Silhouette

Dog Blog Post #332: Today's Daily Shoot covered new ground for me:

Make a photograph that features a silhouette today.

Interestingly enough (for me, at least) Baby has a Silhouette (scene) mode. I found it just yesterday while taking Scavenger Challenge pictures of the ceramic dragon my son painted long ago. (No, I didn't need a silhouette, I needed a handmade item. I found the mode while spinning the dial to see what was there. Anyway...)

Is it cheating to use a scene (pre-programmed) mode? I have no idea, but it sure made taking silhouettes a lot easier!

(Note to self: In my continuing quest to document the obvious: it's much easier to take low-angle shots of a not-so-tall item with a thin little point-n-shoot, than with a dSLR with 18-200mm lens extended a good way out.)

The picture at the top of the post was the one I uploaded, and this time I feel good about it. Technically, I suppose, the leaves are the only things truly silhouetted. But I just loved how Zachary looked here and would probably have uploaded it anyway.

The picture below was an alternate...

... the rather obvious post-production work being required to obfuscate the hideous state of my dog-nose-smudged windows. I knew they were bad, but I didn't realize they were that bad!

(Yes, I admit it, I'm a dismal house keeper. It's not that I can't keep the house clean, nor that I wouldn't like to live in spotless house, but rather that the other inhabitants are decidedly less enthused about house cleaning than I, and after years of being the Lone Ranger of Housecleaning, I have finally had enough.

Frankly, I'm pretty well convinced you could transplant them to dirt floor cave and so long as the beds were still soft and the electronics still worked, I'm not sure they would notice the difference.)

As for training? The first was taken in the backyard, and required nothing but "stay" and some "thank you" cookies. The second required me telling Zachary to get up on the sofa. Yeah - tough work if you can get it! As I look at it now, I honestly can't tell if he's looking at me or out the window! Logic says he's looking at me (and those same cookies), but something about the pose makes me think he's looking away.

Editor's Note: It rained off and on most the day, and was dark and gloomy the rest of the time. That said, since houndstooth was bemoaning ever seeing roses, I thought I would include a few more shots. The first was taken yesterday during a brief moment of not rain (note how the background Breath of Heaven plant is all a glitter from droplets!) and the second was taken tonight, while standing on the (dry) porch using the "Dusk/Dawn" scene mode, which claimed it would "preserve the colors in low light conditions" (or something like that) - and did!.

Just keep in mind, that you can make almost anything look good with the right light, a carefully chosen angle, and a shallow depth of field (that is, no, my yard doesn't really look that good!)

The ISO was pretty high for the shot above (800) but the noise isn't overwhelming.

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