An hour in the life of Pie

On Father's Day I met with the family who had won an hour-long session that I donated to photograph their three greyhounds. One of the three was Pi, who arrived from Caliente a year ago. I took several photographs of her because I loved her ears:

It was not long after this that she was found to have osteo in her left foreleg, which was amputated.

Despite having recently-discovered lung nodules which, thankfully, have not grown, Pi was in good spirits. We met at a local park that was bisected by a small stream. I had her pose on a wooden bridge that crossed the stream:

(Her leash was digitally removed.)

After crossing the bridge we walked a bit downstream and stopped in a shady spot. I took a few shots while she laid on the grass:

I had her go back over the bridge so I could get a shot of her ears:

She went back over the bridge a third time to lie down as it had become a little warm for everyone:

Her scar has healed nicely. I marvelled when I looked at it.

I grabbed a couple more shots of her with ears erect, then we called it a day.

Pi's arrival from the track and her subsequent osteo diagnosis and amputation had caught my attention more than most other greys that I've seen at other retirement days. I was glad to see that she was doing well.

How strange that this session foreshadowed what was to come for us, although none of us could see it: just two days later we started our own osteo journey.

Some of my favorite photos that I took during 2012

Ava near the Sunken Road in Fredericksburg:

Romeo the galgo in his backyard:

The head of a newly-retired greyhound is cradled by an adoption group volunteer:

Jesse the Chinese crested relaxes during a break from small-dog testing:

A newly-retired greyhound smiles for me:

A greyhounds runs at the Blur of Fur at Gettysburg:

Joey and Ruth at Dewey Beach:

Hailey:

Hoover and Jennifer at Marsh Creek, Gettysburg:

Elvis on his bed:

Amelia is taken for a morning stroll in her wagon at Dewey Beach:

I'm sure I'll think of some others. I'll put those in another post.

In good hands

During a lull from the last retirement day at Fastfriends a few weeks ago I saw this freshly-washed hound getting some attention from a volunteer. The lighting was dramatic; the greyhound's eyes were dreamy, as if it was on the verge of falling asleep.

It's another one of those "hands helping hounds" pictures, I guess.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 70-200mm VR zoom at 200mm; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/2.8; camera chose shutter speed of 1/640 second at ISO 100; center-weighted metered; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Dreamer, Star, and Jake

Dreamer, who was part of a retirement day earlier in the year, gets a hug from Charity:

Star, standing at the top of the ramp leading into the "barn":

Jake, lying down in the back yard:

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 70-200mm VR zoom; aperture-priority, with aperture set at f/2.8; center-weighted metered; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

No puppy. Boo.

The number of dogs that were retiring from both Tucson and Caliente tracks have been declining recently. So a dog haul from Abilene, KS was put together so that Fastfriends Greyhound Adoption, GreySave, Operation Greyhound, Greyhound Adoption Center, and Homeward Hounds would get some retirees. Word filtered in that there was an injured four-month-old greyhound puppy that would be included, and that Fastfriends would get it. Who wouldn't want to meet a landshark?

But while we waited at Fastfriends for the van to arrive with the group's hounds from the hauler (who was running late), word came that there was no puppy aboard. In fact, the "puppy" was more like a year old, and that its injury had almost completely healed. Even so, it was decided to leave the puppy out of this haul because it was deemed risky to have a smaller hound mixed in a number of adults. No sense in taking the chance of the youngster getting re-injured.

But still...it was a disappointment. Nevertheless, when the nine hounds arrived Joyce and a number of volunteers were ready to help out.

Joyce took it upon herself to trim the nails of one greyhound:

I noticed she was sitting in a pool of light but if I didn't use fill flash here the shadows would be too dark. On the other hand, I didn't want the flash to be too obvious. So I dialed in -0.7 flash compensation to lower the flash's power.

In the following picture I had set the flash setting to slow sync. This was because I wanted to properly expose everything. The only problem was I had to use a slow shutter speed to do this. I waited until the hound was still before pressing the shutter button. This was taken at 1/30 second:

This is about as slow a shutter speed as I'm comfortable with using a non-VR lens.

I guess sub-consciously I've been interested in getting pictures of hounds and the hands of those helping them. Here are a few:

This was a great-looking group of hounds. Maybe a puppy will come in a future haul. One can hope.

Kiowa Fly Sky

Kiowa Fly Sky ("Piysky", pronounced "Pie Sky"), a four-and-half-year-old fawn female greyhound was diagnosed with osteo last week, and had her right foreleg removed. She will have chemo. I hope that she will do well and be around for a long, long time.

I mention this because I met her at a retirement day just last August. I didn't write a post about it here, although I meant to: I didn't take many pictures because I arrived late and only witnessed the small-dog and cat-testing portion. You'll notice that a number of pictures in that retirement day's gallery happen to be of her. Well, with ears like these you could understand why:

She is being cared for by a very attentive foster parent who will do good by her. This helps to lift me out of some of my darker thoughts as I try to understand that she's only 4, but was still struck by osteo.

Just four.

ETA: Interested in helping Fastfriends pay for Piysky's $5000 medical bill? There's a ChipIn for that (ends on 31 October) -- and thanks.

