Month: September 2010

It was a mostly rainy day at the Valley Forge Kennel Club Dog Show last weekend.  Both dogs and people stayed underneath the tents to try and keep dry.  This little boy didn’t seem to mind a few kisses from a Samoyed as they waited for the breed judging to begin. 

In my opinion, animals are THE most challenging subject to photograph because they are always moving.  A building will sit there all day long allowing you to photograph from different angles, change lenses, adjust lighting, etc. to get just the shot that you want.  Not so with pets.  Pet photographers really need to know their equipment inside and out and have the ability to think quickly and make adjustments in a split second.  I love the challenge that presents and thrive on coming away with a great shot despite difficult shooting situations.  On Sunday I threw a new wrench into the mix….I decided to try photographing at the dog show with the Lensbaby.  Whoo boy…..talk about challenging!  I took 30 or 40 shots and I think I may have 2 keepers.  Attached is one of them.  Sheltie’s are a favorite breed to photograph because I love that I can fill the frame with fur!   I used the Lensbaby Composer plus the telephoto attachment for this image.  Because it was a rainy day, the light was low and so I didn’t use any aperture ring which resulted in only a small portion of the image being in focus.  It was a fun challenge and I will definitely try this again…hopefully improving with practice over time!

 

…and ALL of the dogs at last week’s American Cancer Society Bark for Life event were awesome!  I’ve posted a BUNCH of images on my website – here’s a link:
http://www.betsydallasphoto.com/Bark%20for%20Life%20MAIN%20Sept%202010.html
I tried to photograph all of the dogs, but I’m sure I missed a few along the way.  Note that all images are for sale with 10% of proceeds going to the American Cancer Society Bark for Life.  See my website for details. 

 

A woman came up and stood behind me while I watched the Chesapeake Bay Retrievers in the show ring.  She told me that she was ‘hiding’ from her dog because when the dog sees her, he doesn’t perform as well.  So, as we watched this beautiful dog being shown, his owner commented that he was trotting nicely and she was very pleased.  Afterward he was outside of the tent with his beloved “Teddy” watching another group of dogs being shown.   Good boy Chessie!

I photographed a wedding today and it was so much fun!  Before going to the bride’s home, I went to the reception hall and did some shooting before the crowd arrived.  This is a Lensbaby image of the engraved glass and bottle of wine.  I tried out a new diffuser for my Canon 430 flash today and am very pleased with the results.  It’s a Rogue Flash Bender and it did a super job of softening the light – both indoors and outside for fill.    Nothing like experimenting with new equipment when photographing such an important event, huh?  🙂