Sunday, November 20, 2011

Bonnie

Until we adopted Sadie in November of '03 I hadn't really looked closely at black greyhounds to notice how shiny their coats can be and just how striking they are in general. Sadie single-handedly completely changed my impression of them and made me appreciate this color -- and for that I'll always be grateful.

Bonnie was my first session on Saturday. She's young, mostly black with some "chrome" underneath. She's every bit the image of the elegance and dignity that is the Greyhound:

Bonnie 

Wait...what?

Black greyhounds can be difficult to photograph, especially if you are in the habit of using fill flash outdoors. If you don't turn down the power on your flash, chances are you'll have a lot of hotspots appear on their coat. Most of the time I have my flash turned down to -0.3 or -0.7, although I've also started reducing its power even further to -1.0. (On the D300 I adjust the flash by pressing the button labeled with the "flash" icon, then rotate the front control wheel to the desired value.) Then I'll review the image and adjust accordingly, if needed. It's whatever looks good to you.

Greyhounds playing in the water can be -- how shall I say it? -- "manic". Spinning, scampering, leaping, running back-and-forth...I wonder what goes through their minds. It's wonderful to watch:

Bonnie 

 Bonnie 

(I've digitally removed the leash in these pictures.)

And then they're done playing for the time being, they stand there and look quite collected:

Bonnie 
 
Bonnie 

And being sighthounds, they can certainly be nosy and curious:

Bonnie and Sara 

Thank you, Sara, for letting me photograph Bonnie.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 18-200mm zoom; shutter-priority; matrix-metered; auto white balance; ISO 200; SB-800 used for fill in first and last picture only; shot in RAW.) 

8 comments:

  1. What a surprising and interesting set of pictures. I love the "shape" of Bonnie romping in the surf. I did not know that you could digitally remove a leash. That is super cool. The last photo...LOVE IT!

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  2. I didn't appreciate black hounds till I got one. She's even more expressive as her face whitens. Love low angle shots . Must be what a grey looks like to a little dog.

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  3. I love these pictures! I also didn't realize how beautiful black greyhounds are until we adopted Luna. She always looks classy and colors just pop off of her. Like you said, the toughest part is photographing her. I have to take multiple pictures with different settings and hope for the best.

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  4. She's gorgeous! I have to start polishing my black dog photography skills. She looks like a dolphin leaping out there in the water! What great captures you got this time!

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  5. Steve I love these photos - really enjoyed going thru your blog.

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  6. I'm a big fan of greyhounds of all colors, but as a black greyhound owner, I can so appreciate this post. Bonnie is a lovely girl!

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  7. indeed, kristin, bonnie is lovely. and in many ways she reminds me of our sadie -- especially when she gets into that staredown mode.

    @karen: hi, karen! i'm glad you found my blog through gayle.

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