Bonding

Boo and my Dad were in their own bubble, sharing a moment in time.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 70-200mm VR; aperture-priority with aperture at f/4; shutter speed 1/320 at ISO 1000; auto white balance; matrix-metered; normal JPG.)

Bean is ready to play

Bean loves squeaky toys. And if they bounce, so much the better. I caught her one October afternoon playing with a Sprong® dog toy when she saw me, then grabbed the toy in her mouth and paused at the steps leading to the living room, waiting for me to play with her. I had my big, heavy 70-200mm VR with me, hoping she'd stay still long enough for me to get a few shots. To get more light into the house I opened the front door before I started shooting.

This is a close crop of the best of several pictures that I took as she waited on me. In the original picture I had composed the picture with Bean in the upper right corner of the viewfinder. As she was standing beyond the end of a wooden cabinet I wanted the bottom edge of the cabinet side and the lines of the hardwood flooring to draw your eye to Bean. I had to burn in the background behind her to make it less distracting. I donated a print of this to a greyhound event for their auction.

I can't help but think of how Sadie and Bean might have gotten along had Sadie lived long enough to have met Bean. I bet it would've been good, even though Sadie was over 10 years older than Bean.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 70-200mm VR zoom; matrix-metered; aperture-priority with aperture set to f/4; shutter speed 1/30 second at ISO 900; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Running with scissors

Bean is the doggiest dog we've ever adopted. We got glimpses of what that was like when we met Bean for the first time and watched her play with balls, pinecones, and tree branches in Aimée's backyard. So as she settled into our home Bean noticed that we also had small pinecones in our little backyard. It didn't take too long before she grabbed one and started to run with it in her mouth:

She has a lot of fun playing and running with them but we cringe a bit as we have to be mindful of her weak leg that can sometimes go out from under her and make her fall. The leg doesn't seem to bother her much as long as she doesn't play on hard surfaces like concrete or asphalt for too long. (She often wears a Therapaw on hard surfaces.) Then it seems to get sore and she tries not to put too much weight on it. Still, we want her to have fun -- it's too hard to try and keep a young dog like her down.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and the 105mm lens; aperture-priority with aperture set to f/4; camera set shutter speed to 1/640 second at ISO 800; auto white balance; normal JPG, processed with Lightroom.)

Gypsy

I was running into a problem when I started working on Gypsy's session pictures at last year's Dewey Beach: everything was looking uninspired and dreary. What to do?

I thought I would add a lot more exposure than I usually do just because I wanted her to stand out more. So I added some black to sharpen things up a bit, and added a slight vignette. Even then the sky in the background was pretty featureless, so I played around with using a gradient filter and added some underexposure to see if I could get some details in the clouds to show up. That helped with what I had in mind. Then I did a bit of cropping and digitally removed her leash.



For the picture below, I'm exploring my photojournalist-wannabe side. I didn't want a standard pose here. After I uploaded the picture I felt like the image's vibe was ambiguous, or perhaps you weren't sure how how Gypsy is feeling (well? ill? stressed?) under a threatening sky at the moment:



She was actually turning to her right to present her profile to me.

I sometimes do this to see if I can see the scene in front of me differently. It doesn't always work (just like most of my pictures don't work) but it keeps things interesting, and helps me to keep trying to get better at seeing the world around me.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 18-35mm zoom; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/8 and 1/160 second in top picture; shutter-priority, with shutter speed set to1/1600 second and aperture of f/4.5 in bottom; center-weighted metered; +0.7 exposure compensation in top picture, +0 in bottom; shot in RAW, converted to DNG, and imported into Lightroom.)

Miami, meet Ocean

You will sometimes hear of a list of things that racing Greyhounds may not have encountered during their racing careers before heading off to their adopted homes: linoleum flooring, stairs, city traffic...or the ocean.

Miami had not seen the Atlantic before Saturday's photo shoot at Dewey. How would he react to getting his feet wet with sea foam blowing all over?

Miami, meet Ocean:

No problem! Success!

(I've digitally removed his leash, incidentally.)

Not only was this the first time Miami had seen the ocean, it was also the first time for his companions Thyme (Greyhound) and Izaskun (Galgo), too.

I added some exposure in post-processing to keep Miami's white fur from looking a dingy gray. Some highlights were lost but that didn't really matter to me — I also didn't want his eyes to look like two dark holes in his head.

As an aside, Miami was profiled recently in a local news story in Philadelphia.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 105mm VR macro; aperture-priority, with aperutre varying from f/2.8 to f/5.6; shutter speed varied from 1/1000 to 1/3200 second; ISO varied from 100 to 400; +0.7 exposure compensation; center-weighted metering; auto white balance; shot in RAW, converted to DNG, and imported into Lightroom.)

