Photo of the Week - Week 3

I try to ask the question - What is the story? When I take pictures, if I don't think about this question, then landscapes become blase, portraits are snapshots, and there's nothing compelling about the image. Art, compelling art, is more than just eye candy - it is trying to convey something of a story, it has a message.

So, what's the story?

Our girls have always loved animals; we have some friends here who have raised some pigs and our middle daughter has since become enamored with pigs. She's fed them and been around them, seen them in real life - she knows they are always hungry and that they really, really stink. But she still loves them.

So when the mother pig became "great with piglets," she wanted to adopt one of the piglets. Obviously, this couldn't happen, so she decided to adopt by proxy - the piglet would stay with the friends, but she'd bring him a special treat occasionally. When the piglets got to be two months old, they would be sold and move on to a different existence ...

Pigs, however, are quite intelligent, although not able to anticipate consequences. Our little friend happened to figure out how to escape from his pen. Unfortunately for him, the friends have several dogs and the dogs did what comes natural for them when they found him.

The girls were understandably saddened by what happened and they decided that little Hungry needed to be remembered. Back at our home they made a little memorial for him, in tribute to their little piglet friend. And now it's on the Internet and will be around forever!