Sisters Pet Pics’ Blog

Pet Fest 2009 Poodle (Click to enlarge)

First of all, perhaps you regular readers have noticed that I haven’t posted to the blog every day as I was.  Yes, I fully expected this to happen.  The last 100 days of every year is when this photographer stays very busy.  Portraiture is in demand.  Many more events are held during the time the weather cools.  Some call it the party season and it doesn’t let up until after the New Year.  In southern Louisiana we notice another flurry of partying around Mardi Gras, then the summer doldrums. Well, that’s a photog’s life as I know it.  So I continue to post photos to hopefully inspire your best, but I won’t be posting every day again until March or April.

Having said that, I want to talk about what I call real world shooting.  It’s the kind of photography most – not all – of you are interested in.  You know, it’s the journalistic documentation of a day.  It could be indoors or out.  Much of the time it’s an outdoor event such as the one Sisters Pet Pics attended this past weekend.  Pet Fest 2009 in Metairie, LA.  What a hoot!  It was the largest event that I tried to photograph.  Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dogs were present.  It would be an understatement to say I was over-stimulated!

Although the day was marvelous weather-wise, it was a challenging lighting situation.  I was getting carpal tunnel syndrome from changing settings as I walked in and out of sharp shadows and blinding sun.  A lot of the time the dogs were walking by our tent half in and half out of shadows.  This is the most challenging.

If I followed my rule about getting on the animal’s level to shoot I would have been crawling in the dirt all day.  Alas, my knees wouldn’t have allowed such.  This is an example of “rules were meant to be broken”.  Some dogs were in arms and some were on the ground, but they all were moving and excited and to document their costumes and coats was difficult at best.

Here’s a plan of action.  Try to get yourself in a position where the sun is not directly behind you, but over a shoulder.  Watch your own shadow.  It is not always possible to run around a shot (you tennis players will recognize that reference ).  Try to make sure you are not blowing out the coats of light dogs.  If you have their faces in shadow and the tops of their heads in blinding sun, come as close as you can to the subjects, meter the shadowed area, shoot and hope for the best.

This is a good and worthy plan that should work if you are not trying to photograph hundreds and hundreds of dogs who are all around you as you are also trying to talk to their human companions.  I would love to see some of your photos from the day.  I know you took plenty and I’m not buying the premise that you’re intimidated.  I’ve seen some of your work offline and I’m impressed, so come on.  How did you do in that challenging lighting situation?  Talk about your experiences with shooting family get-togethers and events.  That is the reason most people own cameras and my reason for writing this blog.