Casey's stroll

[Harpo]

Our 16 yr old pup was just discovered to have cancer on Saturday. Thats on top of renal failure that has been slowly going and being maintained with meds. Yesterday we took her to the local park and I really wanted to get some good shots of her. She has always been very camera shy, and whenever I whip out the BIG EYE, she gives me the "Im watching you" suspicious look and runs off. This time, I was able to walk ahead, lie down in a shaded area and capture what is the best one Ive got of her after all these years! Her eyesight is going, so I used it to my advantage.

Taken with the 5D3 and 70-300mm L, handheld. Image is cropped plus some PP in Aperture. Im feeling I could have gotten it sharper if I had set the settings differently, especially shutter speed? Ive noticed a pattern that Im getting sharper pics with a faster shutter speed even if there isn't much movement. Any thoughts?

f/4.5 @ 1/160 sec. 116 mm, ISO 1000, Aperture Priority. Used Spot metering aimed at the eyes with Al Servo


Central Park stroll by MikePhoto63, on Flickr

[djg05478]

Sorry to hear your pup is ill.

I like the photo. Could it be sharper? Maybe. But I would be happy with that photo. Dogs are tricky subjects and in this one you have the dog isolated and the distance to the background is enough that you have a good blur going. Her expression is great! I like the depth of field with some of the pavement and leaves in focus. I'm not sure if the brightness of the green is an issue; I don't trust my monitor, so I'm not sure what everyone else can see.

She looks like a great dog
Debbie

[rpcrowe]

IMO, it is very important to have a good picture of those whom we love, both human, canine and feline.

I have a great picture of my wonderful Golden Retriever, German Shepherd Dog, Wolf hybrid which I shot before she came down with cancer and several other maladies. The image keeps her with me in my heart as she was in her prime!

I wish that I had decent pictures of my parents as they grew older but both were exceptionally camera shy.

[kaneohebud]

Mike:
My heart goes out to you. I've lost loved pets many times and each one is a heartache that remains. Your photo IQ on Casey is outstanding and I'm looking forward to getting a 5DMKiii when I get the cash. I notice your file size was small and assume you did that for the web. If it was my picture, I would concentrate a little more on the subject because that's what you want to remember. I hope I'm not being presumptuous as I took the liberty of changing your crop a bit to focus more on Casey.

With regard to getting sharp pictures on moving subjects, since I have a hand tremor and light permitting, I shoot in the 1/1600 - 1/2500 range, especially when handheld. That makes for much sharper shots.

That's one sweetheart of a dog you have there, for however long. Best wishes.

[Harpo]

Thanks for the comments. Ill try playing around more with higher shutter speeds at handheld and see where that goes. I do like the square shot, and did play with that during PP… however, in the landscape orientation picture, I started seeing it as Casey pausing, looking back where I am, before she turns forward towards the rainbow bridge, which as of tonight the meds don't seem to be working as long as they did last time.

[Mike Buckley]

This is a wonderful image and one that I hope you and your family cherish long after Casey is gone.

Everything about composition is subject to preferences for style. I like your original better than Bud's suggestion simply because yours is more of an environmental portrait. If you prefer Bud's style because of the focus (seriously, no pun intended) on Casey, that's also understandable.

The sharpness is fine at least at the size that you provided for us to view on the Internet. Even so, you commented about shutter speed. When I bought my most recent camera, I finally decided that my handheld capabilities are not what I thought they were. Rather than using the standard inverse of the focal length (compensated for the crop factor of my camera), I decided that I need to use a faster shutter speed. As an example, when using my 180mm lens on a Nikon camera that has a 1.5 crop factor, my images became reliably sharp when shooting at no less than 1/360 rather than 1/270. If you're regularly getting images that are not as sharp as you prefer, you might want to consider regularly using a faster shutter speed.

Considering that you used spot metering, you've got far more capability than I could imagine ever using. I really like your exposure.

Thanks for sharing such a nice image of Casey. I really enjoy looking at him.

[travis4567]

Great shot of a great dog.. I lost my 14 year old Golden 4 years ago and sure can empathize.
Higher shutter speeds will almost always be sharper when handheld because of the photographers movement. Enjoy your great dog.

[terrib]

Mike, I cannot help with your question but I can tell you that I love your picture. I actually like your original composition and I just want to hug Casey. I lost a beloved dog to cancer and Casey's story brought tears to my eyes. My heart goes out to you and your family.

[dubaiphil]

A beautiful shot of your dog, Mike. Maybe stopping down a little further could help you too along with a slight increase in ISO. Don't be scared of upping the ISO - when I moved to full frame last year with the old, out of date, insufficiently megapixelled D700, I was amazed how I could push the ISO. Maybe f5.6 and ISO 1600 or the like would still give you that subject isolation you're after, but a slightly sharper image at the same shutter speed.

[Harpo]

I had to export the image from Aperture to Photoshop to clone out the silver dog tag on her neck. Getting out of photoshop converted the image to tiff. I wanted to keep it as RAW, but couldn't figure out if I could. Im not seasoned in using CS3, as Ive been trying to improve my knowledge in Aperture. Thats why the image is unintentionally downsized to view on the internet. Is there a way around?

Thanks again for your kind comments. Im real glad I was able to at least get one worthy of putting on the wall of her.

[ggt]

Mike, give Casey some ear scratches for me. You are very lucky to have had her so long --16 years! She looks very cuddly in your pictures. Just a lovely girl!

[Trina]

Mike,
I am very sorry your pup is ill... Casey is a beautiful girl, she indeed does look very soft and cuddly, (I also like the sharpness of the leaves around her), It makes one just want to wrap their arms around her and give her a hug......I am glad you were able to get a good shot of her... I know well how hard that can be, having had camera shy dogs before.. give her and extra love for me....