German Shepherds, (5 pics)

John_05

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I finally got my 580 EXII, so i decided to try it out on the only willing "models" i know, my cousins dogs. i wanted to get more shots of them, but the weather wasnt cooperating and i only managed to get a few.

#1
this is their older female. she is about 14 months old now.
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#2
this is the new puppy. shes only 9 weeks old, and already around 20 pounds. the green right ear isnt an error or weird infection, its some type of coating they put on her ear when she got tattooed.
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#3
this is the oldest of the group. hes 9 years old, and by far the easiest to get to pose.
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#4
this is another shot of the older female. thats a chew toy in her mouth.
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#5
and finally, this is the younger male. for some reason he hates my camera, and tries to grab it every time i try taking pictures. hes nearly succeeded too many times, so the only other shots i have of him are either from a distance, or blurry, wide open mouth shots of him trying to eat my camera. it took nearly an hour of making him run after a toy to get him tired enough to sit still so i could take his picture.
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these were all shot with my Rebel XT, kit lens, 580 EXII flash, and a CP filter on the lens. next time i go back, i hope to remember to take the filter off before i start shooting. :lol:
 
Beautiful dogs ..... I love animal photography ..... Would have been nicer if you could have lowered yourself down to their level a bit instead of looking over them .... Great shots
 
The interesting thing is that when shooting animals from a higher perspective, they look much more approachable then if you shoot them from below. I know that my shepherd looks a bit intimidating if I shoot him from below his eye level.

I agree with the others though. Shooting at his eye level will provide you with some really great shots.

The color in these looks to be a bit over saturated as well. Perhaps someone else will be able to provide you with better advice.

Keep up the good work
 
2 is a little dark on the subject for me. and 3 looks a little blown on the subject. but I can see that being hard because he looks like he is lighter in color. but all the other ones look great to me
 
oh and 4, did you use some saturation in photoshop. The gold fur looks a little over saturated to me. I still like the photo and always thinks to each his own, but I've been reading alot of critiques lately :wink:
 
Beautiful dogs ..... I love animal photography ..... Would have been nicer if you could have lowered yourself down to their level a bit instead of looking over them .... Great shots


thank you Beauy.

i would have gotten lower, but those dogs (except the light colored one and the puppy) are still young, and still in the middle of being trained. if i crouch too low to take shots, they either jump on me, or in the case of the younger male, tries to eat me and/or my camera.
 
The interesting thing is that when shooting animals from a higher perspective, they look much more approachable then if you shoot them from below. I know that my shepherd looks a bit intimidating if I shoot him from below his eye level.

I agree with the others though. Shooting at his eye level will provide you with some really great shots.

The color in these looks to be a bit over saturated as well. Perhaps someone else will be able to provide you with better advice.

Keep up the good work

thanks Jeffm73.

i did increase the saturation some, but on my monitor it looks good. the monitor is about 7 years old and on its last legs, so thanks for pointing that out to me. i think its time to get a new monitor. :lmao:
 
2 is a little dark on the subject for me. and 3 looks a little blown on the subject. but I can see that being hard because he looks like he is lighter in color. but all the other ones look great to me

the puppy was laying in the shade most of the day, and with the 2 other dogs out, i dont dare pick her up. theyre pretty protective of her, and i didnt feel like getting bit. as for #3, it looks ok on my monitor. he is also a pretty light colored dog and just had a bath about 4 hours before that picture was taken, so the contrast adjustment i made may have blown his fur out. like i just said in a different reply, my monitor is very old, and in the process of dying. once i get a new one, ill have a look at these again, and edit them accordingly.


oh and 4, did you use some saturation in photoshop. The gold fur looks a little over saturated to me. I still like the photo and always thinks to each his own, but I've been reading alot of critiques lately :wink:

like i said before, i did increase the saturation, but not too much. i use Paintshop Pro X so it is different than Photoshop, but i never set the slider past 15, so i didnt think it would be over saturating them much. that dogs natural color is like that though. she is a reddish color, and much darker than the dog in the 3rd picture. once i have a look at them on a better monitor, ill edit them and post the edits.

thanks for the comments. :thumbup:
 
Beautiful dogs! All of them!
And it seems like you've put your new 580EX to some first good use. I am still about to go buy me that one and had actually wanted to have it before this coming weekend, but the money still doesn't quite suffice. So I will have to make do with what I have always had with regards to low light: no flash and high ISO :)roll: ) --- ok, but that's off topic.

Comments on getting lower have been made, and you have given us a very reasonable explanation of why you preferred not to crouch. Makes perfect sense to me.

What I find funny is how much that stick in the female dog's mouth in Photo 4 looks like she is smoking a monster of a cigarette ;) :lol: ...
 
Beautiful dogs! All of them!
And it seems like you've put your new 580EX to some first good use. I am still about to go buy me that one and had actually wanted to have it before this coming weekend, but the money still doesn't quite suffice. So I will have to make do with what I have always had with regards to low light: no flash and high ISO :)roll: ) --- ok, but that's off topic.

Comments on getting lower have been made, and you have given us a very reasonable explanation of why you preferred not to crouch. Makes perfect sense to me.

What I find funny is how much that stick in the female dog's mouth in Photo 4 looks like she is smoking a monster of a cigarette ;) :lol: ...


thank you LaFoto.

it took me a very long time to save for the flash, almost a year, and so far im very happy i bought it instead of getting another lens. i was particularly happy at how the puppies picture came out. it was really overcast that day and where she was laying is next to a shed, and under trees. the flash aimed up at a 60 degree angle with a trimmed 5x7 index card for a larger bounce card worked wonders.

im sure once you get your flash, youll be very happy with it. ive been practicing with it more and more, so hopefully ill have some more pictues i can post soon. ive already had to recharge all 8 of my rechargeable batteries 2 times since ive had it. thats more photos in a week or so than ive shot in the last 2 months.

my cousins got a good laugh at the "monster cigarette" looking picture too. the biggest compliment ive gotten yet is them telling me they are going to have a few of the shots i took that day made into prints and then frame them and hang them on their wall right next to the professional portraits they had done of the dog in #3 and 2 of their other dogs that passed away recently last year. that alone made the anxiety i felt that day from worrying about getting mauled or having my camera eaten worth it. i dont think my pictures can compare to the portraits they spent over $600 on, but knowing they think they deserve to share some space on the same wall was very flattering to me.

thanks again for the comments. :wink:
 
all good pics though. i've looked at them multiple times :)
 

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