Costco Connection - January 2006

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Puppy power

IF YOU’RE LOOKING to capture a photo with pure energy, who better to have as willing subjects than a young boy and his puppy?

Enter Neil Norby of Cerrillos, New Mexico, and his best friend, Pepper.

“My son likes showing [the photo] to people and pointing out how fast he’s running to keep up with Pepper,” says Peter Norby, 31, who has taken thousands of digital photos since Neil was born seven years ago.

Mother Nature played an important role in the shot. “We’d taken the kids and our puppy to their grandparents’ house, and we all went down to the river to play,” Norby explains. “But the ominous thunderclouds encouraged us to hurry home. I was running ahead with our younger son and looked back to see Neil running as fast as he could to keep up with Pepper, so I tried to capture the overall mood in a picture.”

The shot, which is prominently displayed in the Norby kitchen, also raised money for Hurricane Katrina relief after Norby auctioned off a print.

“I like the action in the shot—the boy, the dog and the clouds are all in motion,” says Norby.

“The leash connects the boy and the dog, and provides a visual line tying it all together.”

Norby continues, “It’s a picture that shows the classic ideal of childhood—a boy and his dog, off on an adventure. It captures a very fleeting time in both Neil’s and Pepper’s lives. There will most definitely never be a time like this again in their lives.”