Dog Life

[VPX]

Comments and suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks,
Patrick
http://homepage.mac.com/xooxs/doglife.jpg

[Rubbahumpy]

huh

[Andy_T]

I really like the composition of the original picture.

How did you get him to stand still?

Best regards,
Andy

[VPX]

Hi Andy!
Thanks!
My dear Dog is the perfect model. You can take picture after picture of him (even with flash) with him standig still, just like he enjoys it. ;-)
I appreciate your comments and votings.

[vinnyveez]

Overall I think the picture is pretty well shot….however,


I would crop out the background. Is the picture of your rug (or whatever he is sitting on) or the dog. When you say here is a picture of my x, the show a picture of your x. Not a frame filled with mostly y with a small amount of x . Now if you had a cool setting and you wanted the dog (or whatever your subject is) to be shot in that scene, then you can give equal amounts of the frame to both the dog and the background. But since you were shooting your dog, let me see your dog.
We used to have an English sheep dog. They really are great dogs. But the best part about them is their face. From the angle you chose you cant see his face as well as I would like. Like I said above, if you have no interesting background, zoom in and fill the frame with the dog. Get a closeup of just his cute face, using a long lens and large aperture, which will get rid of the boring background.
The picture is fairly well shot so you have the technical know how. Its really just the composition I would change.
see the 2 pictures of friends dog’s that I attached. They were shot with point and shoot digitals so I was somewhat limited on options. Technically they are pretty bad (head chopped off, leg showing in other one) as I took them a few years back, before I really became aware of what I was looking for. However I think you can see where I am going.


Hope this helps, and PLEASE send in some more pics as I love English sheep dogs. I would love to see some close-ups of his cute mug. J keep up the great work!

[eljustino]

I like the contrast and composition. I would crank up the colour and brightness to get it even more so!

[txdude35]

I agree-trying to figure out what the background was took my attention away from the dog, where you have a great shot of the top of his head (?)

[VPX]

Hi Everybody!
Thanks for your comments and the picture examples.
I was actually trying to do a desktop background kind of photo here... ;-)
It was shot on a football field (don't think I have such a dirty rug at home ;-) ).
I also wanted to create an image/feeling of "lonely but brave dog out in the cold world"... something like that anyway.
Just a picture of the dog alone .. hmm, I don't know.. I find that to boring.
Check this out (maybe you'll enjoy this more...:
http://homepage.mac.com/xooxs/joey_sco_2005.jpg
and this one:
http://homepage.mac.com/xooxs/joey_sco_20051.jpg

[vinnyveez]

much more interesting shot.
1 the dogs face is visible
2 he is in an interesting location so he can share the frame with it
3. i understand what you mean that a head shot is boring, but to be quite honest that first photo you posted was pretty boring. so in a situation where you had no interesting background,just get rid of it. Unless you are going for the lonely dog look, which to me didnt work in that shot.

so any way, this shot is way better. Much better. Only 2 things i would suggest 1. dont center him in the frame (it leads to the "boring" effect that you dont want. 2. his face seems a little bright. All in all a great shot but just my 2 cents. he is a cool looking dog. i always remember my engklish sheep dog as being somewhat dopey. he sure was lovable though.

Just got doen looking at the picture posted on the link. to me that is the best shot, technically speaking. it captures his personality. try and catch him in some window light when he is asleep. in b and W it would be a great look for him.

[vinnyveez]

oh and one more thing. if you wante dthe lonlely dog against the worlsd look, what i would suggested to do was to get down on the ground, behind him and take a picture of him (from behind) looking across the field, that might have worked. maybe, i dunno.

[Big_B]

I think the first one is great. It is very different from your 'standard' dog shots. The composition is excellent. The background is odd, but that doesn't bother me. In fact, I think the background adds to the arty feel of the shot. Its not something that I would have as my desktop, but I think its a really good photo. I always really like it when I see someone doing something really individual and creative that doesn't conform to the usual rules.

Keep it up!

[Jemmind]

I think for use as a desktop background, It's a great shot. Lots of open space for all of your icons. When I pick my desktop photos I like it to be like this, a subject on the right, clean space to put my icons on the left. So your icons are easy to see.
Great!
Julie