Sammy, Harry, and Loki...and photographing the black Greyhound

A long time ago I was asked by Carrie of Tales and Tails about how to photograph black Greyhounds. I'll share a few suggestions on how I photograph them that you might find helpful:

• Photograph black Greyhounds in shade whenever possible (pictured: Sammy, photographed in open shade):

• Avoid mid-day, direct sunlight, if possible, to prevent hot spots on the fur. I prefer to photograph in the early morning or late afternoon when the light is softer and comes in at a lower angle (pictured: Harry, photographed around 9AM):

• If you do use flash outdoors, lower the camera's flash compensation to -1 (or whatever value you prefer) to keep the fur from appearing too shiny as black Greyhounds tend to be that way. (On Nikons, this button is used to control the flash's output when used in combination with turning the command dial either left or right. Image copyright Ken Rockwell.). I set the camera's flash exposure mode to slow-sync, which allows the camera to keep both the background and the subject properly exposed. And if your flash has a tilting head, point it up at least 45 degrees and use a flash diffuser if you have one to soften the light further (pictured: Loki, photographed in late afternoon with flash compensation of -1 and slow-sync):

These are just suggestions which give me the results I'm looking for. Play around with the various settings until you find the values that you like.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 50mm and 105mm VR lens. All shot in RAW, converted to DNG, and imported into Lightroom.)

Some of my favorite photos I took during 2013 (part 2)

Jewel:

Thyme:

Heyokha:

Sadie (belongs to a different owner):

Gypsy:

Laika:

Isis:

Boo:

Violet:

Ringo:

Holly:

Speed Racer:

Mary, Speed Racer, and Trixie:

Cat and Sully:

Rocky:

(All photos taken with the Nikon D600, 50mm, and 105mm lens; shot in RAW, converted to DNG, and imported into Lightroom.)

Some of my favorite photos I took during 2013 (part 1)

Bailee-Mae and Julie:

Andy:

Winston in Marsh Creek:

Tangerine:

Izaskun near the Peach Orchard:

Miami near the Peach Orchard:

Daisy wades in Marsh Creek:

Honda:

Duncan:

Axel, Janel, and Duncan:

PieSky:

(All shot with the Nikon D300 and D600 using the 18-35mm, 50mm, or 105mm lens; shot in RAW, converted to DNG and imported into Lightroom.)

Maggie (2002 - 2014)

"Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you there."

— Isla Paschal Richardson

Sadie is salt and pepper

At this stage of her life she's more salt than pepper.

 

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority with aperture set at f/2.8; 1/250 second at ISO 400; center-weighted metered; +0.7 exposure compensation; auto white balance; shot in RAW, converted to DNG and imported into Lightroom.)

Pensive Heyokha

Dewey Beach had the worst weather this year in the five times that I've gone: windy and sometimes rainy, but mostly windy. The wind did not seem to bother the Greyhounds on the beach much but it did make things miserable for their humans. I had to cancel or reschedule some appointments for Thursday and Friday because of it.

On Saturday I did a couple sessions and then headed back to the rental house. My friends Meredith and Mitch's dog, Heyokha, was lying on the big sofa that turned out to be a popular sleeping spot for the hounds during the weekend. Lying on the new purple bed sheet protecting the sofa, Heyokha was bathed in the light flooding through the big sliding glass window and door that led out to the beach-facing deck.

He is an active, big boy. But at this moment he was quietly watching something (I don't remember what). I started taking a few pictures using center-weighted metering, zero exposure compensation, and aperture-priority:

  

(Note: On the Nikon the exposure compensation button is marked with "+/-" and sits next to the power switch.)

It's much too light, although I could fix that in post-processing. And he doesn't have the expression I want. I adjusted my exposure compensation to -1 (one stop), moved to his left, and tried again:

 

This looks better to me: the sunlit side of his face is not as blown-out as in the first picture while still retaining detail in the shadows. But I thought I'd switch to matrix metering and turn down the exposure compensation even further to -1.3:

I like this even better and I got a different (and better, I think) expression this time. Switching to matrix metering (the light meter samples everything in the viewfinder to determine what it thinks is the proper exposure; center-weighted emphasizes what's in the center of the viewfinder and less in the corners) got me the darker image I had in mind.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 105mm VR lens; aperture-priority with aperture set to f/4; ISO 800; normal JPG.)

An extraordinary face

When I flew to Baltimore last October to go to Dewey Beach, I was picked up at the airport by my friend Aimée, her husband, and the two Greys they brought with them, Boo and Dazzle. I had met Dazzle when I first to Dewey back in 2009. It was good to see Dazzle because during Dewey 2012 she became extremely ill while Aimée was away at Dewey — so ill that Aimée nearly flew back home to be with her. (Fortunately, Dazzle recovered and is doing well.)

