The new pup

[Tom Barry]

Our son brought his new pup (that makes four in the household) over for a visit this afternoon. He has no name yet. He's half Labrador retriever, half Australian shepherd, has blue eyes and pees a lot. He didn't know what to do with our back deck so he gnawed on it:
IMG_1215-web by tombarry975, on Flickr

[Digital]

Love the eyes. Nice pic.


Bruce

[LePetomane]

Beautiful dog. We had five in our house for a few days earlier this year. Our two, my daughter's two and one that she was watching. They all got along pretty well, in fact better than the humans usually do.

[Manfred M]

I like the way you got down to eye level with the puppy. That camera angle works very well here. The light coloured fur really brings out those bright blue eyes.

The only real negative comment I have is that I find the crop a bit tight.

[Tom Barry]

Thanks for the responses, Bruce, Paul and Manfred.

[DanK]

+1 to Manfred's comment. A problem with many pet pictures is that they are taken from the human's perspective, looking down, which makes them snapshot-ish. This is a very good perspective, one that is quite different from that of a passer-by.

[Tom Barry]

Thanks, Dan. Getting down to a pup's (or infant's) level is getting to be a problem for me after eight decades of knee use. In this case, it was easy. All I had to do was stand at the bottom of the steps the pup was facing. Otherwise, I'd have needed either a hand up or furniture to grab on to. Oh, well, as a sardonic old friend of mine says: "Old age ain't for sissies."

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[Tom Barry]

Thanks, John.

[rpcrowe]

Thanks, Dan. Getting down to a pup's (or infant's) level is getting to be a problem for me after eight decades of knee use. In this case, it was easy. All I had to do was stand at the bottom of the steps the pup was facing. Otherwise, I'd have needed either a hand up or furniture to grab on to. Oh, well, as a sardonic old friend of mine says: "Old age ain't for sissies."

Great Shot... The blue eyes and the eye level shot really make it. As stated in earlier replies one fault with many pet pictures is looking down from human eye level at the pet.

Both of us have mobility issues and kneeling isn't a great option for us. You opted for one good solution in your shot - having the dog at a higher level.

Other options are:

1. Using a articulating LCD viewer (especially when shooting with auto focus) to get the camera at a lower level
2. Shooting with a longer focal length from a distance - this makes the angle between the camera and subject smaller.
3. Sitting on something to allow a lower angle without the stress of kneeling, I find one of these quite handy...

[Tom Barry]

Thanks, Richard. I use an articulating LCD on a couple of cameras and they do come in handy for pet and infants down at their level. In this case, I was using a Canon 5D Classic, which has an LCD that is well-nigh invisible as well as non-articulated. But I find its sensor my favorite for people and pets because of its realistic rendering.

[rpcrowe]

Tom...

There are right angle viewers available for the various Canon camera models which allow you to view the image directly down and therefore allow a lower camera angle than using the eye level viewfinder or non-articulating LCD screen.
https://smile.amazon.com/Neewer-Perf...nder+for+Canon
The various adapters allow you to fit it on different cameras...

[Tom Barry]

Thanks for the tip, Richard. I have some Neewer stuff. I pulled up the link and the finder looks as though it could be useful. Thanks again.