Australian Shepherd At Work (Click to enlarge)
One of the most difficult photographic skills to acquire is panning. Panning is the act of locking on your moving subject and moving your camera with the subject. The idea is to show the subject in tack-sharp focus and the background as a motion blur. This is accomplished by using slow shutter speeds, like 1/60 down to 1/8…really slow. The image at right is….not panning.
Most of the day during this February 2009 Herding Clinic training event was spent shooting dogs at high, stop-action shutter speeds. I was most concerned about getting the dogs and the sheep they were herding, in focus. The shot in the banner at the top of this page was accomplished by panning. It’s recommended, by Brian Peterson in his book Understanding Exposure, to use those reeeeaaally slow shutter speeds. However, I would not have gotten the moving legs of the running dog in focus, so my shot was at 1/160 sec. If you were shooting an automobile or motorcycle, 1/60 would probably be spot on. Try it with your moving subjects and post your results here.
The shot at the right is one of my favorites of the day, because it epitomizes these dogs, Collies and Shepherds alike, and how they enjoy – emphasis on joy – what they do. They were born to do it. Of late, I’ve been engrossed with the nature of relationships we have with our companion animals. It’s an ever-so-much-more-fulfilling relationship if we allow them to be and do what is in their nature. For instance, keeping the herding group, Shelties, Collies, Shepherds, confined with no work to do, is abuse. They need to work. Their human companions must find avenues and opportunities for them to do something: herding, obedience, rigorous play for long periods on a daily basis, anything where they can run, jump and turn and respond for a living. A reason to live.
Most of us were raised by people who attempted to guide us toward success. That success usually meant monetary success. When I was very young, my parents were photographers. They did not make much money. They were sure I should not do that. But working in an office behind a desk? Yeah. That’s the ticket! I was milliseconds from heading toward some secretarial vocation, but it was not in my character. Humans are not unlike animals. Deviating from our core will cause dis-ease and shortened lives.
It is my nature to question any taint of animal oppression, and I did not see anything like that on this day in February. I worried particularly about the sheep. Oddly, they seemed quite at home being moved around by dogs. Even when a dog moved them sharply, I thought I noted the give-and-take of gamesmanship occurring before my eyes. And so it was. A game. For both species. It was in their nature.
Your relationship with your companion will be ever-so-much-more-fulfilling if you both are engaging in pursuits you were born to do. Your job is to discover them.
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