Month: June 2019

  

Do You Look Like Your Dog?

On June 6th, 2019 SFGATE published an article titled, “Stressed out? Your dog may feel it, too, study suggests” written by Jeremy Rehm.

According to the Swedish researchers who focused on 58 people who own border collies or Shetland sheepdogs, dog owners experiencing long bouts of stress can transfer it to their dogs. The article also quoted Alicia Buttner, director of Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha.

“New evidence is continually emerging, showing that people and their dogs have incredibly close bonds that resemble the ones that parents share with their children,”

That reminded me of a story I read some years ago. When I looked online, I found an article in The Huffington Post titled, “People Really Do Look Like Their Dogs, And Here is Why”.

As you might know, last year I published a photo-story book titled “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”. To select forty-two images, I had to sort out through hundreds of photographs that I took over many years in different parts of the world. And I continue to photograph dog lovers with their four-legged companions, and yes, I noticed that some dogs resemble their owners or reverse.

So then I have a question about our puppy Max: does he look my wife Elfa or myself? When we picked him up from his breeder almost two years ago (he was born on June 27th, 2017), he looked different from the way he looks now (though just as adorable). When we walk together, people often comment – “so handsome” (I suspect that we at least share this quality).

These four images either confirm or dispel the idea about the similarity between dogs and their owners. You be the judge.

P.S. You can continue your research in my photo-story book “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”, which you can buy on Amazon.com.

Enjoy and Share with a Friend.

  

What Would You Do
With An Extra $58 Million?

I recently attended a fundraising event organized by “Hebrew Free Loan”. The organization traces its roots to 1897, when nine members of San Francisco’s small Jewish community decided to help Jewish immigrants build new lives. Guided by an interest-free lending mandate in the Torah, those founding members pledged to start a loan fund by contributing 25 cents every month. When the fund grew to $50.00, the first interest-free loan was made. Many things have changed over the following 122 years. Our family managed to settle in San Francisco without the remarkable organization’s help; however, we acted as guarantors to many requests, and are financial supporters (I recently discovered that the first President of the organization was Menachem Cohen, from 1897 to 1900, coincidently this is also my Jewish name). The event took place at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Besides serving as a museum, it is a very interesting venue for various events. After food and drinks we were invited to the Morrison Planetarium – the world’s largest completely digital planetarium dome. There we experienced an incredible show about outer space. I’ve seen it before, but this time I had my small, but very powerful camera with me (my wife Elfa claims that it is permanently attached to my hand, which is not true, I do not photograph while I sleep). After I made a lot of photos and saw the results, I obviously wanted to share them with you, but I needed a catchy headline and more to the story.

As important as all of those questions are, most of us are busy with other issues in our lives, like where to find money we need for so many of our everyday needs. But there are some people who can manage without a loan from Hebrew Free Loan. On June 7^th the San Francisco Chronicle posted an article titled, “Long-distance trip: NASA opening space station to visitors.” It turns out that next year, two fortunate tourists might be able to brag to their friends that they were astronauts, just for a small fortune of $58 million for the trip. Perhaps they will find an answer to Mr. Hawking’s questions.

P.S. These four images show an interesting way in which digital artists can bring the view of the world to us, which only people like Steven Hawking could imagine and other scientists, with the help of the Hobart Telescope can observe. You can see images taken by the Telescope and read great stories in the book “The Hand of God. Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe” by Michael Reagan, which can be found on Amazon.com.

Enjoy and share with a friend.

  

I Missed Him Very Much

A few weeks ago, we were invited to our friends’ 50^thwedding anniversary. The party started at 4pm. As it happened, we had tickets to a performance of Eifman Ballet on the same evening. Both events took place in Berkeley. The only issue was our puppy Max. We usually don’t leave him alone for more than three hours. Since we were going to be out for about 7 hours, we decided to have him stay at his dog sitter’s. I dropped him off there on Friday morning, and Elfa picked him up on Sunday morning.

