My dog, first "spring" photos - Page 1

Since the time changed it's not dark when I get home from work and finish tending to my dogs so I forced myself to track my dog for the first time this season.  It *looks* like spring a lot more than it *feels* like spring!  I was wearing a calf-length down parka.  Luckily the first park I tried was vacant and the snow was melted in the area I wanted to use.  It's still below freezing and the wind was blowing 30mph nonstop so my dog was consistently a foot or so off his track but hit all 5 articles (with absolutely no help, I was trying to video so I was looking at my camera).  My dog loves to track and it's his best phase, points-wise, but I HATE track laying so hopefully by posting this I will hold myself accountable to track more this season!  He hadn't tracked since October and only tracked about 6 times total in 2012.  Afterwards we did some heelwork, flat retrieves, and then I took some photos by the playground (my reward, lol).  We've been doing Nosework for the past month and are going for our ORTs in April so I was worried that starting up tracking again might cause conflict there but screw it, I can finally see grass in some places so we're tracking before I remember I hate tracking!

My oversized banana backed hock walking no drive show dog (that's a joke!!!)
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Oh hai!  I can haz BALL?!

Boy, I hate to say this, but this is one very ugly dog; I think  you need to put him on a plane to Tampa right away.  I'll give him a good home in spite of his pedigree. He and my mutt ASL can do nose work and track together and I promise he will have a CD by the end of summer.

LOL, I'll take it as a compliment!  I've bought dogs, sold dogs, fostered dogs and adopted them out....but this is one dog I'd never sell, not for a million dollars!

NICE shots!!!! Love the one of him in the slide. What kind of camera do you use?

He is GORGEOUS!

I was afraid you were going to say that LOL.

Dawulf, I was using a D90 with a really cheap wide angle lens.  I took my camera along to record our track.  Kind of annoying, filming with a DSLR body and a fixed lens but my cheapie camera I used for video broke :(

Nice! I really think I need to can my Canon and get myself a Nikon... they just take such nice pictures!!

VKGSDs,

any issues with your D90?  My internal flash went to hell and I have a dog that is OLD and a puppy.  Had to have a camera.  the D90 has been replaced twice now and of course they did not have the most current body in stock so i had to get another D90.  almost three hundred to get the flash fixed.  I will use that one for questionable environments.

Darcy

He's magnificent.

Dawulf, I love my D90.  Got it years ago and have no desire to upgrade but it's just a hobby for me.  I have three lenses, all under $200 each (50mm 1.8, 55-200mm, and 18-55mm).  The main things that also help my pictures (especially stacks) are 1) get on the level of the dog, so this evening I was on my belly in the mud taking head shots while my dog was doing a long down, 2) be aware of the lighting, so later in the day when the sun is low you don't want the dog between you and the sun you want the sun behind you.  The only issue I have with evening light is that it can make his eyes look lighter than they are.  Here are some recent examples of my photos if you're interested to see what it can do.  I'm not a pro and have never taken a class, I just play around with my camera pretty much every day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liesjers/sets/72157632987954805/


Darcy, to be honest I've never used the internal/pop-up flash so I wouldn't even notice if it broke.  I use a mounted flash I got for $80.  I typically point it straight up and bounce off the ceiling.  It really makes ALL the difference with indoor pictures.

Internal flash:


Mounted flash, photo taken in the exact same spot as above, but much better fill lighting