Friday, February 4, 2011

Looking Skyward

Dog Blog Post #225: Today was suppose to be Family Dog #3, but Mother Nature had a different idea, and the class was cancelled.

Boooo....

Of course, the fact I did not have to sit outside in the dark and freeze my extremities off did lessen the blow a bit.

On to The Daily Shoot:

Look upward today. Make a photograph with a low horizon and that emphasizes the sky.

I knew what I wanted right off. Really, there appeared (at least to me) to be few options here. As getting the golden's into the sky seemed a bit unlikely, some golden bit was going to have to serve as my horizon.

Yet Another stripes shot, insert here Just Because I Liked It
This was yet another one of those assignments that should have been done in a few pictures and a handful of minutes, that took me much longer and I ended up never quite getting what I was after.

What I wanted was a view down somebody's muzzle, which was pointed skyward, and had I been able to to this with just clear blue sky in the background, it might have worked. I could have used macro mode to focus on the tip of the nose, left the blue sky (devoid of trees or clouds) to go fuzzy, which of course no one would have been able to tell...

... it would have been a cute shot.

But my yard is surrounded by trees and the house, so that there is always going to be something in the background, and as soon as there is something, then you have to have it in focus, which makes the nose blurry, and the shot is ruined.

This leaves either having the top or the side of someone's head to be my horizon, and accept the trees in the background as the principle elements of the shot.

Which I did.

A bit of a yawner, except for the rather pleasing (to me) dark tones and the highlights on Henry's fur and eye.

It was interesting how many of you commented on your dogs popping up from the downs, too, yesterday. Not sure if I should feel pleased to be in such good company, or dismayed at that the state of down in dogdom! (Let's go with pleased-with-the-company, a much more positive spin on things.)

Missing Skill of the Day? Wow, too numerous to count. The winner was probably the total lack of any sort of command to get the dogs to raise their muzzles skyward. Which mean luring. Which put my hand in the picture.

Sigh.

Positive Thing? Zachary is getting better about following the cookie lure to get in place, even if it meant shouldering Henry out of place to do so.

Really, it was a Good Thing!

(And yes, Wendy, I made good use of the non-class time by working on the boys trick. Zachary is coming along beautifully. Henry remains a work in progress!)

5 comments:

Katie, Maizey and Magnus said...

So funny this pic is yawner to you, It's on of my favorites yet! It got a genuine "aaww. . ." of admiration out of me! An idea for your hand being in the pic, can you use the target stick? I seem to remember you using that for pics in the past. Not sure if they actually target it, or just look at it, but maybe it could be placed high enough that it was out of the shot and still draw their heads upwards?

Another idea, if your camera has a timer and tripod, perhaps the timer could be used and that would free you to be in a different spot for the lure? Just some thoughts. Regardless it's a gorgeous shot!

houndstooth said...

That sounds like a tough assignment! I really like the end result, though! What I might have tried for was a shot that showed more of the dog's eye with a sky background, but I also know these things are easier said than done. I also admit to having a certain fascination with Bunny's eyes. They look like amber lit from inside, but it's so hard to capture them when I take pictures. Do you take the photos all by yourself, or do you have someone there who can hold treats behind you and lure the dogs into the position you want?

LuLu and Wally said...

I was wondering how you were going to do this one! LOL I absolutely LOVE the way the pic turned out.

Sorry class was canceled. We've had our fair share of cancellations this winter, too. *sigh*

As for your down-the-muzzle shot - like K, M and M, the first thing that came to my mind was target stick?

Can't wait to see what you come up with next! :)

FANCY the Red Standard Poodle said...

Hi Y'all,

Love the way the light is halo'd along his nose.

Hawk aka BrownDog

Christina said...

Great Shots...I love the first one with the dog's back photo on tonights post. Christina and Lexi