Beautiful Girl

My Cleo is a little exhausted by all the paparazzi!

I love everything about this picture. Taken with my macro lens, I love the DOF.

Wildlife Wedneday: Rabbit

Because I haven't posted one of our amazing urban jackrabbits in a long time.

This was for a photo class assignment. The goal was to frame something - so this little one is framed by the tree branches.

Wildlife Wednesday: Mountain Sheep

Once again, shot from inside the car - this time on my own side of the vehicle though! Jasper National Park.

Young Deer

On Flickr I captioned this one "What big ears you have..."

I was the passenger, and this little one was on the driver's side. Taken in Jasper National Park.

Squirrely business

This little guy was chittering angrily at me one morning as I was leaving for work. I managed to snap off a couple of quick pictures, and I'm quite please with how this came out!

There are a FEW advantages to fall/winter - this little guy would be completely hidden from view if the tree was in full leaf!

Plains Bison

A Plains Bison. (And I have learned that buffalo is not the singular of bison, it's a different species.) This shot was taken from the safety of a large van. I was not the driver, and he was ready to bolt if this guy had looked bothered by us. He never showed any care for our presence.

1/320 sec, f/4.5 aperture, ISO 80, 19.8mm focal length

Another rabbit

This is NOT the same rabbit as last Sunday. If you look at the ear length in particular, this one has much longer ears. It was also much calmer and let me walk around it taking many pictures.

I moved forward very slowly, and he just kept letting me get closer and closer. I love the little patch of sunlight on his back. 1/200 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO 200, 100mm focal length

MY FAVOURITE PICTURE! I adore this image. I actually think he's yawning, because there was nothing to startle him and he didn't take off. You might notice this is from the other side of him than in the first picture. There was a small patch of bushes to the left of the image, and I was able to go in behind them to get to his other side for several pictures. 1/320 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO 200, 100mm focal length

Stretching, listening. Details same as the last pic.

Sick of the paparazzi. Or he realized there was a dog coming. 1/500 sec exposure, 5.0 aperture, ISO 200, 70.6mm focal length

Friendly cat

This has got to be one of the friendliest cats I've ever seen. I stopped to take her picture, and she just kept getting closer and closer, meowing at me. I'm not usually a cat person (allergies) but this one has just gorgeous colouring.

Of all the shots I took of her, this is my favourite. She just looks so regal here, with her paws delicately and precisely positioned, her tail held high. (And then I chased her out of the road so she wouldn't get flattened by a car.)

1/200 sec exposure, 4.5 aperture, ISO 125, 28.4mm focal length

Long time no see!

I have no excuses for ignoring my blog. I find winter uninspiring, and by February I was out of indoor ideas, so I just stopped. However, the weather is warming up again and I'm feeling inspired again, so here we go!

Here's a small series of images of one little guy I saw yesterday. He's seems fairly young and was rather skittish. Maybe he knows he's still quite white against a very brown and yellow ground. (It's snowing again today, so he'll blend in better for a little while.)

He says, "I'm watching you."

"What's that sound?"

"If I pretend I'm eating, maybe I can trick you in to making your move." See the eye? He's not paying attention to the grass.

"What's over there??" (Note that it's not me he's looking at, I didn't do anything to alarm him.)

Just after this image was taken, he retreated slightly in to the bushes.

About the images! 1/640 sec exposure, 5.7 aperture, ISO (100, 125, 80, 80), auto white balance

First of the new year!

There's nothing outrageously special about this picture, but I love it.

Yes, he's centered, I made no attempt at rule of thirds or whatever else. I like the context he is given by the paddock in front and the fence and trees in behind. It was quite bright out for his pale body, so I did change the exposure bias (as Flickr calls it, I'm sure it has many different names) to a -1. It makes the rest of the picture maybe a tad dark, but I think it really brings out the variations in his coat. I like that he's just looking slightly towards the camera, but otherwise it's a full side view, so you get a good look at him. Lovely!

My plan for the blog for 2012... I'm thrilled I managed to get a post in for every single day of December, even though I was traveling which sometimes made it quite difficult - and quite late! (The one for Dec 31 wasn't quite as late in the day as it seems, since I'm currently in an earlier time zone, but didn't change the time for the blog.) My rough goal for this year is to continue to post daily, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I miss a day here or there. I hope to post about 5 pictures per week, with the other two days consisting of tips, links to other websites or tutorials or things like the 30 Day Challenge. If you ever have any suggestions or ideas for things you'd like to see, let me know in the comments on any post!

