Rathmell is the home of High Wood Photography. It is a village close to Settle in the Yorkshire Dales, and whilst we have over 100 inhabitants, it is a very well-spread community, with sheep farms and isolated groups of houses. Consequently we don’t get to meet each other very often, and the closure of the pub and post office means that the community “Reading Room” (that is, the village hall) has become the focal point of most of what happens in the village.
As always, the Reading Room committee has to come up with innovative ideas to raise the funds necessary to maintain the building, and this year they have decided to go into print, with a Village Calendar featuring not the inhabitants, nor the fabulous scenery, but the local dog population.
We have just over 40 dogs living in the village, a combination of working and gun dogs, as well as companion animals, and our local Graphic Designer Margaret Swift, will design the calendar pages, using photographs of all the dogs, and we volunteered to photograph them.
We started last week, and have spent around 7 days with a procession of pets appearing at the studio at half hour intervals.
Despite the reservations of many of the owners, it turned out superbly well, with all the dogs thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Dogs only lie, sit or stand, so to get differing poses for over 30 dogs was challenging to say the least. But a combination of biscuits, treats and squeaky toys had them all rising to the task.
When we finished yesterday we had produced pics of 36 of the local hounds and together with photos we have already taken of some of the residents, we have all of them, even our own Poppy, a 2 year old border collie, who is totally cameraphobic.
Margaret will now produce the calendar, and it will be on sale hopefully early November, and the profits from the sales will be split between the Reading Room and the local Air Ambulance fund.
Last, our own Poppy
