Downtown L.A.: An interesting spot to stroll with a Great Dane, according to Times photographer
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A downtown Los Angeles loft might not seem like an ideal home for dog owners -- particularly not dog owners who live with a 150-pound Great Dane. But Times photographer Mel Melcon -- who’s no stranger to dog photography -- recently caught up with a pair of dog owners who fit that description and seem to fit just fine in a downtown L.A. loft, thank you very much.
Michael Gonzalez and Desiree Ramirez, both 26, share their home with Jackson, a 2-year-old harlequin Great Dane, and Bentley, a 2-year-old bull terrier. The couple let Melcon tag along as they went about their day with their dogs, and the result is a great audio slideshow on The Times’ photography and multimedia blog, Framework.
‘Photographing a 150-pound dog was an interesting experience,’ Melcon writes on Framework. ‘Jackson weighs about as much as I do and liked to playfully slam me into the wall when I got close to him with my camera in the loft. His swinging tail was like a baseball bat. Jackson did get the better of me once and knocked me down with his paws.’
One peril of walking a Great Dane in a bustling neighborhood, Gonzalez notes in the slideshow, is that you’ll receive a lot of shouts from people wondering if your dog is a horse. If your walk happens to coincide with closing time at the local bars, you just might encounter a reveler or two who think it would be fun to ride a Great Dane like a pony!
READ MORE AND SEE THE SLIDESHOW:
-- Lindsay Barnett