doggie photos

[maryjo]

House-sitting for a friend who has a highly energetic rat terrier dog. This dog will entertain itself for hours if you just throw the damn ball into the damn pool. I have loved photography forever but just got a digital SLR. So I am experimenting with forms and trying to decide what I would like to shoot so that I can determine what my next lens will be. Right now I'm on the Nikon 18-55 mm kit lens. This was an experiment in shooting action. I love dogs so I figure I'll need to learn this.

I played with these shots a little in Lightroom. I don't know what they will look like online as I do not have my pc calibrated. Am getting PS next week.

I'm not sensitive about my skills (or lack thereof) so please help me improve. Composition, software, exposure?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18166591@N08/

[FootLoose]

There are no images showing here, Mary

[maryjo]

Yeah, I know. Had a little trouble with Flickr. tryin' agin

[Donald]

If you haven't already done so, please do read the helpful guide that walks you through how to get your pictures into your messages. Click HERE to read the thread.

If that doesn't help solve the problem, then please do come back and ask for further help.

Mod Note: this post moved from a duplicate thread (which has now been deleted) - Dave

[rpcrowe]

Welcome to CiC. I don't see any images. I hope that you post some of your dog. Dog photos are my favorites...

I really like my 70-200mm f/4L IS lens on my Canon DSLR cameras when shooting dogs. This focal range is great both for stationary and moving dogs. Nikon has several lenses of close to this focal length available such as the 55-200mm. I would definitely opt for one that is equipped with vibration reduction (VR) because I find that my Canon version (Image Stabilization - IS) is really valuable when hand holding a longer lens.

Nikon has lenses in these approximate focal lengths at several different prices. Perhaps a Nikon user might recommend a lens that is the best price-capability combination. I know that the more expensive Canon lenses usually have quicker and more accurate auto focus. However less expensive Canon telephoto zoom lenses like the 55-250mm and 70-300mm IS can do a very nice job. I would expect that the same is true of Nikon lenses...

I like to use a hotshoe flash bounced off the ceiling and modified with a reflector diffuser (I use a Joe Demb Flash Diffuser Pro) for my portraits of stationary dogs indoors and with the Flip-It portion of the diffuser at 45 degrees for outdoor fill but, I have not been using flash fill for action shots because my flash will not keep up with the high speed burst capability of my Canon 7D camera.


Mod Note: this post moved from a duplicate thread (which has now been deleted) - Dave

[Dave Humphries]

Yeah, I know. Had a little trouble with Flickr. tryin' agin

Hi Mary, and welcome to the CiC forums from me.

The problem is that the url you provided is to a page with 7 images on.

You will need to separately link to each image using the Insert Image button, from the url for each image that ends ".jpg"

Instructions here

For example, a 1600px version;


Click to see larger here at CiC.

Looking at the EXIF data for this shot;
Nikon D3100 at 45mm, 1/160s at f/5.3 at iso 100 in Manual, WB Cloudy.

A few thoughts on this shot;
You have subject motion blur due to the fairly low shutter speed compared to Bronco's activities.
I would suggest 'trading' some iso (i.e. go to 400 or 800) to get a faster shutter speed.
I'm not sure the "Cloudy" WB (white balance) as shot was appropriate, I think I see some sunlight, so Shade may have been better, but it doesn't look too bad, so perhaps you addressed this in LR5 (I haven't looked that closely).

You might also find this post useful;
How to Get Effective Feedback for your Posted Images

Cheers,