One Specific Detail

Dog Blog Post #235: As a postscript to yesterday's Big Needle post - don't let that big needle keep you from getting your pet micro-chipped! I had my hands on Henry when the needle went in and I swear he made no reaction what-so-ever.

(We know return to our previously scheduled show, in progress...)

... Daily Shoot assignment is:

Tell the story of a subject today in a photograph by photographing one specific detail of it.

I tried the Daily Shoot the first time on a whim, figuring it would be fun to see if I could take a picture to match the assignment that day, perhaps a chance for some real application for training skills (or an excuse to improve training skills with a real application.)

And then I did another.  And then another.  And somewhere along the way I got hooked (quick, save yourselves, before it's too late!) I got hooked for the very reasons that I started doing it - the challenge of not only "just" taking a good picture, but trying to take a good picture that met a predefined condition and included my dogs.

What's good? I don't know, it's a subjective thing. My good could be your birdcage liner.

For me, good is that little flutter I get in my stomach when I cue the dogs to do something and they do exactly what I asked for, and do it even better. It's how that flutter grows after I shoot the picture and I stare at the LCD on the back and say "That's it!" because it either met or exceeded whatever picture was in my mind. It's when I hurry back to the computer and my hands are shaking a little as I pop up previewer to see if it's going to be clear, devoid of things that shouldn't be there, and including the things that should. Often, I am disappointed in the end.

Anyway, today I took a picture of the first thing that popped into my head (dog nose - see above) but since I had the sun, a couple of willing dogs, and extra treats, I figured I could take a few more...

... and that's when I noticed Henry's tail.

Hmm... a tail is a very defining thing for dog (be it short or long) and regular readers will recall I've focused on Henry's tail several times in the past.

And so I used my nose magnet (aka cookies) to get him into my sun beam (no small feat, that, as I needed  him standing and the beam is only 18" wide) and gave my "freeze" cue (closed fist) and snapped a few shots.

And that's when I got that flutter, that grew when I popped it up on the computer, and practically flew away as I added the caption on flickr...

My baby boy is growing up, as evidenced by the emergence of one a Golden Retriever's crowning glories.... the tail feathers!

Compare to just 2 months ago on their blog: http://bztraining.blogspot.com/2010/12/oh-deer.html

And even just one month ago: http://bztraining.blogspot.com/2011/01/telling-tails.html 

And there you have it!

Focused

Zachary and the Rabbit

Dog Blog Post #234: Henry went to the vet today to be chipped.

Have you seen the needle they use?

Ouch!!!

Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice - didn't even flinch. I guess I did that for him. What a brave boy! While I feel bad to put him through that, I feel a bit better knowing that if does get lost and ends up at one of the local shelters, there's a much better chance of a happy reunion.

(It's like death and taxes, something you don't want to think about, but still need to be prepared for!)

And on that cheery note... today's Daily Shoot assignment:

Sometimes what’s out of focus can make the shot. Create a photograph today where some/all of your subject isn't in focus.

I tried out a few different scenarios for this this one. I started with the shot at the top of the post, then moved on to...

Henry and the Food Bowl

Yes, he's showing of his "Look Sad" pose again. I've gotten more mileage off that one simple trick. And now Zachary's picked up on it (by osmosis?)...

... so I can get Sad Faces in stereo!

But the winning shot, was this one...

As just about nothing is in focus except a few hairs, which are in sharp focus.

Shag carpet in a hurricane?

(Editor's Note: LuLu and Wally asked what I used in yesterday's shots to "get them so enthusiastic about licking!" Answer: the top shot was a little creme cheese smeared on the inside of a glass pie pan, and the "canadian bacon" shot was a little butter smeared on the bottom of the same glass pie pan. If I was going to do it again (heaven forbid!) I'd go with butter on the bottom. The butter was much more transparent after the first few licks, yet seemed to have great staying power. The bottom was easier for the dogs to get to than the insides. And there you have it!)

Family Dog 3

Dog Blog Post #233: Why is it I can never think of good titles until after I've published the post? Take that picture at the top of yesterday's post - the one with Henry and the broom. I was going about my day, thinking about the usual things, when the perfect title suddenly popped into my head...

"You are feeling sweepy...."

(OK - maybe not perfect, but a heck of a lot better than the nothing title (literally - it was blank!) that I put below it yesterday.)

But I digress...

Today was Family Dog Class #3 for Henry. You may recall that Mother Nature put the kibosh on last weeks class, and so, after two whole weeks to turn into an adolescent pest, we reconvened to find that Henry was...

... fine. He was quite comfortable in class, enjoyed his rawhide chew when Wendy was talking, enjoyed his treats when we were working, did some very nice recalls (I had peanut butter), and didn't mind any of the wiggly, jiggly, weird textured items Wendy arranged for them to walk over. I worked quite a bit on his pop-up downs, and he made definite progress.

The only hitch was the A-Frame, which he suddenly decided was a Very Scary thing, indeed. As I don't plan on doing agility, this is not a problem, but I will try to work with him a bit on going up/down things this week to see if I can't gently change his mind. He enjoyed the A-Frame the last time he did it, a few months ago, so I'm not quite sure what changed. Hormones, fear period, POM (phase of the moon),...

The most obvious difference is that he watched Wendy set it up this time. Perhaps he now doubts its structural integrity. (Hey, it could happen... or maybe not.)

Today's Daily Shoot assignment:

Change your point of view. Make a photograph from an unusual point of view today.

Oh, cool! I like these sorts of things. I had it all planned out. It was going to look something like the picture at the top of the post. Ok... it was going to be the picture at the top of this post. But then a certainly cute little boston terrier beat me to that point of view.

Rats.

Well, yes, I could have used it anyway. No law against that. And I did upload it as an alternate. But perhaps I could come up with something a bit... different... something more like... this:

From the comments I've received so far, it appears I might have succeeded. (I particularly enjoyed the "grossly delightful" comment!)

This was very much a "brute force" sort of shoot. I knew what I wanted, I had what I felt was a good setup, and I basically just kept taking pictures and resetting and taking pictures and resetting until I figured I had enough.

What's enough? Turns out enough was approximately 125 shots, of which exactly two (2) were clear enough to warrant consideration. There was no finesse, no art, and for once I wished I had a manual focus so I could set the distance and just snap the pictures instead of waiting for the auto-focus (macro mode) each time.

For the curious, the second clear shot is below:

Had you been able to make out the texture of the tongue better, I might have chosen it. I liked the black background, and the fact the method used to get the "pose" is practically invisible. But without texture, it just look like a slice of Canadian bacon to me (perhaps inspired by the Hawaiian pizza I had the night before.)