Monday, May 7, 2012

Galgos at Gettysburg

I don't know whether this is true or not, but I got the impression that there were a lot more Galgos at Gettysburg than in years past. There has been a concerted effort by people both here and in Europe to get Galgos out of Spain due to the horrific way that many of them are disposed of when they are no longer wanted.

I won't dwell on that subject as you can find information about that on the internet. Rather I choose to show some Galgos brought to the US and Canada that I met while in Gettysburg. Somewhat smaller than Greyhounds, they are stunning to look at. This is Iker from Canada, who arrived here just a few weeks ago:

Iker

He is shy and at first wouldn't let me get too close for a picture. Eventually, he did relent and I got a couple of shots using my 50mm lens.

Zeus was the second Galgo I met. He lives in Ohio:


Then, I met Lehto for the first time. He is nearly a year old and rail-thin. His antics are legendary, as are his looks:





Lehto and Zeus



Lehto



I used an aperture of f/2.8 on all of these, which does not allow much room for focusing errors. But the wide aperture blurs backgrounds nicely.

(Shot with the Nikon D300, 50mm prime, 70-200mm VR zoom, and SB-800 flash; aperture-priority with aperture set to f/2.8; shutter speed varies; ISO 200 and 400; slow-sync flash mode; auto and cloudy white balance; normal JPG.)

14 comments:

  1. We met Iker, too, and he was such a sweetheart! He and Bunny hit it off famously on Friday night. I never seem to run into Petra anywhere, but Cara is one of the dogs I just drool over! She's gorgeous and Lehto sounds like constant entertainment.

    You got some fabulous shots of all of them, but that doesn't surprise me!

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    1. if i had noticed it at the time, i would've closed down to f/4 or f/5.6 on a few of the out-of-focus shots of lehto and his nose. i don't really use the depth-of-field preview button at all, although i used to when i shot a lot of film. it might be time to bring out some of my old habits from film days.

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  2. Fab photos. Beautiful Bokeh. Every Galgo I've met has been a hoot.

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    1. i had no idea they were that special. but then my wife spent several days at scooby a couple of years ago, and then petra introduced me to cara. yep...galgos are special.

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  3. My trip to Gettysburg was SO fast. It's fun to see your photos! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. thanks, kristin. i could easily spend an extra day or two there just to photograph for myself. as it is i get a lot of surprised looks from people when i tell them that i flew from the west coast just to go to the event. hope to meet you at dewey.

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  4. Hi,

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    Thanks and have a great day!

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  5. It did seem like there were more galgos this year! :) Maybe someday I will bring one home... Beautiful pictures on your blog!

    We actually met this past year at Dewey. We were eating outside on our last night there when you came up to get some puppy love. I'm attached to the two fawns Rainy and Sunshine.

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    1. i remember. hope you all are doing well. i'll be going to dewey again this year. if you'd like to have me photograph rainy and sunshine while i'm there let me know.

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  6. Just throwing it out there Steve, but if you would like to spend a few more days next year just looking around in the area, you and Gayle off course, are welcome to stay here, we are only 20 minutes north of Gettysburg.

    I loved seeing all the galgo's this year. There are usually several around but this time most of them got together at the seminar.

    You have some nice shots of them, love the one of Iker.
    Only got some inside pictures of him and those don't look that great.
    In your picture you can see how cautious he was to this new experience.

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    1. thanks for your offer. i'll certainly keep that in my back pocket.

      i really wanted to get a picture of iker, but i didn't want to push it since virtually everything is new to him. i was happy to see as many galgos as there were that showed up.

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  7. Aww, that Lehto, what a wondrous character he looks to be. I'll probably never meet a Galgo as I can't imagine there are any in New Zealand so it's great to see your photos of some and so cool that they are going to the big Greyhound events and spreading the word.

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    1. those that know of the galgos plight in spain get especially excited whenever a galgo shows up to an event. i am glad that i've had the chance to meet some of them, and i hope you will get that chance as well.

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