Abby’s Saturday // 2023 Blooper Reel

Welcome to my FAVORITE blog post of the entire year!!
It’s the Abby’s Saturday BLOOPER blog post! YAY!

So, let me give a tiny bit of background: once upon a time, before we had children – I looked around for a way to consistently practice and grow my photography skills. Thankfully, our sweet puppy stepped up to the plate and off I went on a journey of photographing my dog every single week.

When I started taking “Abby’s Saturday” photos (back in 2013) – I had literally zero intention as to how far I would go. In other words: I did not have a goal in mind (it wasn’t a “Project 52” or anything). I simply wanted to pull my camera out every single week and take fun photos of our sweet pup to practice my photography skills.

And well, here we are: more than TEN YEARS LATER.

These weekly photos have evolved from being just a simple photo on my blog with no words (a check-mark to say I’d “blogged”) to now including a short write-up about our week (and some weeks – those write-ups are long).
And I love it.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t hard. Believe me – it is brutal sometimes to come up with new ideas or to make my subjects (which over the years have grown to include not just Abby, but Braelynn and Leander as well) cooperate with the vision I have in my head.
But, here’s the thing: as many times as I’ve considered giving this “practice” up (and I’ve honestly strongly considered it at certain points), I just can’t stop. Especially when I look back at the “series” of photos I’ve taken – there are certain photos I take every single year and having those photos of our sweet Abby-dog and our kids is absolutely priceless to me – and worth every single ounce of hard work, sweat, and work that these photos are.

To this point, I have published 489 Abby’s Saturday photos – but there are literally thousands of images that I take that never get posted. Some are simply not good images, some concepts I have just don’t work out, sometimes I can’t get all parties to cooperate, and then some photos simply end up in the “blooper reel” – and that’s what today is all about!
ENJOY a little peek “behind-the-scenes” of what really happens behind the curtain for these Abby’s Saturday photos!

Disclaimer: No Black Labs, little girls, or little boys were hurt or injured in any way due to the circumstances of these photos – I promise.

And one more thing: after looking through today’s post, you’ll definitely want to go back and see the Blooper Reels I’ve posted over the last 6 years (I didn’t post bloopers until 2016 – I never thought of it before that)! Not only are they hilarious, but Braelynn and Leander are SO tiny in year’s past! I’m so thankful for these weekly photos of our lovable (so patient and tolerating) pup and our quickly growing sweet girl and sweet boy!
2022 Bloopers || 2021 Bloopers || 2020 Bloopers || 2019 Bloopers || 2018 Bloopers || 2017 Bloopers || 2016 Bloopers

(The following photos are shown in the order that I took them throughout the year, so kicking things off with January and ending with some of the last photos I took of Abby, Braelynn, and Leander in 2023!)

Omigoodness – it hardly seems real that our dining room was completely deconstructed last year at this time! What an amazing transformation that took place!

Can you feel the ENTHUSIASM.

Guys, that fluffy dog just touched me!

The velociraptor was going for Abby – but thank goodness, we saved her!

Ick, a bug just flew up my nose.

Wanna watch where you’re poking those brakes there, kid?

Will run for TREATS.

No matter how old and slow she gets – nothing will keep Abby from the lake.

That fresh cold hose water.

SO, I only have one letterboard – so this is how we took this photo.

Wait, isn’t this kid supposed to be holding something?

You’ve got to be kidding me, I’m not allowed to eat any of those crackers or cheeses?!

Braelynn’s face says it all.

It was raining the day I tried to take the “ghost” picture, so I first attempted to take it inside. It just wasn’t working though, so we went out into the rain.

Here’s a pulled-back, behind-the-scenes shot of how I took the layered “box” photo!

Umm, guys, I dropped my hat.

No Leander, ostriches stick their necks out like this.

I caught a sneeze – HAHA.

Photobomber.

Are we still taking these photos every week?!

We really truly immensely love our pup.
She’s getting old (she turns 14 this summer!), her nose and face are becoming more and more grey, she has a harder time going up and down the stairs, and she only wants to chase the frisbee for one or two throws now. She still puts up with all of our shenanigans though (and trust me, we reward her well) and we just love her to death.

Okay, well now that you’re hooked, you know you want to go back and see the bloopers/outtakes from the last 7 years!
2022 Bloopers || 2021 Bloopers || 2020 Bloopers || 2019 Bloopers || 2018 Bloopers || 2017 Bloopers || 2016 Bloopers