Sadie gets a little...how should I say...um, crazy. After I first started taking pictures of her playing with Nikki, and then with Katie, I began to marvel at her facial expressions. This picture is very typical. Kind of scary, too, if you didn't know her.
On this mid-November afternoon in 2009 I took Sadie and Katie to my in-law's backyard. Their backyard is large so there's a decent amount of room for them to run and play. I was watching them play from one end of the yard, and I saw how soft the light was coming through the overcast. Sadie was busy digging a hole; she saw me approach, and as I held my camera down just above the dirt, she did one of her patented snarling-play-bowing-jumps right at me. Then she ran away, hoping I'd run after her. I couldn't look through the viewfinder and I took just one shot.
As I mentioned, I held the camera just above the dirt for a different look. The lens was set at 18mm, so this exaggerates the closeness of her front feet. White balance was set to "cloudy" because I wasn't sure if "auto" would remove enough blue in the picture. The tilted horizon line makes the picture a little more dynamic. Then I added a graduated filter adjustment to darken the sky a bit using Lightroom.
(Shot with the Nikon D300; 18-200mm zoom lens set at 18mm; shutter-priority; 1/1600 sec @ f/8; ISO 1000; cloudy white balance; normal JPG.)
Lol, I love seeing Greyhounds enjoying themselves. Well, any dog I guess. Neat tongue action too:)
ReplyDeleteThe kids and I have given you guys a well deserved award for being a Stylish Blogger:) Swing by our blog and pick it up if you want, it's not mandatory;)
How do you not break out laughing every time you look at that picture? I love the capture right in the middle of the action and her facial expression! Thanks for my morning giggle!
ReplyDeleteI honestly thought this was a fast lens (wide f/stop) until I read your description!
ReplyDeleteI'm always so scared to increase my ISO because I hate grain. But this picture is GREAT :-D :-D
* Correction: The photo is GREYT!
ReplyDelete@Greyhounds Can Sit: thanks for the award. i certainly didn't start this looking for recognition. i just figured maybe what i've learned while photographing our pups might be useful to someone else. no worries if it's all old hat to everyone.
ReplyDelete@carrie: i catch myself looking at sadie-at-play picture over and over, just so i can look at her face. she's so different from any greyhound we've adopted. you'll also have to see videos of her stalking me. that's funny, too.
@lauren: thanks! i don't care for grain much either, unless that's what i want. i know about where noise will start to appear with the d300, so i try to avoid ISOs above a certain value.
She is having a great time! I love seeing them get down in that crazy, play stance!
ReplyDeleteYour photos are amazing. Thank you for posting the camera tips (settings, lenses etc.). This is quite helpful info. :)
@michelle: thanks! i hope i'm not being overly techno when i mention camera stuff. i'm guessing readers might be curious, though.
ReplyDelete