The Dog in action

It's been a while since I practice my photography on the Dog.
So when the sun came up, along with some free time and a few inspiration,
We went outside, armed with the camera and a bit of doggy snack, and took a few snaps away.

I'd say all those reading photography articles really help.
But then again, given the serious camera upgrade, it would absolutely disgraceful if the photos do not improve as well, don't you think?
And the tips that I got include, for example: getting up close, going outside for better lighting, as well as using large aperture for the glorious out-of-focus (bokeh) background.
The doggy snack part was my own brilliance, haha..., added to some previous trial and error.
It works really well to get the Dog's undivided attention, I can assure you!

I have to admit, however, that my weakness in styling still comes up.
That red bit on the Dog's head? Oh dear! It looks as if the Dog was going through an incomplete transformation into Lucifer or something.
I can't quite believe I did not notice that until I got the pics in my computer!
So... yeah, note to self: styling, styling, styling!!!!
Watch out for unnecessary 'props' lying around everywhere.

You see how it works when there are no 'extra props' caught by the camera?

Anyway, these two below are actually taken on a different day.
The Dog loves to sun herself outside. It would seem like she does not really like cold, so that whenever the sun is shining, she would pick a spot and sun herself until she feels warm (or hot!) enough.

Penny is one gorgeous dog. I am glad I finally have a set of roughly decent shots of her.
The Mister and I looked in vain for such shots of her puppyhood. Penny was almost our 'first kid', you see. But back in the days, neither of us had the skill nor the equipment to create something like this.

Now as for the things learnt through the process:

• Photographing short subjects is better when done at the same level with the said subject rather than always from the top


• Get close. Like... really close


• Cleaning up the surrounding area before taking pictures helps to ensure there are no 'extra prop' in the frame


• A treat works wonders in getting the subject's undivided attention, especially when the said subject happens to be either a pet or a small kid (more on that some other time)


• Taking pics under the shade might mean some extra work for post-processing due to non-uniform lighting and shadows


• Lastly, doing your homework by researching more techniques in photography does work in improving the quality of your pics

For the budding photographers among you, I do find Digital Photography School an extremely useful resource in learning about photography. There are definitely many other resources out there, but DPS is currently my main one.

All the best!