Thursday, May 6, 2010

“Every Dog Has Its Day” – pet portraits to benefit low-income senior pet owners

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I’m pleased to announce “Every Dog Has Its Day,” a pet portrait event that will benefit senior pet owners on a low or fixed income. Partnering with the Seattle Humane Society, Northwest Dog Shots will be photographing your pets’ portraits all day May 22nd and possibly the 23rd, as well. Proceeds of the event will be donated to the SHS Pet Food Bank program, which provides pet food to low and fixed income seniors in King County.

Mr. Demille, I’m ready for my close up now

I, along with a team of eager volunteers, will be pampering and primping your dog, getting them ready for their glamour photo shoot. First, you’ll call us to set up your 1/2 hour appointment on Saturday, May 22. If the 22nd fills up quickly, we extend the event to include Sunday, May 23. Then, on the appointed day you’ll bring your freshly bathed pooch to my studio in the SODO district of Seattle. There, a groomer will spend 15 minutes getting your dog ready for his or her close up. That could include some trimming around the eyes, putting on a pretty ribbon or scarf, or maybe a little nail polish. When your star is ready, she’ll be taken to the stage for her photo shoot. After the shoot, you and your pampered pet will receive a gift bag of goodies and treats, and you’ll make an appointment for a couple of weeks later to see the images of your little diva. Fun, huh!

How does it work?

As I mentioned above, the first step is to call Northwest Dog Shots at the number below to make an appointment. On the day of your appointment, bring $20 and a bag of dog or cat food to the studio. The $20 will help cover equipment rental and expenses, and the bag of pet food will go to the Seattle Humane Society’s Pet Food Bank program. At the time of your follow up appointment, you’ll receive a 5X7 print of your pooch and have the opportunity to purchase more prints and packages.

Details, I need details

To make an appointment, call 206-999-1038. Times are from 10am to 6pm, Saturday May 22. If Saturday fills up quickly, we hold the event over an additional day.

The Seattle Humane Society  has the greatest need for cat food, although dog food is welcome, too. Please bring a large (15-20lb) bag of dry cat food or a medium (15-20lb) bag of dry dog food. Larger sizes are also welcome. For more information on the Pet Food Bank program, visit http://www.seattlehumane.org/services/services/lowincome-senior

Please bring $20 in either cash or check. Sorry, we are unable to process credit or debit cards.

I hope to see you there!

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May 23, 2010 - 4:29 pm

scotty - what a wonderful day and such a great turn out. Thanks to everyone who came and will supported the pet of a senior unable to supply food themselves. And the whole day was run professionally by Bruce and his staff. Dogs were fluffed by Adrienne and the excitement only brought out the true personalities of every pet. Congrats to all that came!!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Beautiful weekend in Seattle from 6″ off the ground

Posted in Dogs, Photo tech show hide 3 comments

This past weekend in Seattle was just gorgeous. The sun was out, temps approached the 60′s, and the dog parks were packed with dogs and humans. Unfortunately, during the middle of the day all that bright sun meant harsh lighting. But that is when the dogs were out. So I grabbed my camera and my low rig and headed out for some magic.

About the low rig. I’ve been thinking about ways to get low to the ground without having to crawl around on knee pads. I also want to be able to run with the camera low and have the dogs trail behind. I spent a lot of time searching the internet for a ready made solution to my problem. I considered The $14 Steadycam as an option and nearly purchased all the parts and pieces to make one. Then it occurred to me that I was thinking inside the box— that the camera needed to be right-side-up in order to take a picture. When I was able to wrap my brain around the idea that it didn’t matter to the photograph if the camera is right side up, the solution was simple. And I could put it all together using components I already had. My low rig consists of my camera with a cable release mounted to my monopod. I grab the monopod by the foot and hang the camera upside down. Later, I right the images in post-production. Simple.

Reactions to my rig were mixed: “What the …”

This pug looks sternly disapproving, while most dogs were curious about the low rig and the camera shutter noise.

“Whatchya got there?”

“Go ahead, kick the ball. I dare ya.”