But I was looking forward to meeting Boo from the first picture that I saw of her. My sixth picture of Boo will explain why:

She is one of the most unusually-marked Greyhounds I've ever seen. The feature reminded me of the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." Aimée and her husband took Boo in after a very close friend of hers fell gravely ill and could no longer care for her.

What a snuggly dog! The instant after I sat in the third-row seat of their van after getting in, Boo almost immediately rested her head against my leg so I could start scratching and stroking her head. She stayed like that for quite a number of minutes — until I had to move my legs to stay comfortable. After allowing me that little break, she came back for more head-scratching. I can't say I've ever been approached by a dog I'd never met before and be obliged to give it so much attention (these ex-racing Greyhounds are known to be like this):

Boo is truly a wonderful dog and I'm so glad I got to be with her for a few days. (Note: in both pictures I focused on her eye and set my aperture to near wide-open to keep my depth-of-field shallow.)

(Shot with the Nikon D600 and 105mm f/2.8 VR lens; aperture-priority with aperture at f/4; shutter speed 1/125 second at ISO 2800 (top), and 5600 (bottom); matrix-metered, auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Maggie is still here

For those of you who are not familiar with Greyhound health issues, it won't take too long before you'll come across stories of those who have been diagnosed with, or have succumbed to, osteosarcoma. Katie was the first Greyhound that we adopted to get it in the twenty years that we've had these retired racing dogs. I suppose it was bound to happen to us eventually, but we had hoped that we would not be so unlucky.

Usually the first sign of trouble is that the Greyhound begins to suddenly limp (in Katie's case she couldn't settle down in bed after waking up one night; her limp began a few hours later). By this time the osteo is well-advanced and has likely started spreading to other areas in the body, particularly the lungs. Depending on how early one finds it (and we thought we had detected Katie's OSA early because her humerus had quite a bit bone left that had not yet been eaten away by the tumor) an owner can be advised to amputate the limb and start chemo. Unfortunately for other owners, the way they found out their Greyhound had OSA was when the leg broke because it had been so weakened by the cancer. In these sad cases the only choice is to put the Greyhound to sleep quickly. Depending on how early the cancer is found and what treatment is rendered to the dog, one can expect the Greyhound to live for a few months to possibly a year or more.

There are exceptions to the rule, though: there are Greyhounds that have survived far, far beyond expectations. One of them is Maggie. She's survived six years post-amputation.

I had the pleasure to meet her and her owners at Dewey Beach. On a windy Thursday evening they all came by our rental and spent some time with us. I had to try and get a few photos in of her. She's a blue Greyhound (an unusual and rare color), and spent most of the time curled up in her bed that was placed in the middle of the kitchen floor. She even roached while she slept:

 

It is heartening to see that it is possible for a Greyhound to survive years after a limb amputation due to OSA. Seeing hounds like her, and reading of some of the discoveries that researchers have made this year, gives us owners hope that a cure for this disease will be found in the not-too-distant future.

(Top picture shot with the Nikon D600 using the 105mm VR macro; aperture-priority mode with aperture at f/4; shutter speed 1/50 second at ISO 6400; bottom picture shot using the iPhone 5.)

Three months

It's been three months since Katie's death from lymphoma.

I think of her (and of our other two departed greys, Alex and Nikki) every day. And there are many days where I browse through some of the several thousand pictures that I took of her. She was with us for nearly nine years, and even now those thousands of pictures seem inadequate. Oh, most are terrible and not worth sharing with everyone, to be sure, but I saved them.

I cling to these pictures as a way to hang onto her for as long as I can. I won't say that looking at these pictures always brings me comfort — it doesn't. But when it does I go back and think of how well she recovered from her amputation. We were so pleased and happy for her that she gained weight during her chemo treatments because it can cause appetite loss and Katie was never really food-motivated.

I'm rambling now and I can't write a coherent train of thought, so I will leave you with this picture of Katie as she was back in 2008, a couple of months after Nikki had died:

 

I used light coming in through a window to get this. I added +0.7 exposure compensation because I didn't want the light meter to render her in a dull gray. She had this wondering look on her face as Sadie was standing in front of her. Katie's eyes were wonderful and I tried to capture that.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 and the 18-200mm zoom; aperture-priority with aperture set to f/4.8, ISO 1100 at shutter speed of 1/30 second; cloudy-weather white balance; +0.7 exposure compensation; normal JPG.)

Katie goes for a ride

I thought I'd write something about Katie enjoying a short ride down the street from our home and blah blah blah...

I'll let Katie's face tell you all you need to know how she's doing these days.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 18-35mm zoom; program mode; 1/250 second at f/8 at ISO 800; auto white balance; center-weighted metered; shot in RAW, converted to DNG and imported into Lightroom.)