Sunday, September 11, 2011

Seventeen...continued

Of the seventeen hounds that were brought up from the racetrack, I think all of us were taken by the appearance of one particular hound: Rockstar.

Rockstar 

This is a picture of him as he was being photographed for his "available fosters" picture. You can get a hint of how well-muscled he is.

He has these eyes that will burn right through your soul:

Rockstar 

When he was small dog- and cat-tested I snapped these pictures of him in the corral:

Rockstar Rockstar

Rockstar Rockstar

Rockstar;
These pictures really don't capture how red this boy is -- you have to see him in-person. He had no problems with small dogs and cats, so I don't foresee any problem with him ending up in a forever home soon.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 50mm f/1.8 prime and 18-200mm zoom lenses; SB-800 flash; center-weighted and matrix-metered; aperture- and shutter-priority; auto and shade white balance; normal JPG.)

13 comments:

  1. Holy crow! What a perfect name for that dog! Oh, how I wish there was room at the inn. He is just stunning, and I love how you captured his eyes and all those muscles!

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  2. Ah yes, the eyes. He has the most captivating eyes. I think some people would say the he is "ripped"! What a striking boy! He won't last long!

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  3. Houndstooth, imagine this guy among your girls! Hormones would rocket like never before :-)
    he is truly beautiful. What "tablettes of chocolate" he has!

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  4. He is gorgeous. Why did he get retired from racing? All those muscles look like he would be perfect for it

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  5. he's just three-and-a-half years old. i don't know why he was retired; he ran 25 races at both grade b or c, won three races and placed 2nd once.

    i wanted to photograph him with the light coming from behind to emphasize his physique, so i waited for the right moment. he first walked into the light, then turned around and went back in the shadow. unfortunately, the picture (the one where he's walking to my left) came out too dark with the wrong white balance. i added some fill light and made some quick color adjustments using lightroom, although the color is still not correct (too much yellow). at first i thought that the post-processing overly exaggerated his muscles but, when comparing it to the original picture, the lighting angle really brought it out.

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  6. What a handsome boy. I don't think my kids every had muscles like that.

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  7. I think he looks fantastic! Heck, I'd adopt him just so I could keep taking pictures of him all the time!

    P.S. I don't suppose you have any advice about photographing puppies, do you? Particularly one who might be solid black...

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  8. He's stunning! What a great photography subject for you!

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  9. carrie, i'll offer a few suggestions to you:

    (1) don't use flash unless you really have to. black fur will show hotspots from your flash, especially if they're wet. but...if you must, just turn down the flash's power to something like -0.7.

    (2) puppies move a lot, so use shutter-priority ("S" mode) instead of program ("P" mode). program mode may pick a shutter speed that isn't fast enough to freeze them. if you're in "S" mode you can pick a shutter speed of 1/500 sec or higher. and pick an ISO (like 400 or higher) that will let you use a shutter speed of 1/500 sec and get properly exposed pictures.

    (3) set your shutter-advance mode switch to "continuous" mode, which fires off several pictures by holding the shutter release button down, instead of one frame per button press. it's the switch to the right of the round exposure mode dial. "continuous" mode is the icon that looks like a stack of paper (below the square S).

    (4) set your focusing mode to "continuous servo" because puppies will move around a lot.

    hope this helps. :)

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  10. You can adjust the flash's power?! Good lord, I've been living in a cave! Must buy Dummies book soon!

    That does help! I knew you'd have good advice! :)

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  11. His muscle definition is unbelievable and I love how you've caught that. There is no fat on that boy!

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  12. My goodness, Rockstar is a living lesson in Greyhound musculature! What a body, and then to have the eyeliner and eyes as well. He is a stunner. And he looks very kind:)

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  13. he's one of those "you have to see him in-person" sort of dogs to appreciate his coloring and musculature. i didn't look him over very closely, but i don't remember seeing any obvious scars. he has such a great personality.

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