Photographing Bouviers… It’s not just a snap
I’ve been taking pictures of
our Bouviers since the first one, but I’ve found that it's not easy to
photograph a big, black, hairy dog so that the image doesn't come out looking
like a big, black, hairy blob.
When Chevelle, Mona and
Sam came along about 6 years ago, I was still using the trusty manual 35mm
that I had bought back in 1974 when I was in the Air Force. When outdoor pictures started getting
more and more underexposed, I realized that the built in light meter was
not functioning correctly anymore.
I’d been considering getting a new camera for some time and that
seemed as good a reason as any. So
after looking over what was available I decided on the Canon Rebel G. The
Rebel is an auto focus and auto exposure camera that I hoped would make it
easier to take pictures. It does
make it easier, but I found I was fighting the auto features. Being used to manual, I could focus,
adjust the exposure, snap the picture and wind just as fast as any auto
everything available… at least I felt I could. I found that I was missing a lot of shots because of the
small delay between when I pushed the shutter button and when the camera
actually snapped. In just those
few micro seconds a picture can be lost, especially with very active
animals. This became even more
apparent when the first litter of puppies came along. Once they start moving, you have to
be fast on the trigger finger to get the picture. I fought with the Canon for almost 3
years, many times almost taking my old 35mm camera into the repair shop to
get it fixed. The few times I did go
back to my manual camera I found that the auto wind and auto exposure
features of the Canon had spoiled me.
With the manual camera I kept forgetting to wind until the shot was
passed. With a manual camera, it
doesn’t matter how many times you press the button, it’s only going to
click one time. <grin>
When the second litter came
along I decided it was time to get serious again. Also, I have been wanting to get into large format for a long
time and Sue happened to pick up a old but usable 4x5 camera. It didn’t have the film backs, but it
spurred the interest for large format again.
I now have two older 4x5 cameras that are mostly used to shoot Polaroid
to make tests of setups and lighting before I use film. I am in the process of setting up a black
and white darkroom again and plan to shoot black and white 4x5 film. But all of that is another topic.
With the second litter, I
decided I wanted to get better pictures than what I could get with just a small
flash. So I bought a big studio mono
light. Some of my earlier attempts
were not much better than the camera and flash had been, but I saw I was on the
right track. By having more light, I
was able to bring out the detail in the hair of our Bouviers. They actually started looking like dogs
instead of black blobs. <grin>
On the following pages are examples
of some of the pictures I’ve been producing.
A lot of them are going to be pretty much the same pose by the same dog,
but as I take more pictures and get better results I’ll replace some and add
more. If the interest is there I will
also start putting up information on how I took the pictures and what I’ve
learned. Some of it I learned from trial and error and some I learned from
other people that were willing to help and give advice. Hopefully my pictures will get even better
along the way.
Enjoy.
Mike
Continue to the Photo Pages (Pages 1 through 30)
Continue to Photo Pages 31 through 40