Bella The Golden Retriever Land Shark (Click to enlarge)
As promised, here’s another photo of Bella having river fun. I have been so taken with the water as subject; perhaps I am the only person who likes this. Although Bella looks a little vicious (Can you say a little vicious? Isn’t that like, a little murderous?), there’s not a mean bone in her body. She’s playing with the subject – water. When she’s not chasing sticks, she’s chasing the moving current, which is highly entertaining, and a perfect canvas for shooting droplets.
We’re talking about stopping action today. Although I would prefer to shoot at fast shutter speeds – 1/500 and above – when trying to stop action, it was an overcast day, and we were in the shade, so unless I wanted to use 800 and above ISO settings, 1/320 would have to do. Remember our discussion about the Photographic Triangle? Visit the post to refresh your memory. If you haven’t completed the exercise, you should do so now. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO are the cornerstones of creating correct and artistic exposures, according to Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Exposure, but you know that because I mention it all the time.
All but the very high end Nikon bodies are notoriously bad at handling high ISOs sans noise, so I always have to be aware of that. In this case I wanted to stop action (I just love those droplets). The cast prevented me from using high shutter speeds and low ISOs – 100 or 200. I didn’t care too much about the depth of field, so I dialed to f4. This worked, but if Bella was streaming past me, and I was panning, this would never do. When shooting birds, I find it imperative to make sure my shutter speed is at least 1/640, because birds are always moving; breathing makes them move. ISO 600 or 800 would have to be used and then I would employ the expose right tactic (See Shoot Right).
I’d love to see some of your examples. As always, I welcome critique or comments on this or any post.
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