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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.”
Norby’s third-place prize is a $500 Costco
Cash Card.—Mark E. Stroder