of keeping her out of view until the exposure was complete.

The things you gotta do just to take a picture some nights...