The Dog Park: April, Week 3

"Oh, So Close" (to being awesome)
Canon SX40 HS
f/4
1/500
ISO 400
4/13/13
Salt Lake City, UT

This picture was so close to being really great.  The trouble with photographing dogs is that they move so much faster than I do.  Yes, I realize that this dog's head is missing.  But there are so many other things that I love about this picture that I decided to make it this week's picture anyway.  This dog was playing catch with its owner.  You can see the red toy in its mouth.  It was just so happy getting in and out of the water; they played for maybe 30 minutes, just doing the same thing over and over.

What I like about this photo is how the action is nicely frozen, even though it is not nicely framed.  The splashing water is just so perfect.  If only I had anticipated how quick that dog was.  Sigh!

For this trip to the dog park, I decided to use a different setting than the last trip.  For the photos from weeks 1 and 2, I was on manual mode; for this photo, I used the Aperture Priority setting.  That way I could still play around with the depth of field but not have to fiddle with the other settings.  Since it was a cloudy day, I bumped up the ISO in order to get a faster shutter speed. I think that overall the pictures turned out better than the first trip to the dog park.  As is obvious from this picture, I still have some work to do, but I'm feeling better about my action shots.  I feel good about my picture-taking ability; I just need to anticipate the action better. Next time I take my camera to the dog park, I think I'm going to try using my camera's preset mode for kids and pets.  I think that will free me up even more to try to keep up with the dogs.  I'm excited to see what the next trip brings.