Friday, December 9, 2011

Grace and Tess

My final two customers at Dewey were Grace and Tess, two very beautiful brindle girls. Grace has a case of pannus, so many of the pictures I got of her shows her with her eyes closed. But it was possible to catch her when she wasn't squinting:

Grace 

Tess, on the other hand, was very easy to get some good head shots:

Tess 

The highlight of this session came when we were halfway through when Grace ran on the beach alone:

Grace 

Grace


Grace

Note that I got the same facial expression on all three frames. That's fine by me -- that crazed look on a greyhound face always makes me smile. And note that her feet are in similar positions. I was shooting at about 3 frames/second, which can be a problem if you're photographing running greyhounds at certain speeds. If you catch them in an unattractive pose (like where both front feet are on the ground while both hind feet are in the air) then you can end up with a number of pictures with slight variations of that pose. So I should've upped my frame rate to its faster setting (6 or 7 frames/second, I think) before I had Grace run.

But I got lucky this time. She changed directions and speed enough to catch her in a different position:

Grace 

And then just before she flew by me I caught her in mid-stride:

Grace 

(I'm amazed I even caught this.) Having run past me she then stopped by her owner, who was standing behind me and to my left. Aimee and I were really impressed.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 18-200mm zoom lens; shutter-priority mode; daylight white balance; top two pictures: ISO 200 at 1/250 second; running sequence: ISO 800 at 1/1250 second; shot in RAW.)

10 comments:

  1. Great focus on the last shot. Love the way she is staring right at you. Front feet down with rear legs in the air is the bane of my running sequence shots.

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  2. Grace and Tess are just lovely! Love those running shots!

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  3. I love getting the running shots, too! I often have the same thing happen -- I capture the same pose over and over as she runs by. Sometimes I get lucky and happen to be in the direct path of where they're running, but that is a real test of nerves. I haven't been hit yet, though, so I trust them that they know what they're doing! lol

    I love the color and lighting! I am missing the sun in a big way here!

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  4. I love seeing a greyhound running! You got some wonderful shots there. Someday I hope to make it to Dewey.

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  5. I love the photos of Grace and Tess. I especially admire them since the girls have dark brindle fur. I too laugh whenever I see the crazed greyhound running face. A greyhound running is a lesson to us all...live life full out!

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  6. All the pics are great! That mid stride pic is my fav of the group. :)
    Michelle

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  7. We got nominated for the Liebster Blog Award and I wanted to nominate you as well. Stop on by to pick it up. Cheers!

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  8. I love that crazed running face...they all seem to get that same look when they are running full tilt. A sure sign of how much fun it must be, LOL. That last photo is beautiful.

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  9. Leaping greyhounds!! That looks like good times!

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