Some dogs were intent on licking my 14-24mm lens, which has such a curved front element that you can’t attach a filter. Yuck!

The next step will be to add some sort of noise maker like a pneumatically controlled squeaky toy to the camera. That should be fun!

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February 24, 2010 - 6:52 pm

Delanae Lindstrom - These turned out so great! I love the angle and I can’t wait to try it.

February 24, 2010 - 9:37 pm

Jonathan - Wow, what a great idea! Dogs at their own level.

These shots are superb and fun!

February 25, 2010 - 12:26 pm

DB Bourgeois - Wonderfully funny shots. Specially seeing how the photos were originally taken. Great idea for a monopole.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

High speed in low light: Photographing an indoor agility trial

Posted in Agility, Dogs, Photo tech show hide 2 comments

If you’ve never been to a dog agility trial before, you might find it to be a loud, frenetic affair…especially if it is held indoors. And here in the Northwest, all agility trials during winter months are indoors. Dogs who are on the course are often barking out their frustrations to their handlers. Some dogs express their joy and excitement at full volume with the sound reverberating off of the walls and ceilings. Add to this cacophony the black and white streak of a Border Collie running at over 20 mph and the deer-in-the-headlights stare of a beginning mixed breed dog who is acting like he’s never seen the weave poles before, and you have the Extreme Agility Team (EAT) sponsored agility trial at Argus Ranch in Auburn past this weekend.

So there I am in the middle of this circus on a mission to capture images of each dog’s performance that the owner simply cannot resist buying. Now wait a minute. Photographing dogs with black faces going 20 mph in poor indoor lighting–how’s that going to happen? Ta Da! The Nikon D700 to the rescue. Okay, bare with me. I’m going to get all photo-geeky on you for a moment. I absolutely love this camera. Using the D700 and a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR lens, I set the ISO to 6400, use a neutral colored chair to set the white balance, and manually set the exposure. Then I shoot around 5000 images over the two days using the best technique I can muster. After culling out the blurry images due to subject/camera movement and missed focus, I usually end up with around 40-50% keepers. Using fixed settings on the camera allows me to use presets in Lightroom to do batch processing on the high number of images. Check out some results below.

Here is a beautiful Belgian Tervuren in mid jump.


Wee, the Chihauhau, loves agility.

This Border Collie is moving.

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s Super Boston!

Max is patiently waiting for a treat from his mom.


Yes, even Great Danes can do agility. Believe it or not, this giant girl loves to dive into the tunnels.

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February 4, 2010 - 10:16 pm

Eric Malette - Nice stuff. I have a 5D2 which is comparable, I think. I take it you cannot use strobes for this kind of work? It would mess with the dogs?

_E

February 4, 2010 - 10:22 pm

Bruce Weber - Correct, no flash allowed. I think the dogs would probably be OK, but the handlers are a bit jumpy. :)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Scotty’s first agility trial

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On Sunday, Scotty ran in his first agility trial. The trial was sanctioned by the North American Dog Agility Council (NADAC), and the class he entered in was Tunnelers. I was busy all weekend photographing the trial (post about that to follow soon), but Karin came to Argus Ranch for part of Sunday to run with her Westie. (I know, a Westie named Scotty.)

Here he is popping out of a tunnel.:)

He had a clean run–absolutely no faults! But it took him a while to get through all those tunnels, so he was around 22 seconds too slow. Oh well, maybe next time.

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January 28, 2010 - 1:53 pm

karin - What a blast for dogs, competitors and spectators. Unfortunately I had to leave my squeky toy out of range of the ingate. So, he wasn’t his usual fire blazing speed. Well, he never really has fire blazing speed. But we’re working on it. If anyone has a dog come to Argus ranch and watch the agility trials that are put on there. You’ll come home with a smile on your face!!!!

January 28, 2010 - 3:00 pm

Deb - what a cutie……..he just needed his squeaky for a little more impetus!!

January 29, 2010 - 5:59 am

Sharon - Scotty is more like a warmblood vs a thoroughbred! Time for him just isn’t as important and fun!!! He is just smart enough to know that his “round” lasts longer if you don’t go as fast!!!

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