Sunshine The Rescued Retired Racing Greyhound (Click to enlarge)
So you have a nice camera and a fairly nice lens. You want to photograph your pets inside the house, but the only light you have besides ambient is an in-camera flash, and you get the dreaded red or green eyes on your sweet little person. To the naked eye they don’t look anything like a demon, but as soon as the flash pops, they look like Kujo’s sibling.
Flash portraiture is a difficult thing to accomplish if you’re only using an in-camera flash. It is my recommendation that you spend $100 on a lens before you spend hundreds on a speedlight, which you can use off-camera. Here’s why.
I highly recommend that you purchase your camera body’s 50mm prime equivalent for low light situations. They don’t call it a Nifty Fifty for nothing. Some time ago I hemmed and hawed about whether I should spend $300 on the f1.4 50mm or $100 for the f1.8 version. I can tell you now that I have not been sorry about saving myself $200 for the f1.8. The Nikon version is a very nice piece of glass. It’s sharp and fast. That’s what you want.
This is Sunshine, a 14 year old Greyhound who lives with her mom and dad and 4 other dogs, 3 of them rescued Greyhounds. Now, you know I’ve said how I think these Greyhound people are heroes for what they do, but this family is a double scoop of heroes. They get the dogs that no one else can take: the old, the infirm, and even one who growls (I never saw a Greyhound who had been so abused s/he didn’t like people). It was a surprise to me that Sunshine’s housemate cannot leave the property because she is totally traumatized. Hence, the location shoot for the Greyhound Pets Of America – Louisiana Chapter’s 2010 calendar.
This shot of Sunshine was taken inside because none of these old folks (the dogs 
) wanted to step outside in their lovely backyard because it was too dang hot. This is a nice example of what the lens can do. I’m sitting on the floor next to Sunshine and I’ve used an aperture of f2.8 allowing the background to just blur gently behind her. Because the DOF is so slim only one eye is in focus. Perfect. The story of a tender aging dog is told in the eye of the soul.
What’s your favorite lens?
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