Monday, September 5, 2011

Sunny

Goofy Golden


Dog Blog Post #437: An easy Daily Shoot that really was easy...

Sunday: "What's it like outside where you are today? Make a photograph that shows the world.

Really - hard to go wrong on this one. Go outside, snap a picture.

Done!

... and that's pretty much exactly what I did.

Sunny


Sunny


On a training note, now that school has started up and things are falling into some semblance of a routine, it's time to call an end to Canine Modeling 101 and return to more traditional education.

I think we've had a lot of fun this summer, but we've also learned a lot.

I've learned it's important (to me) to find purpose for what the boys are learning. Just because a skill is on someones list of "things to learn" doesn't mean it should be on mine. Maybe it should be. Maybe it shouldn't. Maybe I'll regret either teaching it, or not, but I now believe the decision should be a conscious one.

The lost of Beau, just over a year ago, really drove home the importance of finding purpose in how you spend what precious time you have with your dogs. And whether your purpose is to see the joy in your dog's eyes as they race after a ball, or to expand their minds with tricks, or teach them skills useful to you... these decisions should be made consciously, so that when the time finally comes when you lose your friend, you can look back on the time you spent together and say, "it was well spent."

I have no idea what Zachary learned - I think he was pretty much spent the summer obsessing about his Lacrosse Ball, but Henry learned how to wear a hat!

How 'bout a few Scavenger  Challenge items...

"9) Have you lost your marbles? One or many, prove you have at least one!"

Marbles


... man, was that hard to capture. Trying to drop the marbles, then focus the camera, and snap the picture as they rolled past... it was sooooo much harder than I thought it would be!

Speaking of learning, this was taken at the near glacial exposure time of 1/15s. Hand held. No flash. Why so slow? Because the shots I took that froze the action where, well, boring. They looked like I had glued a marble to the tracks. (yawn)

That said, I must admit to being surprised this came out so crisp. At 1/15s and 130mm, I would have sworn there would have been blur due to hand shake.

(I've read that the exposure time should be one over the focal length to avoid such blur. That is, at 130mm focal length, I should have set the exposure to 1/125s or faster. Alas, I did not have enough light to do so, and the flash pictures weren't looking good either.)

Spiral


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5 comments:

greygirl25 said...

The running pictures are so beautiful. I love their coats flying in the wind.

Nice job on the hand-held, clearly you are a rock.

houndstooth said...

I love those running shots! Henry and Zachary should be shampoo models somewhere!

That marble shot is awesome! That spiral is going to be tough for me.

Greyhounds CAN Sit said...

The boys look so fluid, lovely photos. The marble one is very interesting. You've done a great job there!

Sheltie Times said...

DH and I have talked a great deal about our focus as dog owners. Every so often we get a "push" from others about what our dogs could/should do and we have to consider what we can do and what they enjoy doing. Basic obedience has been a focus for saftey and their protection. Beyond that Bailey's daycare teacher taught him some tricks he's enjoyed.

However, for the most part their focus has been play.

yuki and rocket said...

I love how you captured the wind movements flowing through that beautiful hair! I find hard to capture really good and clear action shots, despite my camera being able to take 2.5 pics a second-but when I am able to get that good shot, I love how it looks like they are flying in the air!