Dog picture

To keep things balanced off with the cat picture from the other day, here's a picture of a puppy!

He was being tempted by a little piece of ham, which is what had him licking his chops! I love that I caught him with his tongue out, so cute!

Cat picture

I tried several different time to get a good picture of this cat. I'm thrilled to have avoided the scary demon eyes that you often see with animals!

I have done no post-processing on this image. I'm really pleased with how clear she is, how lovely her eyes are. All tricky things indoors, with a black cat!

Rabbit sighting! but no waistcoat or rabbit hole to Wonderland

The challenge from a couple of days ago was to take a picture of an animal. I saw some wild rabbits in a field near my house, and took quite a few pictures with the only camera I had on hand - my cell phone. Challenge completed. This is not one of those pictures, however it is the same field and likely one of the same rabbits.

I brought the good camera with me yesterday, specifically because I was hoping those guys would be out again - the weather is still fairly mild, given it's December, so I expected they would be out eating what they could find while they had the chance. I think this guy was just sunning himself, however, because he was out when I left and was in pretty much the same spot when I was on my way home a couple of hours later.

I used full zoom, because I didn't want to startle him. You can already tell he's fully aware I'm there and paying attention to me. Patchy snow means not the best hiding for him, but better pictures for me!

Putting your photography skills to good use!

In combination with Monday's tips on how to take photos of pets for a formal session, here is the other end of the spectrum - how to take good photos of shelter animals. Those dogs that don't have a human who dotes on them and would love to pay to have their pup star in it's very own photo shoot.

Pup Fan recently attended a workshop to help photographers take better pictures of shelter dogs, and she kindly shared some of the most memorable points! Offer up your services to your own local shelter or rescue, or just use the tips to help you get better pictures of your own four-legged friends.

http://istillwantmorepuppies.blogspot.com/2011/11/lessons-from-second-chance-photos.html

Always a great way to stretch your skills is taking part in various challenges! I've posted many pictures from a couple of versions of the 30 Day Challenge, and here's another excellent one if you have a dog: The Daily Dog Challenge.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/dailydogchallenge/

I'm sure you could adapt many of the challenges to a non-pet circumstance as well, if you don't happen to have one of your own, or one you can borrow on a regular basis. For example, Monday's challenge was: "Make a monochrome photo with your dog today! Remember, monochrome means 'one color', and while often black, it doesn't have to be."


Good luck, and have fun!

(Taken in France, 2008.)

Taking pictures of dogs

I've decided that it's okay if I mix in some posts that include photo assignments that I've done or am going to do to improve my skills and stretch my thinking, as well as other tips or interesting photo advice. The goal is still a post per day!

These pictures are wonderful shots of wet dogs shaking themselves off.

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/07/28/portraits-of-dogs-as-they-shake-off-water/

This video has some good tips about photographing pets. While it's directed more towards professional photographers, most of the tips can easily be adapted to taking pictures of your own pets.

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/10/15/tips-and-tricks-for-photographing-pets/

Cannot choose

I admit it, I can't choose which of these two I like better! This strange cat, instead of running off when it saw me, actually kept walking closer. Not quite straight towards me, but sort of parallel to where I would have been going, if I'd kept walking.

Technically, I think this is a better picture. Despite the fact that it breaks the rule of thirds, I like the composition of it. The cat's in focus, but he's further away and had his eyes closed (although that's interesting in and of itself.)

In this one, the cat takes up more of the shot. His face is focused, but his back end is a little blurred. I also like the background much less on this one. He has very striking blue eyes, although in this picture he looks cross-eyed.

Watching a watcher

I'm sure a philosopher could come up with something very "meta" about this, me watching a man watching a cat. I wonder how long he sat there, because I found it cool but not cold, however he was quite bundled up.

Happy pup

I chose not to crop this one, because I thought it wouldn't make a lot of sense with the context half-gone. I always find it a challenge to capture an animal looking "natural" - when the natural state is anything other than sleeping. Often you have to get them sitting or eating. Here I feel you can really see this little guy's spunk and energy and happiness.

I really wanted to take him home, but I settled for his picture, instead.