photoblog
A super costume wins the costume contest for Como, 3, during the Columbia Association’s first Welcome Event of the year, Dog Day Afternoon held at Hopewell Park in Columbia Saturday, April 17, 2010. Como, a rescue boxer, was shown by his owner Jody Stacoffe, from Elkridge.
I was not excited about the high noon sun and the busy busy background of bright white shirts and subsequent raccoon eyes. So, I decided to use some on camera flash. I zoomed my sb-800 out to 105mm, stuck with the high shutter sync and underexposed the sky. Honestly, I’m a little surprised at how cool the photos came out. But I think the lighting lends to only half of why these photos work. They’re quirky. That is, the subjects are quirky. I like these photos because they show off the subjects personalities in really interesting, imperfect ways. They’re like pop songs. …you know, catchy, memorable. well, at least I think they’re memorable.
Phoenix, five, a Jack-Russell/Chihuaua mix is a “fashionable lady,” or so says her owner Ronda Lennon.
Windsor, a rescue dog, owned by Amanda Williams, of Dorsey Hall.
Samantha McHale, 7, brings Racall, 4, a Daschund to the “Best Kisser” contest.
Deneen Craves, from Elkridge, pulls her fingers away after giving a ball to her dog Ace Windu. His name is an homage to the Star Wars character Mace Windu.
Windsor rolls for a treat.
This is during the “Best Kisser” contest. They rolled out before I could get their names.
Eight months-olds, and Lilly, left, and Caesar, right, are already flirting. Lilly is owned by Ken and Katrina Knudsen, of Kings Contrivance..Caesar is owned by Alex and Luisa Bishop, from Harpers Choice.
Barbi, an eight-month-old toy poodle, backs away from the bowl (well, really, its me) during the biscuit eating contest. Her owner Jean Jungblut holds Barbi’s leash in the background.
“Sammy thinks she’s going to win this one because they practice kissing all the time,” says seven-year-old Samantha McHale’s dad,”John McHale, of Long Reach. The crowd and loud music seemed to give Rascall, 4, a Daschund performance anxiety during the “Best Kisser” contest.
A few more from the “Best Kisser” contest.
Deneen Craves, from Elkridge, looks on while her neighbor Jalen Stewart, who she used to baby sit, coaxes Craves’ dog Ace Windu to jump.
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Dog Day Afternoon – Images by Matt Roth
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All content © 2012 by Matt Roth
Working with dogs is just about the greatest thing on earth.
Love the direct strobe.
True. true. Dogs are awesome.
Great photos Matt.
High speed synch really worked out in this instance, it really did lend to the quirky subjects.
Just a quick question on the photos of Ace jumping. How do work in a situation like this? Do you prefer shutter priority, aperture, manual? Also, with the dog jumping, how do you really maintain sharp focus and still get away with a decent aperture?
Nice job!
Hey Alim. Thanks for the comments and questions.
When I use flashes I almost always stay on manual. When I light stuff I want as much control over the exposure as I can get.
Although here I am talking about control, but here’s the catch for this shoot… Most of these photo were “hail Mary’s.” That is, I made a lot of them shooting from the hip, sticking them into dog’s faces, bending over and angling low — without looking through my camera.
So, my decision to shoot so haphazardly — aside from lending to a really quirky look — was backed by knowledge of my gear’s limitations. I knew I’d need ample DOF if I was going shot-gun it like this. I also know in high speed sync mode, the throw of my SB-800 in direct sunlight isn’t too long — even zoomed out to 105mm. So, for most of these I used a 12-24 f/4 lens on my D300s, which gave me the space I needed to fill the frame, but also the ability to get close enough to light the subjects and still have enough environment visible. And for the most part, the lens also gave me enough DOF to have most of what I needed to be in focus.
Going low was intentional for a few reasons. First off, they’re dogs. So, they’re closer to the ground, anyways. But also, I can clean up the background and use the sky. There were too too many gross white tents and white t-shirts in the background. The minimum f/4 aperture helped underexpose the ambient light, too.
Depending on the situation, I varied my shutter speed and/or aperture. Clouds passed over the sun a few times, and in some frames my subjects were a bit further away, so a slower shutter speed gave the sb-800 pop a better chance at hitting the target, before getting karate chopped by the shutter. Some frames were made at 1/8000th at ISO 200, (like the really close ones) while others I dropped down to as low as 1/1000th. I don’t think I choked the aperture too much. — maybe f/6.3 at the most. But mostly f/4 and 5.6. But as you can probably tell, the subjects weren’t always in focus, which, as you can tell in some frames doesn’t matter that much. But for the most part I just mashed the AF button on the back of my camera body. I don’t like the AF to be coupled with my shutter. I find that setting takes a lot of creative control away from me.
I hope I answered your questions.