By Meredeth Barzen
From "To the Rescue"—that's Sparky on the boat and Luna in the water.
Ever given your dogs voices or made up stories about the complex inner workings of their silent lives? It’s called anthropomorphizing, and don’t feel bad—we do it all the time too.
Max Haynes, a local photographer, author and web designer, has taken it one step further and created Tiny Dog Tales, a website featuring multiple “picture stories” about his pooches, Sparky and Luna, as well as the occasional guest dog protagonist.
Even a casual perusal of the website reveals Tiny Dog Tales isn’t a half-baked hobby or a quirky way to fill one man’s idle time. Breathtaking photos of Haynes’ striking dogs (and a few of their friends) take center stage, set to witty captions that evoke the playful, innocent spirit that we all project on our four-legged friends from time to time. “This is our big sister, Winkie,” Luna says of her cat sibling in “Stinkie Miss Winkie.” “Her breath smells like rotten fish. Yum!”
How would a person come up with such an inspired idea? We went to the source to find out:
Sidewalk Dog: Tell us about your dogs.
Max Haynes: Sparky is a double-crossed dachshund—half wire, half long, half black, half pie-bald—but all doxie! He’s six. Luna is a dorkie—half mini wired-haired doxie and half yorkie. She’s eight months old.
Max Haynes with his dog Luna.
SD: Where did you get the idea for Tiny Dog Tales?
MH: Sparky wrote a story about life after death called “A Dog’s Guide To The Hereafter” and when Luna came into our lives, he decided to document their adventures together. Since I am a web publisher and a children’s book author, I decided to combine the two into TinyDogTales.com.
SD: How do the stories come about? Do you get an idea for a story and stage the photos to depict it, or do you take the photos and then create a story around what you’ve captured?
MH: Following the dogs around with a camera is like panning for gold; you never know when you’ll hit treasure. I take my cues from new circumstances and nice light and usually just see what happens. I look for themes to build around after the pictures are taken.
SD: When did you officially launch the site? How has the reception been so far?
MH: It went live on July 1st and so far we’ve had 8,750 visitors, so it’s a pretty good start. That’s about 275 a day for the past 30 days, I expect it to be 10 times that in six months.
From "The Rules."
SD: Are you thinking of expanding Tiny Dog Tales in any way?
MH: There is much more planned. There will be e-cards that you can send as-is or put your own dogs into. There will probably be some things like T-shirts, and the ultimate goal is to develop books for young readers based on the lives of the dogs. I am currently working on a book for the Animal Wellness Center in Maple Grove about Sparky getting his teeth cleaned.
SD: If someone wanted to create their own dog’s Tale, what would that process be like?
MH: I have just finished a tale based on the three dogs of veterinarian Cassie Engmann and hope to do more of this type of thing. Sometimes I am hired to photograph a person’s dogs, like in this case, and sometimes I just happen to be in the right place at the right time, as in the case of Matilda [of “Flying Matilda“].
SD: What’s your favorite Tale so far?
MH: Wow, that’s tough, let’s see … perhaps “Stinky Miss Winkie,” since it portrays all three of my furry pals.
The post A Tale of Two Doggies: Tiny Dog Tales launches Sparky and Luna to stardom appeared first on Sidewalk Dog Blog.