Mat and Bodhi
Jul, 2016Views
219
Likes
Awards
Great Shot
Peer Award
Top Choice
Superb Composition
All Star
Superior Skill
Magnificent Capture
Top Ranks
Top 10 rank
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 1
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this image at this cool little park about 15 minutes from my old apartment in Austin. Mary Moore Park. It's a place that I spent much of my time during my one year stint in that horribly overpopulated city. It took away the feeling of being in a big city.Time
The good ol' magic hour was the time of the photograph. The day was coming to an end after packing up the old place with my roommate. He wanted to go walk Bodhi. I looked at the time and said, "Dude, I know you hate being photographed but suck it up. The light is perfect and your new puppy is too cute for me to skip this opportunity."Lighting
This little creek is the first stop on the main trail of Mary Moore. I've shot here a few times and was stoked that he wanted to take the pup there. The sun sets right through the opening that the creek carves out of the trees. It makes for excellent back light with the way the light hits the water behind Mat and Bodhi.Equipment
I used my trusty Canon 5D Mark III and my 70-200 2.8. Man, I love that glass. That was about it for this image. I just watched Mat be completely in love with his dog and set my shot accordingly. Luckily that 5D handles higher ISO pretty dang well. I needed that shutter speed pretty high because of A. The length of my lens and B. To freeze those water droplets in mid air. It was getting dark though because of the trees around blocking a lot of that light and the sun being right behind Mat and Bodhi. Without that ISO capability I wouldn't of been able to get this image. Or, at least it would've been grainier.Inspiration
Look how freaking cute they are! There's a lot more to it than that, though. Mat had been having some trouble with the stress of a big move (we're both individually about to start touring the US via a huge road trip) and also from his PTSD from the Marines. I could see a lot of stress in his eyes before he made a trip up to his parents in Arkansas for a few weeks. When he returned he had Bodhi with him. It was like he got a piece of clarity and peace when that pup came into his life. His eyes were filled with love and it was like watching a child on Christmas Day when he played with her. He had needed this and it was so beautiful all I wanted was to capture the love he had for this animal.Editing
I used a little bit of Lightroom in the image. Mainly I just dropped the highlights down a bit and brought the shadows down as well in Light Room. I threw it in Black and White and then used the curves to really make him pop. Then I just messed with the green tones and brought 'em down to darken up that background a bit. Then topped it off with the clarity tool to give it that really clean, sort of overly "HD" look (for a lack of a better description) to it.In my camera bag
I typically am carrying my 5D Mark III, a Canon 650 Film Camera, a 70-200 2.8, a Rokinon 8mm, Rokinon 35 mm 1.5, a Rokinon 50mm 1.5, and a Tamron 10-24. I pretty much always have a tripod on me as well. My bag is packed with bananas and other food for the most part. It isn't a surprise if that's a solid 1/3 of my weight in my bag.Feedback
I suppose if you want to capture an image like this then befriend a Marine Veteran with a kickass beard, a heart of gold, and an adorable Rottweiler puppy. In all seriousness, these are the kind of photos I think that anyone can take. We all have best friends and family that we adore and that have known you long enough to trust you to capture them in their organic moments. You'll see it if you take a couple minutes to really look. From a technical standpoint get that fast aperture going so you can blur out that background and just have the focus on your subject.
