Gamer Dogs

Dog Blog Post #769

Photography Assignment

• The Monthly Scavenger Hunt - August 2012 - "3. Two's company."
• Daily Dog Challenge "277. Feeling Friday"
• Our Daily Challenge - Aug 3, 2012 - "Button/Buttons"

No, The Monthly Scavenger Hunt is not the same group as Scavenge Challenge, but they operate in essentially the same way - a list of item to be photographed is provided at the start of the month, to be completed by the end of the month. It certainly won't replace Scavenge Challenge, it's just another place to find (hopefully) fresh ideas.

The Plan

Friday fun, buttons... it didn't take long for Son's game controllers to come to mind. I've used them a few times in the past, including a post bearing the same title as this one - Gamer Dog back on October 1, 2011 - and the Premier Issue of BZ Dogs Magazine:

I'm sure collectors are clamoring for it.

The Problems

1. The heat remains an issue, and will continue that way for several more months.

2. The Olympics is a giant time-sucking black hole, into which useful time vanishes without a trace.

3. But the biggest issue was the baseball cap. I don't know about your dog's head, but the outside of my boys' heads are not shaped like the inside of a baseball cap. At all.

The Solution

1. Heat: Keep all lights off until the last possible moment, have everything assembled before turning the lights on, and work fast.

2. Olympics: Shoot early, blog late.

3. In any shoot, the last thing to go on is always the hat. Zachary was fine with the headset. He seemed oblivious to it being put on, and I didn't have to do a thing to it through the entire shoot. Yeah!

That left me to struggle with Henry's hat. Experience has shown that it just doesn't work to put it on the traditional way. The bill won't stay up as there isn't enough head above the muzzle to hold it up.

My solution is to push the back against the front and then set it on the head. While it works wonders for the bill and allows the eyes to be seen, you can clearly see that I've done it by looking at the picture (above).

So for grins and giggles, I tried turning the hat to the side. Now the fact the bill sagged didn't matter, and the extra depth (vs. width) of the head helped to hold the hat in place.

That actually was my favorite shot (up top) although the number of times one can use that "look" is probably pretty limited.

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

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