When I came home from work on Friday night, there was no one waiting for me at the top of the stairs. Elfa tells me that Max knows when I am coming and sits by the door, even before I open the garage door. There was no one to celebrate Shabbat dinner with us on Friday night. Max usually sits and looks up while I read the prayer before the meal. At first, we thought that he has spiritual inclinations. Turns out that he was just waiting for an empty bottle of San Pellegrino water, which I give him to play with after dinner.

It is not the first time Max stayed overnight at his dog sitter’s, and on a previous occasion, we went away for a week. However, since we were out of our familiar environment, the experience was different.

If you own a dog and have a close relationship with your “baby”, you can easily relate to my personal experience. If you do not have one and are lacking love in your life, I strongly recommend getting one as a remedy.

Regardless if you have a dog or not, my photo-story book, “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”, which you can buy on Amazon.com, will bring you joy, I guarantee it. Meanwhile, enjoy these four latest images of Max. He sends you his best wishes.

Enjoy and Share with a Friend.

  

I Cheated

The first time I participated in the Break to Breakers was on May 20^th 2017. Ok, I didn’t exactly participate in the race. I went there to take photographs. However, after everyone started moving forward, not necessarily running, I decided to join the crowd in spite of the pain in my knee. My plan was to walk a few blocks, take a few pictures and go back home. Four hours later, I found myself at the finish line on the beach, with hundreds of images of the participants. Many of them dressed for the occasion, or not dressed at all. The next year I decided not to go, since our puppy Max was too young for me even to consider the trip. This year on the day before the race, the newspaper warned that the rain might “spoil the parade”; and besides, a seven mile walk could be too much for a young dog. So, I decided to cheat. At about noon, I took Max and we drove to 45^th Avenue and Lincoln, which I knew was close to the finish. In the park, we melded with the other walkers (the runners finished the race long time ago). People wanted to pet Max while I photographed my encounters. As predicted, it finally started to rain, and we returned to the car. There was an interesting coincidence related to the race. While finishing my next book, which my wife suggested to title “42 Encounters in San Francisco, Volume Two,” I decided to use one of the images from the race in the book, with the word “FUN,” as the story coincides with the image.

Cheating or not, the Break to Breakers event is really fun. It also has an amazing history. If I hadn’t checked online, I would never have guessed that the race began in 1912. In 1986, it had a record of 110,000 participants. If you’ve never taken part in the Break to Breakers and do not like to cheat like me, it will take place again next year on May 17, 2020 at 8am. I might see you there. Meanwhile, start running (or walking).

  

Where To Find Love

Last week, I alluded to the special reason as to why I am writing this story now. Two weeks ago, I participated in a photography workshop in Palm Springs, during which as an exercise, we had to create a composition and then photograph it. I frankly had no idea what to do, since my style of photography, which I call “encounters”, has nothing to do with directing my sets. Nevertheless, after a visit to the local antique store, where I found an artwork with the word LOVE written on it, I decided to use it as my prop. We were taken to special locations for our photo shoots. The first one was an hour and a half drive to what is now known as Coachella Movie Ranch. Online you will find a lot of photographs of the place. After I used the LOVE sign everywhere to take my photographs, an idea started forming in my head. But it took a second trip the following day, to another very interesting destination – the Salton Sea, as well as spending some time photographing at the Bombay Beach Estates to decide to create a Share Love campaign, utilizing social media starting with Instagram, where I am going to post images every day with the word LOVE, and some inspirational quotes written by me and other authors. I hope to spread the idea of sharing love. Like a small light that can dispel darkness, some love can bring a lot of joy into people’s lives.

Since returning home, I continued taking images with the LOVE sign. My first destination was Stern Grove, where we go play ball with Max. People whom I encountered there were more than happy to participate in the love sharing campaign. As time goes on, I intend to develop new ideas, which will help to share love. I hope you will join me too. For starters, if you are on Instagram, you will be able to find my daily posts on MannyKaganMrLove.
Please share love.