Macromutt.com is one of a group of sites that bring “all things dog” to the net. Barkability.com links to all kinds of neat stuff for the dog who has everything. For the book-lover/dog-owner, there’s Bibliodog.com, a reference site for books about dog agility, dog business and even just books that have great dogs as main characters.

Getting the action shots in focus is an ongoing challenge for me. For outdoor action, I set my focus to AI Servo, with only the center point selected (then hope for the best!) I definitely need more practice with this because I get very few shots that are in acceptable focus. I can cheat a bit for presentation on the web – since shrinking the image and sharpening fixes some softness. But that is definitely a work-around and my goal is to start with sharp focus and not have to “fix” it later!

The running towards me shots are the toughest. In the lower right, Ellie’s eyes are still pretty soft, even with pp fixes.

(These shots are from a few weeks ago when the snow was still pretty deep! It’s all gone now.)

Before buying my 70-200mm lens, I rented one for the weekend. It went with me to the park for a stick throwing game with Katy, to an agility trial and then finished up the weekend with me at a local horse event. A great trio of events to work out this lens and help me decide that it would be a valuable work horse lens for the type of photography that I do.

This pair belongs to one of my dog training peers. I take photos part-time for the photo studio that is a part of the dog training center where I sometimes teach. While my friend was teaching class, I was goofing off with her dogs in the studio.

The rottweiler is Fred. He’s not quite two years old and has a personality to match his size. He’s so goofy and willing to please that he was a perfect model. His beautiful “sister” is Stella. She’s a bit more shy and wasn’t completely comfortable with the whole process. I was able to get a few good shots of her. I love the flowy fur on her ears.

Every day in the studio is a learning process for me. We have a pair of strobes with umbrellas that provide nice even light from the front. Though getting the dogs to cooperate without having someone in front of the lights assisting can sometimes be a struggle. Most of the dogs that I’m taking photos of are not as well trained as Fred and Stella or my dogs. I’m continually playing with the lighting set-up, hoping to get lighting that I like a little bit better than the flat effect of the two strobe set-up. I’m still learning and experimenting!

A Saturday afternoon spent at the park, playing with the dogs and taking pictures. My husband tends to focus on the landscape shots, while I take pictures of the dogs. He captured a photo of me, taking the photo of Katy on the left.

It’s definitely nice to have subjects who are fairly well trained and cooperative. Katy is my agility dog and so we’re pretty good at working together on things. She was quite happy to stand there and strike poses for me.

Ellie doesn’t always love having the camera’s attention (I think it must look like a big, rude, scary eye pointing right at her). So depending on her mood, she can be evasive and tends to look away no matter how much “happy talk” (and begging) is used. I do have shots of her staring at me straight on and I think it’s safe to say that I had treats with me during those photo sessions.

Macro shots of the kitty. 50mm f/1.8 lens with a 12mm extension tube. Lots of light reflecting up off of the snow outside the window.

I shoot with a Canon 30D that I purchased back in July of 2006. There are times when I seriously consider upgrading to a full-frame camera like the Canon 5D, but I haven’t yet determined that it’s an absolute necessity. One benefit to the smaller sensor on the 30D is that my long lens is extended by 1.6, so I get more reach when at the park with the dogs or when shooting dog agility (see note one).

My lens collection has evolved over the last three years. After experimenting with a variety of lenses, I narrowed down my collection to a few solid performers:

- Canon 17-55mm EF-S IS USM
- Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L USM EF (the non-IS version)
- Canon EF 50mm F1.8

I also have a set of Kenko extension tubes. I didn’t really enjoy using the extension tubes on my zoom lenses. They weren’t practical with the wide-angle zoom and the 70-200 is just a bit too heavy for delicate macro work. Just for fun, my husband got me the 50mm F1.8 lens and not only is it a useful little lens for low-light shots, it also turns into a decent macro lens when used with the extension tubes. I’d highly recommend pairing this lens with the extension tubes as a relatively affordable and extremely usable macro solution.

As an example, I was playing around with the lens and the ext. tubes the other day. Here’s a close-up of a sweater that I knit about five years ago:

I also have a Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash that I’m learning how to use. When mounted on the camera, I’m able to bounce it off the ceiling to get acceptably lit photos. But, they don’t make my heart sing.

I took this photo during the first week that I had the flash. I never would have been able to get this photo before having the flash, but the flash is still my master.

This year I hope to learn how to use this flash effectively and get the lighting effects that I intend. Right now, if the flash works for me, it’s just a happy accident!

Does the equipment make the photographer? No way, but I figured that it’s better to get this big question out of the way. If I picked up your gear and started shooting, the results would be different than when you use the same gear. A photographer with a good eye and the ability to tell stories can use a point and shoot to capture a world that many of us would walk right by. I think that good gear helps get the job done like any tool. But it doesn’t create art. That’s the responsibility of the person behind the lens.

Note one: As it turns out, I misunderstood what “crop-factor” really means. I was assuming that somehow, magically, the focal lengths of my lenses were being magnified by the 1.6 crop factor. For example, I assumed that my 50mm lens was actually shooting as an 80mm. After discussing this with my husband, I learned that I had misunderstood the effects of a crop factor when I first learned about it. I plan to write a post explaining the misunderstanding, since I’m probably not the only person who is/was confused about this.

I was going to change this post so that I didn’t seem silly for not understanding this properly – but hey – photography is a life-long learning experience. So, my misunderstanding will stay published to attest to the learning process!