A Little of This, A Little of That

While holiday weekends are nice, it seems like 5 days of work have to be crammed into 4 days, and I'm worn out by the end of the day.  But I managed to spend some Quality Tennis Ball Time with the girls, and then played around with some lighting/reflectors.  I wasn't wildly thrilled with the lighting results today, but that's just the way it goes some days...  Regardless, the girls had fun with the tennis ball action, and they got plenty of treats for the indoor photos, so they are happy - which is all that matters!

Near miss, but an 'A' for effort!

Excellent form, complete with ear flappage!

Happy girl!

This is actually a photo where a small reflector could do wonders to brighten up her face....

And on to the indoor shots...

Pretty girl!

Someone clearly thinks the treats aren't being doled out fast enough!

This was the best photo of the two of them....

Day 247/365.

It's Wednesday, So There Must Be Tennis Ball Action

After another bike ride during which we had a headwind for 90% of the ride (which is a little amazing, as we ride a loop, but the winds swirl around the mountains.... or the Anemoi hate us....) it was tennis ball time for the girls.  In keeping with the reading I have been doing, I am still trying to shoot 'with intention'.  Or at least I try to have a focus.  Fr'instance, at 4:15pm, about a third of the yard is covered in shadows, and I'm trying to see if I can find settings that let me get sharp photos, but aren't wildly light or wildly dark.  I haven't really been successful yet, but I'm going to keep at it.  I am really trying to think about natural light, as I am anticipating taking an online pet photography class in October (four weeks of instruction, assignments and instructor critique) and two of the four weeks focus on using natural light.  So I figured it might be a good idea to think about what I'm shooting and how I'm shooting it before the class starts!

Not that any of my Thinking of Deep Thoughts affects the tennis ball action (and a good thing, or I'd have a riot on my hands!).

Another case of blogger lightening the photo for me.  Fi was a little light in the actual photo, but not quite as light as she appears here.

This one isn't bad.  The color is a little funky, but I haven't quite figured out what to do about that.  (The four week class also provides free Photoshop/Lightroom instruction, which might help me solve my color problem.)

Another photo pre-lightened by blogger.  But the action is sharp and while Abby is a little light, nothing is overly light or dark.

Not optimal lighting here, but the photo cracks me up.

In addition to zoomies, there were Big Leaps!

Not only did Abby miss the ball, but Fi is giving her the "What the...?!?" look.

Not really in focus, but she's got nice ear flappage (and you can see the length of the afternoon shadows...).

Fi didn't want to be left out of the leaping action!

And, of course, there was much chasing of tennis balls.

And I tried taking some portraits in various degrees of shade.  I'm not 100% happy with any of these, but they aren't terrible, either.  Just little things I'd re-do on each one.

In full shade.  Even with a little tweaking the color of the photo is a little 'cool' but I guess I should expect that in the shade!

Given that most of Fi is in the shade, with just some sun on her snooter, this came out pretty well. The color is a little flat, but I really like the bokeh (I think the aperture was f/4).

This didn't come out quite as planned; I clearly have more to learn about photographing in mixed light/shadows

For a full-shadow shot this didn't come out too badly.  I could have played around with the aperture a bit more, but since Abby was hovering, trying to steal Fi's tennis ball, I didn't have much time to adjust my settings!

Day 246/365.

A Couple of Dogs and Their Tennis Balls

I have actually spent a better part of the evening moving large amounts of data (i.e. photos) from my laptop's hard drive to my external hard drive, as I have managed to (yet again) fill up my hard drive.  Go me!  I think.  Anyhoo, I have spent a lot of time on that endeavor, and only gave cursory look at the tennis ball photos I got today.

This one makes my back hurt just looking at it!

"Mom, stop taking pictures and throw the tennis ball already."

 

"Yes, I'm cute, now throw the tennis ball!"

Fi really extends herself here!

Temporarily tired puppy.

Pretty girl in natural light.

Day 245/365.

Fall is Here!

Our unusually wet August has resulted in some very bright early 'Fall Flame' and while I haven't quite figured out how to get landscape photos where the fall colors 'pop', the girls and I spent a little bit of time trying to get some of the fall colors.  And Fall really did show up almost overnight - last weekend there were maybe a few leaves that were changing colors - now it is Very Obvious that Fall is here.

On our morning walk, I took along the little point-and-shoot (which definitely does not get photos like the D90, but is vastly more portable).  I would have liked to have taken a few more photos than I did, but everyone and their dog seemed to be out walking, and Fi and Abby are, um, easily distracted by other dogs.  (And squirrels.  And rabbits.  And deer.  All of which were out in abundance this morning).  But it's a start.
 

My models were not 100% cooperative.  Something about more walking less photographing.

Not a great shot of the girls, but I really like this picture because the sun was behind the trees and was highlighting some of the fall colors.

Had there not been a dog coming down the road, I would have tried to reposition the girls so they weren't so much in the shade.  Ah well.

A few of the trees in the backyard are starting to go - of course they are the trees high up on the hillside, so it's a bit tough to get the girls and the trees in the same photo....

 

For this photo, I was sprawled on the ground so I could get Fi and the orange tree in the same shot.

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And for those of you who might want to see the trees sans doggies (although I find it hard to believe that any subject is improved by removing dogs....), here is a shot of the orange tree in our yard.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the cooler weather, and tossing tennis balls.

Abby being all stealthy-like!

 And I got a few 'portraits'.

Yes, the sky really is that blue.  Just another one of those days sponsored by the Utah Bureau of Tourism!

And since the soft box was handy, and the girls were on the couch, I got a few 'lit' photos.

This isn't the greatest photo, but I was having a tough time convincing them to sit closer together....

Day 244/365.