Thursday, April 21, 2011

Smile!

ds521 - Smile!


Dog Blog Post #306: What a busy day! And now it's late, and so this must be brief. The Daily Shoot assignment was:

Make a photograph of a smile, either literal or symbolic.

... and being somewhat pressed for time, I took the easy way out. Remembering the lovely smiles I captured the other day during the Motion assignment (which I saved for Wordless Wednesday, only to end using the Daily Shoot pictures instead - see below), I took the boys outside with camera, tripod, and a Lacrosse Ball or two, and played some fetch.

Sure enough, in no time I had smiles galore - including the beauty at the top of the page.

Ta-Da!

(Yeah, I know, ridiculously easy.)

Then, for kicks, I tried free stacking Henry in front of the camera. That turned out to not be so ridiculously easy.

The first was half on/off grass, and crooked...

Testing...


This one was too close to the camera...

Testing...


And this one would have been fine, if I had though to wipe Henry's mouth first...

Testing...


Now, I admittedly know little about what he should look like free stacked, but from a purely photographic point of view, it seems the model was splendid and the photographer should hang her head in shame. :)

And finally, yesterday's Wordless Wednesday: Bird + Duck post was for the Daily Shoot assignment:

Illustrate connection in a photograph today.

ds520 - Bird + DogI'm not sure if my results were witty or weak (or somewhere in the middle) but do I think the boys looked pretty darn cute against the new camo-like fabric with the duck. Note that the duck is not a toy they get to keep (although it is theirs, unlike the beanie babies) for as greygirl25 pointed out, it would be ripped to shreds in no time.

ds520 - Bird + DogDuck comes out for "Find the..." only, and Zachary's happy association of duck and game meant that the only way I could get a picture of him with duck is if I held it, as shown in the first picture (had I not cropped my hand out of the frame!)

I haven't done much of that Henry, and so he was (after a time) able to pose with the duck with reasonable self control.

Alas, my inability to get either of them to (calmly) hold the duck (or anything else) in their mouths is a huge training failure on my part, and one I will have to address one of these days.

As for the fabric, it's this weird, almost mosquito netting-like fabric, weights almost nothing, is practically transparent, was cheap (on sale), is 100% polyester (ie: no wrinkles!) and takes up no space at all in my fabric box. Other than the fact I have to put some other solid fabric behind it to keep you from seeing the backdrop through it, it's perfect!

(And no, I have no idea what you would use it for in Real Life, but there were quite a few patterns to choose from and picked up three others while I was there.)

BTW: If anyone knows where my baby boy has gone, please let me know. I turned around an suddenly he's a dog!

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5 comments:

Ruth said...

What an adorable boy Henry is! I love your first attempt at stacking - not the perfect position but still super-cute!

houndstooth said...

I loved the one you used for The Daily Shoot! All of the smiling photos are really nice, though. You definitely have me beat over there this week! :)

Of course I got a low-key photo when I didn't need it! It completely figures!

Amber-Mae said...

That's a great smile, Henry! Me thinks he has a very nice body, topline is to die for! Perhaps you should get him into the show ring? Atleast do it for the experience & fun.

Greyhounds CAN Sit said...

I don't know anything about Golden Retriever stacking but the last photo of Henry looks very good ... except maybe for the little bit of hmm, slobber?

Lovely Goldie smile too:)

greygirl25 said...

I love these. And hey, what's a little golden slobber?