Wednesday, September 8, 2010

How not to photograph your dog...


I had to run into town the other day so I took the pup with me to let her stretch her legs a bit at the local soccer fields. I took along a camera, but I don't know if she's too fast....


Or if I'm too slow...

I can get her in focus when she slows to a trot (which is rarely)...


Or when she stops to tip over a tasty-smelling trash can (which is often)...


But other than that I'm having an awfully hard time getting a really good running shot of Jenny. She's just a blur, a slobbering, tongue-lolling streak. Everything is always just a tiny bit out of focus. I think maybe I need a new camera body, one with a "setter-tracking" autofocus mode.

5 comments:

  1. What aperture are you at for those running shots?

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  2. Hi Chad,
    I have the same trouble with the 'bog monster', only time I get a decent picture is usually by accident!
    Regards,
    John

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  3. Norcal, most of them were shot at f2.8 with a 70-200. I was trying with the shallow DOF to create some nice bokeh, but the downside to that is it's hard to keep a running dog in focus unless you've got pretty quick AF, and my old Canon isn't exactly a speedster...

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  4. It worked really well on the broadside shots, but not so much on the coming-straight-for-you shots.

    I don't do much action photography - the food I shoot is usually holding still by the time I photograph it - so I doubt I could be of much more help. But I'd definitely tighten up the aperture, because all the bokeh in the world doesn't make up for missed focus.

    That or edit using filter effects. That's my solution when I have a lame photo :-).

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  5. I, personally, enjoyed the head-on shots, and her mouth goofily swung way open is the perfect shot of a puppy running along!

    And, NorCal is modest... I've yet to see a lame photo of her's. She once took a shot, Summer-midday in the Sierra, of a field of tiny, white white flowers. I looked on, incredulously.

    And I'll be damned, they were beautiful! She rocks as a photographer.

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