Oct, 2013
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo of my dog whilst out on our morning walk at one of our favorite places, long Melford country park formerly known as the Rodbridge picnic area in Suffolk, we often go there as it has a river and there are also lots of open places for her to run and sniff out the rabbits who live in this country park in great numbers, this is one of my favorite images of Loosey my lurcher, I often photograph her on our trips out, a set of my favorites of her can be found here. https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/rachelspics/sets/72157611421581308/Time
This photo was taken at the end of January 2013 late morning around 10am when we had a very cold snap, I decided to take advantage of the snow and bring out my camera, as I love photographing in this weather the light can be fantastic and quiet magical at times, we had a few days of freezing weather that year and I managed to capture some beautiful images,of my dog and of the landscape.Lighting
The weather that day was quiet grey there was no sunlight but I think that the snow on its own made up for that and helped to light up my dogs eyes and face,snow makes a great reflector! and the blurred bluish grey background of the leafless hedgerow brought the detail and colour out in her unusual markings brilliantly.Equipment
I shot this image with a canon 50d, I used an old German pentacon 200mm prime lens attached to my camera with an m42 mount converter at f4 aperture, I took this from a distance manually focused on full manual mode. Taking photos with the old lenses can a bit hit or miss you have to be quiet accurate and steady, it teaches patience in today's world of instant point and shoot digital photography but when you do get the shot right the results can be amazing,this lens really creates great background blur (bokeh) when used at F4. I have a set of photos shot with m42 mount lenses here https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/rachelspics/sets/72157624645127003/ these are great lenses for practicing photography because you have no choice but to work in manual mode. old secondhand lenses can be brought quiet inexpensively on eBay,I brought my first one from a car-boot sale for £5! And a converter mount for about the same price online.Inspiration
The snow inspired me to get out and about more than I normally do, I spent 3 concentrated days photographing, it inspires me because it changes everything the landscapes are transformed into a magical place under a beautiful covering of sparkling white, even shadows show amazing blue hues and tones in the sunshine, and portraits also have a different quality to them when taken in the snow, its like a giant reflector from the ground as well as the sky, and of course loosey my dog inspires me she always looks great in my photos and she loves the snow too.Editing
This photo has had basic post processing, adjusting levels, contrast, tone and saturation slightly in Photoshop and I also added in some falling snow for interest, the snow on her nose was already there where she had been sniffing for bunnies,I added a texture to this version and square cropped it, the untextured uncropped version can be seen here http://www.viewbug.com/photo/37363261In my camera bag
It depends on what I am shooting as to what equipment I carry, I have a canon 50d and for portraits I love using prime fixed lenses, I really like my canon 100mm macro lens and the basic canon 50mm f1.8, I also like to use my old lenses like this 200mm for further away subjects and I quiet often I use my phone,if I don't have my SLR with me, I have a sigma 10-20mm lens for landscapes which I enjoy using when I'm out on walks.here is a photo on the same day and location using this wide angle lens http://www.viewbug.com/photo/37558041Feedback
For a close up pet portrait photo like this you should wait for the right moment when you've captured your dogs attention, I like to use key words she knows and pays attention to such as river, bunnies chicken or sausage for example,always focus on the eyes. If the eyes aren’t in focus, the shot will not have the desired impact and sharpness,a good way to do this is to make sure you know which focus point is active; don’t let your camera control it,as it will usually focus on what’s closest to the camera (the dogs nose). make sure you change focus points from “auto†to “single point.†and have the focus point right on the dogs eyes. A Lower viewpoint is often a better way to photograph pets and so on getting down to their level you will more than likely capture a more desirable photo, you will also be able to communicate and interact better with your four legged friend this way. and when photographing in the snow keep an eye on the exposure and white balance, another good reason to shoot manual as cameras on auto mode often get confused by extreme bright or dark conditions