Checking for a smile

Last weekend about a dozen greyhounds (all from Arizona) arrived Fastfriends. Because the actual retirement was off-again, on-again during the week there weren't enough volunteers at first to walk all the dogs from station to station (from tick check to bathing, to nail trimming, to ear cleaning, to medical tent). I got the chance to walk a greyhound through part of their processing instead of taking pictures for a change. When I got to the station I handed my short (24" at the shoulders) female greyhound named "Tazor" off to another volunteer I was free to take pictures.

I took pictures of every greyhound during their time in the horse corral. Some of them paid more attention to me than others. It was after being small-dog and cat-tested that another female greyhound (whose name I don't recall -- maybe it was "Tazor" again) walked up to me. I thought I'd try to support her head with one hand while holding my camera with the other. For someone who is just strong enough to drag my shadow behind me it was a little difficult to hold the camera steady, focus on her eyes, and not take too long while doing so. I took two shots: this is the first and the better of the two (the other shot focused on her muzzle):

She was perfectly fine with me doing this. I took my pictures. We looked at each other for a few moments. And then, it was time for her to leave the corral and to bring the next greyhound in. I don't think she'll have to wait long to be adopted.

(Shot with the Nikon D300, 50mm f/1.8 lens, and SB-800 flash; aperture-priority mode, with aperture set to f/2.8; camera chose shutter speed of 1/320 second at ISO 200; -0.7 exposure compensation; flash compensation set to -0.7; center-weighted metered, auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Nine in July

Whenever an upcoming greyhound retirement day is announced I look forward to it. It's always fun to see the new arrivals. And it's interesting to see glimpses of their personalities, even through the stress of leaving the familiar territory of racetrack and kennel.

Since it was around noontime the shadows were strong and deep, so I used my flash to lighten them. Even then I did not set the flash compensation to 0, but instead used my usual -0.7. Turning down the flash's power when standing under the shade of a tree results in the picture being a little dark but the shadows created by the flash are not too obvious:

On the other hand, for this picture I set the flash compensation back to 0 because I was standing in brilliant sunshine:

It's more obvious that I used flash here.

Most of the time I just take head shots of the greyhounds. But I wanted to get both the greyhound and Marissa both in the same shot here:

There was a certain black-and-white female greyhound named "Pookie" that a lot of people noticed and liked immediately. Here are several pictures of her:

She got very excited being talked to in baby-talk -- she has a very happy tail.

Jesse the Chinese Crested did his part in small-dog testing (he played the part of the small dog):

With this group of dogs Jesse pretty much had no problem with any of them.

Kinko again played the part of the cat. Doesn't this need the caption "Draw me like one of your French girls"?:

(Look that up if you don't know what I'm referring to.)

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 18-200mm zoom, the 50mm lens, and the SB-800 flash. Normal JPG.)

Soon...

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 18-200mm zoom at f/5 and the SB-800 flash; slow-sync; aperture-priority; camera chose shutter speed of 1/50 second at ISO 200; center-weighted metered; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Muzzles

Yesterday I went to another retirement day at Fastfriends. This time they were expecting 14 greyhounds to arrive. While we waited for the hauler to arrive I walked around the back of the residence to see what I could photograph.

Adjacent to the chain-link fence that defines the back of the property there is a "barn". Above the door sill that leads into the barn there hangs a couple of rows of plastic kennel muzzles. (Kennel muzzles are placed over greyhound noses to protect their thin skin while they're out playing.) I have always liked the many colors that are used for the muzzles, and also how they appear in different kinds of light. I've photographed them before. The main problem is that even when I stood on the topmost step on the stairs that lead into the barn they were way over my head; in order to photograph them at their height I had to hold the camera above my head at arm's-length, aim in the muzzles' direction, and shoot blindly (using Live View on my camera won't help much here). And as I was using my 50mm it was kind of a crapshoot because at least with my wide-angle I know I could definitely get everything in. But I wasn't interested in "getting it all in."

I took a few pictures; this one came out the best:

It reminds me of a picture that a photographer friend of mine (hi, Rachel!) took of racing muzzles.

I haven't post-processed this picture at all.

I wanted to show perspective, and use a large aperture to show a shallow depth-of-field while focused on a particular muzzle. I set the focusing mode to closest-subject, hoping that most of the blue muzzle filled the frame. And while I used center-weighted metering here, I know that matrix-metering would've given me the same results (I tried).

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/2; camera set shutter speed at 1/320 second at ISO 400; center-weighted metered; auto white balance; norrmal JPG.)

Faces from the Fastfriends picnic

There were some stunning greyhound faces at the Fastfriends Greyhound Adoption annual picnic this past weekend. As I had done at the GreySave picnic two weeks prior, I used center-weighted metering to bring out the eye color. I just want to know what will give me the look I want, and when to use it. And it has to be fun, too.

Anyway, enough of the tech-talk -- let me share some pictures I took during the picnic:

All but the fourth and fifth pictures in this series were taken with the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens set at f/2.8 (the other lens used was the Nikon 70-200mm VR). The 50mm lens is crazy-good.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 50mm and 70-200mm VR zoom, and the SB-800 flash; auto white balance; flash compensation set to -0.7 or -1.0; normal JPG.)