Your photo in post #3 is a great shot.
I love Labs; they're great dogs. We've got a one year old black Lab (Fred). He goes from completely laid back to exploding into action at the flick of a switch (and back again) when he needs to. Unlike our Cocker Spaniel pup, who is lovably crackers and just goes at everything absolutely flat out.
We don't work Fred, but we do keep him active. The retriever really shows in him, he loves fetching and carrying. He's really intelligent; you can see him watching things and taking note of what's going on. For example, we don't have an internal door to the kitchen, so we put a stair gate across to keep the dogs out if we want. Fred soon figured out that if we are lazy and don't lock the catch down, he can push it up with his nose and let himself through.