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!

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!

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.

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.

Last weekend I took my new Lensbaby out for a test drive. I left all my other lenses at home, and headed to a nearby AKC dog show. I was using the standard “Double Glass” optic, which when focused correctly provides prime lens sharpness in the sweet spot. However, getting that focus proved to be quite a challenge, as my 51 year old eyes do not see as well as they used to. The Lensbaby is a manual focus system, and if the diopter on your camera’s viewfinder is not dialed in perfectly, the images end up looking like the sweet spot is a myth. I was lucky and got a few keepers. Just don’t look too closely.

This was an adorable Westie puppy.

He looks bored.

This girl was just here to watch the show dogs.

Another Westie getting primped for the ring.

Portuguese Water Dogs, like Sinta here, are born to help fisherman retrieve fishing nets from the fridged waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Like newfies, they have webbed toes to help them swim in ocean currents. During our shoot at Fisherman’s Terminal in Seattle, it was all we could do to keep Sinta from jumping into the water.

It’s a good 10 to 12 feet over the railing to the water, and Sinta was eager to jump on  in.

It was raining during our shoot as you can see from the rain drops.