A View From Behind

Dog Blog Post #757

Photography Assignment

• Our Daily Challenge - July 22, 2012 - "Sitting Down"
• Daily Dog Challenge "Fill the Frame" - Take a photo of your dog today that fills the frame of the camera."

The Plan

Sitting down and filling the frame. That doesn't seem too bad until you consider that the boys have a certain amount of... equipment... that might appear a bit too prominently in a fill-the-frame sitting shot for a G-rated blog.

So I decided it was safest to go with a view from behind.

The Problems

1. Just as hot today as it was yesterday.

2. Biggest problem was getting them centered, together, with their backs to the camera. They are very aware of the camera, and getting them to voluntarily turn their backs to it is always a challenge.

The Solution

1. I tackled the heat in a few ways:

• I opted to take the shots as early in the day as I could, before the house heated up.
• I moved to the Dining Room, which has more natural light so I could punt on the umbrella lights.
• There's enough room in Dining Room for Henry's fan to blow across panting tongues.
• By not showing their faces, it didn't matter if they were panting!

2. I set up the real photography backdrop frame, had the top bar at about 4' high, draped the stretchy black fabric over the bar, then stood behind it. This way, I could just call the dogs over, they would sit and stare lovingly up at me my ramekin of treats, and snap the picture with the remote when their rumps look relatively aligned to the camera.

In the end, this turned out to be an easy, low stress shoot.

Call, click, toss the treats
Call, click, toss the treats...

Perfect for a hot day.

Flickr Badge

I mentioned this yesterday, but failed to provide the link. Bad blogger, no biscuit. So, here's the link to Create your own Flickr badge.

Monday Mischief

From yesterday's Big Spill shoot...

Editor's Note: Yup, still working on BZ Dogs Journal.

Added a Putting It All Together page that lists the things I consider when making a "staged" story shot (like yesterday's Big Spill shots.

I keep meaning to make a checklist for myself, with some helpful notes so I know I've thought through everything before I get started.

Never enough time...

-- Like the idea of a daily dog photography prompt? Click on Daily Dog Challenge and join us!

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