Down, Bella. Good girl! (Click to enlarge)
I don’t think so! Fellow pet photographers and enthusiasts, here is Bella, a sweet, friendly and very rambunctious Golden Retriever. She lives with and thinks she owns one of our best friends. Bella also lives with one other Golden, which will find her way to this blog soon, and 2 cats. Doesn’t she look like someone who would like to play with cats? Well, she does!
I’ve not mentioned this yet but when trying to get that perfect dog portrait you will probably need an assistant. The more dog or animal friendly that person is the better the shot. Really. One can walk around following their beloved pets all day pointing the camera at them and getting adorable snapshots, but if you are wanting something special you need to get some help. The reason is because these creatures love us, that’s why. So when you take out your camera they think they’re helping when they walk right up to it and stick their noses on the lens. The first thing your assistant is doing is keeping them from coming too close. We’ll talk more about assistants in future entries.
Exif: 1/200, f11, ISO 100
Things to notice about this photo:
- Her tail was carefully included in the shot. Last thing Terry did was pull her tail out on the camera side. It balances the composition (not to mention it balances Bella).
- Speaking of composition: See Skills.
- Always, always, always include all parts of appendages (even down to toe nails) unless you are trying to make some sort of statement about their exclusion.
- Her mouth is open in a sort of typical Golden smile. Some might take issue with the tongue, but it’s not a 12 inch tongue, after all, so I thought it worked for the shot.
- She is not looking directly at the camera. This might be a problem for some, but her mom will remember that she was looking at her when we shot this and will make her remember being proud of her for being such a good girl.
- At f11 the tip of her tail is soft, which works for me, but it’s something you need to be aware of if you are wanting a deeper depth of field (DOF) resulting in head to tail sharpness.
What do you notice about this photo? Or post one of your own, we’d love to see it.
Recent Comments