I’ve been meaning to post about Daisy the Golden Retriever for some time, but have been sitting on some of the photos, dissecting them for worthiness. This was the first time I burned through the first of two 4gig compact flash cards in less than 20 minutes. Smoke was coming out of the camera. So there were a ton of images, and I’ll admit, a ton of bad apples in the batch. I was doing some new things that day.

      First up though, a quick headshot of Daisy indoors. She knows we’re about to go outdoors. Is that Mommy putting on her snow boots? She’s trying to contain herself. Because when we go outside…

      …there is snow to eat!

      And tennis balls to catch! And have bounce off your chest!

      The new thing I was attempting that day were action shots. Admittedly, I need a lot of work in this area. The action shots above were taken at 50mm, f/5.6 and 1/800 to 1/600 seconds. Burst mode at 5 frames per second. Faster shutter speeds will allow you to freeze the action, but it also means less light gets in. The original photos are very underexposed. Very. Horrifyingly. You can tell the above photos are not at all sharp, and look overly “post-process-y.” I had to adjust the exposure and curves quite a bit. They’re much better than the originals, but they look washed out.

      The shutter speed/aperture setting/ISO speed/lighting situation/distance between me and subject is a combination I need to figure out. A change in any one of those areas affects the others, and they must be adjusted accordingly (if you’re shooting in manual mode). Right now my brain is not computing this alogorithm fast enough.

      Maybe 1/800 sec was faster than necessary? Maybe I should have stopped down and shot wide open? If I shot from a farther distance back, I could have slowed the shutter speed, still freezing the shot but letting more light in? Maybe I should have just shot in shutter priority mode?

      MAYBE I should have shot in SUNNIER SIDE OF THE YARD?!

      So yes, in the middle of all the technical melee that was going on inside my head, I failed to see the light, which all photographers in the known universe will place as the highest priority when taking stock of a shot.  Me knowing this and yet not doing it makes Me mad. The above were taken in the east-facing backyard during the late afternoon. The house was blocking the sun in the yard, except for a small portion which was still getting some tree-filtered light as the sun began to set. I did take stock of the area first, and did note this.

      And yet somehow, here we are, on the other side, the darker side, the cold gray dreary side, shooting away. We had just migrated over there and by that time all the must-freeze-the-action! data crowded out the light data in my head. Such a shame.

      Then again, when the dog is having all this fun noshing on her tennis ball in the snow, do you really want to ruin the moment by making her move? Such a dilemma.

      And I haven’t even talked about how to get a moving dog in focus.

      So Daisy, why don’t you take a breather, sit pretty and let me feel a little better about my photographic skills.

      Ah. Thank you.

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      COMMENTS

      She’s so adorable, such a little sugar!

      Just remember that, after all of the photographic technicalities, all that anybody else is going to see is a beautiful record of a really, really happy dog. We should all be that happy! The owners will forever treasure and love those photos. What a cool thing to be able to give someone!

      i think you’re doing a great job! so much of it is just experience. (trust me i know, because i’m still going through that learning curve…and probably always will be, to some extent). i think my favorites are the ones of daisy chewing on her ball – those are great. i love the blue-green color of the building behind her combined with the snow. those shots worked out fabulously!

      I know the advise I was told about action shots (ie sports shots) was to focus on a point, then snap the shutter as the action comes into the frame. This was also in reference to a film slr though. The digi’s don’t always cooperate that way. And the theory works great on the pitchers mound or home base, but I’ve never tried it on something like hockey, where, like a dog, it would be constantly moving.

      I love how Daisy’s personality translates immediately through your photographs.

      Rockin photos as usual. Love the snow bursting off of Daisy in the 1st outdoor shot.

      She’s so pretty and really showing off the tennis ball love! I think it really is just practice. And paying attention to the histogram so that you can adjust your settings to make sure that you’re getting enough light. I think Nikon has a focusing function that is similar to Canon’s AI Servo mode. I think Nikon’s implementation is supposed to be even better. I’ve been able to go down to about 1/200 for shutter speed action, though a few stops higher is even better. There really are so many things to keep track of!

      Like Michele said – at the end of the day – what you have are some really fun, loveable shots of that dog!