Dog Agility from Last Weekend

[NorthernFocus]

Shot an agility trial last weekend. The location, design of the course, and partly cloudy weather all conspired against photography. Still managed to come away with a few decent shots.







But mostly there were terrible BGs like this

[Brownbear]

Wow... Your comment should read as follows

Still managed to come away with a few [I]amazing[/I] shots!

[rpcrowe]

Some very nice shots which I would be proud to have taken. One picayune point... I would crop out the person's legs in the last (border collie) shot!

BTW: I think your use of selective focus minimizes or eliminates the clutter of the background, especially in the Springer Spaniel shot!

I cannot say which one that I like the best - they are all great! Wonderful expressions on all the faces of those athlete dogs.

[Mike Buckley]

I'm surprised that you mentioned partly cloudy weather as being problematic. It works especially well in the first photo. Though I like the third photo best, partly because of the nice lighting that is just a bit contrasty, I would much prefer strongly diffuse lighting to strongly contrasty lighting in this situation.

[NorthernFocus]

I'm surprised that you mentioned partly cloudy weather as being problematic. It works especially well in the first photo. Though I like the third photo best, partly because of the nice lighting that is just a bit contrasty, I would much prefer strongly diffuse lighting to strongly contrasty lighting in this situation.

Partly cloudy as in the sky partly covered by cloud. Not hazy or thinly overcast. Scattered fluffy clouds passing across the sun every few minutes. Clear sun one minute then lovely diffuse light a stop or so lower the next then back to clear sun. When you're trying to follow the action of the dogs and juggle exposure settings at the same time it drives you nuts. In those conditions I even resort to auto exposure which I am not at all comfortable with. Plus the periods of direct sun limit where you can set up due to the directional lighting during that time.

It's not by accident that only one of the shots I posted was taken during a period of strong sunlight. And that one isn't a border collie

Rich the leg is one reason that shot is in the pesky BG category. Darn handlers always getting in the way One of the whole tricks to shooting agility is figuring out where the handler is most likely to be for a given obstacle. Of course they all do it differently intentionally or otherwise so all you can really do is play the odds.

[Mike Buckley]

Partly cloudy as in...fluffy clouds passing across the sun every few minutes.

Ahhhh. Problematic indeed.