Bella The Golden Retriever - River Play (Click to enlarge)
I spent my Fourth of July (pronounced Joo’ lah) doing what I like best, photographing animals at play. When asked to visit the Little Tchefuncte River, in southern Louisiana, to photograph Golden Retrievers at play, I jumped at the chance. As soon as I saw the site I said aloud, “This is Retriever heaven”.
The shallow, cool, clear water presented a lovely backdrop for me to wade in, with the two swimming Goldens. I will be posting more of the proofs here in coming days, but I was struck by the other subject in a lot of the images. Water. At first I thought the river was a background, and not until I saw the images up close did I realize there were two subjects here.
We’ve talked about focus before (it’s important), but I want to tell you how to check your proofs in-camera, before you leave your shoot, to insure you’ve got sharp images. Again, I will speak about the camera I work with, but all cameras with manual settings should have most of the features I speak of. On the back of a Nikon body, to the left of the LCD, you will see buttons. One of those buttons (the last one on the D50 and D200) say, ‘Enter’ and has a magnifying glass icon next to it. It’s called the Enter or Zoom button. Two up from there, is the Thumbnail button, with a sort of grid printed on it. I use these two buttons many times on every shoot.
In order to know I’ve got the shot, I’ve got to know it’s sharp. I press the Enter button. Then I press and hold the Thumbnail button as I turn the Main Command Dial (the dial at the upper right and in back of the body). This will allow you to zoom close enough to see if you have the tack-sharp image you are seeking. Keep holding the Thumbnail button, and you can scroll around the image by using the Multi-selector button. If any of these buttons and dials seem foreign to you…you can guess what I’m going to say: READ YOUR MANUAL. All of these buttons will be laid out on the first couple of pages of your manual. You don’t even have to read – there will be pictures. 
I hope you are having a safe and joyous celebration of our nation’s birth. If not, take a page out of Bella’s book. Find one thing that gives you joy, and do it. You will feel better.
I just came across your blog and subscribed. I have two goldens and they are my favorite subjects to photograph. I love this one of Bella in the water. It looks like she is biting the water!
Welcome! I hope you enjoy what you see and read, and visit often. I’d love to see some photos of your Goldens.
I was going to tell you about how sweet Bella is…then I remembered – has anyone *ever* seen a Golden who wasn’t sweet?