Dog Park! WOOF!

[pixmedic]

I have a new-found respect for wildlife and sports photographers. panning is tough!
so..fast moving dogs are a lot harder than slow moving brides.
Decided to drag the old D200 out to the dog park and try and get some shots of our Lab mix, Max, as well as some other wuzzies.
I think next time I need to bump the shutter speed just a little higher. most of these were in the 1/500 to 1/640 range, handheld, with a 70-300. we went to a different park than we normally go to, and there were a lot of fences partitioning the areas. was very difficult to get any shot without a fence in it. anyway...this is my first attempt at moving animals. I did minimal processing. just enough to convert from RAW and fix WB.
I was honestly a little conflicted on how to crop some of these...i didn't want to go all centered, but on a lot of them, there really wasn't much around to make any of the space interesting. Fortunately, im not getting paid for any of these. (maybe next week)
Feel free to tell/show me how any of these can be improved. we take Max to a dog park at least once a week and i want to start bringing the camera more often.

#1 is my favorite, Max is launching himself past the other two dogs. I just thought it was neat. The big chocolate lab is Jack. and I forget the name of the Irish setter.


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[oldhippy]

#1 is also my favorite. better brokage, I might suggest getting the dogs attention as they are running. Their faces would help the shots.

 

[bc_steve]

It is good you got down to their level. Dog pictures rarely look as good taken from a human height.

 

[pixmedic]

It is good you got down to their level. Dog pictures rarely look as good taken from a human height.

I tried to follow some of the suggestions i have seen on other threads for people taking pics of their dogs.

 

[runnah]

Don't ever get down on their level. You will be seen as weak and they will attack you in packs.

 

[CherylL]

Thanks for posting your settings. If it ever warms up here I plan on taking some action shots of our little guy, but he is a bullet when running...a puppy Schnauzer. My daughter has a beautiful Alaskan Husky and will practice getting shots of him too. The two dogs together may make for good entertainment & photos.

 

[leeroix]

How bout' a different time of day? Just like everything else...

 

[pixmedic]

How bout' a different time of day? Just like everything else...

Different time of day for what? Should we have gone earlier or later?

 

[leeroix]

Just seems like pretty harsh sunlight. The shadow is not directly under the dogs, but its still pretty harsh. You know... "golden hour" Also, when im shooting football, outside, I crank the ISO untill I get my shutter speed around 1600 - freezes everything.

 

[pixmedic]

Just seems like pretty harsh sunlight. The shadow is not directly under the dogs, but its still pretty harsh. You know... "golden hour" Also, when im shooting football, outside, I crank the ISO untill I get my shutter speed around 1600 - freezes everything.

We didnt plan the dog outing around a photo shoot. Maybe next time. Thankfully im not trying to break into wildlife photography. The d200 isnt great on the ISO so i have to do some fine tuning on aperture and shutterspeed. I tried to keep ISO at 400 ish. I'll try planning out some setting options in advance for next time.

 

[Rwsphotos]

Golden hour for thus is kinda hard. Thats about the time I drop our 4yr old at school. Unless pix wants to smoosh him in the mustang lol. Oh and puppy gets car sick which is why we use my car.lol rubber Matt in back makes for easier clean up. Maybe try later in the afternoon?