Dog Agility (asked to come back in an official capacity)

[palmor]

Hi everyone,
So we went to our second trial this year and of course I took a bunch of photos again :). One possibly neat thing that came out of it (other then watch my wife and dog run of course) is that I may be going back to another trial at the venue in August to shoot the trial officially. This was this particular clubs 1st trial and they didn't have an official photog booked and they still didn't have one for their August trial so they asked me if I would do it. We'll see if things work out :)

Anyway, onto some agility photos. The rest can be seen here if you are interested http://www.pbase.com/palmor/wagit_cpe_may_2325_2009

I just loved watching these Bearded Collies make their way through the course. Their coats make them look huge.
Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
1/2000s f/4.0 at 200.0mm iso200
http://www.pbase.com/palmor/image/113021685/original.jpg

Trying to catch the dogs just as they come out of the tunnels is tough, but it is a blast trying to get them.
Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
1/2000s f/4.0 at 200.0mm iso200
http://www.pbase.com/palmor/image/113021672/original.jpg

Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
1/4000s f/4.0 at 120.0mm iso400
http://www.pbase.com/palmor/image/113021770/original.jpg

Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
1/2000s f/4.0 at 145.0mm iso400
http://www.pbase.com/palmor/image/113021765/original.jpg

Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
1/4000s f/4.0 at 200.0mm iso400
http://www.pbase.com/palmor/image/113021741/original.jpg


One more Bearded Collie.. my favorite subject of the weekend

http://www.pbase.com/palmor/image/113021705/original.jpg

[CanadianKitKat]

Very nice work :-) Colours look excellent! I agree, the tunnels can be tough especially when you get a border collie coming through them full speed ahead.

[tracknut]

Nice shots, and good luck getting the gig!

Dave

[eddarr]

Very good job. What wonderful light to work in. Just watch out for the poles. They should be vertical/horizontal in 3 & 4.

[Dandaman_24]

Excellent exposed photos, but i would have composed the shot a bit differently. Make sure you have the floor and show the actual agility obstacle. Potential buyers of the photos can see what their dog is doing then, rather than a close up of the dog

[bottomdweller]

I think these pics are great. I recently purchased a 30d with 70-200 zoom for this same type of shooting. My wife is running our dog. Our first trial is this weekend so I hope to get some good pics. Do you use av mode? This is our first dslr so I am pretty hopeless so far. What would some good starting points be for shooting outdoors and indoors .
Thanks

[palmor]

Thanks for all the replies/suggestions everyone! I got an email from the event orgainizer and after viewing the photos I took they officially offered me official photographer for their event in August. I don't have any details yet and I don't anticipate making much money but it will be a great experience and who knows where it could lead. :)

I think these pics are great. I recently purchased a 30d with 70-200 zoom for this same type of shooting. My wife is running our dog. Our first trial is this weekend so I hope to get some good pics. Do you use av mode? This is our first dslr so I am pretty hopeless so far. What would some good starting points be for shooting outdoors and indoors .
Thanks

There are others (Dave) that have much more experience then me but I'll share what I do.

General:
*I set the AF to Servo mode and the fps to "High"
*I use single (center) point AF, I found the other AF points on the 40d are too far apart and I'd loose focus on random stuff if I used auto focus points.
*I disable the AF from the shutter button and use the rear AF button only. This lets me keep the AF going while I'm pressing the shutter button.

Outdoors: I shoot in aV mode with my fstop typically set betwen f/2.8 and f/4. I want to keep the DOF as shallow as possible to blur out all the distracting backgrounds that you really don't have much control over. My ISO is usually set to ~200 but I adjust depending on conditions through out the day.

Indoors: The only way I've even come close to getting acceptable shutter speeds indoors (at night or very little light from the outside) is by shooting at f/2.8, ISO3200 and even adding a negative (-.3 to -.6) EV compensation (which is actually a really bad thing to do at such high ISOs.. I'm essentially exposing to the left when you'd want to expose to the right at ISO3200) then dealing with the noise in Post Process via the Noiseware plugin in photoshop.


Hope that helps a little bit
John

Oh, good luck to your wife and dog this weekend!

[bottomdweller]

Thank you very much for the pointers I am sure they will help

[adrian5127]

John lovely shots. One thing I always like about is agility is the dogs have great fun as well. If you are the official photographer will you get better access?

Could I ask you to post a shot taken at iso 3200 before and after noisninja.

Thanks

[tracknut]

Thanks for all the replies/suggestions everyone! I got an email from the event orgainizer and after viewing the photos I took they officially offered me official photographer for their event in August. I don't have any details yet and I don't anticipate making much money but it will be a great experience and who knows where it could lead. :)


Congrats John. A couple thoughts... you may have already covered these:
1. Verify this is an exclusive deal - no other pros allowed to shoot
2. Make sure you have a good plan on how you will market to the attendees: I.e. do you have/need a "booth" of sorts? Will there be a sign-up sheet for the customers (I'm assuming you're not doing on-site sales), will the facility do some marketing in advance and afterwards for you through an email list?

Dave

[inchman254]

*I disable the AF from the shutter button and use the rear AF button only. This lets me keep the AF going while I'm pressing the shutter button.


Quick question about this... You indicated that you recommend AI Servo Mode in addition to the above. I thought that the in AI Servo AF, the camera continuously focused while the shutter button was pressed. It would seem to me that what you are describing is a 2 finger operation to keep the subject in focus.

Am I missing something here?

[Another Canon user]

Nice shots love the last one;)

[palmor]

John lovely shots. One thing I always like about is agility is the dogs have great fun as well. If you are the official photographer will you get better access?

Could I ask you to post a shot taken at iso 3200 before and after noisninja.

Thanks


Sure, this is from an indoor practice when I 1st got the Canon.

unedited, just resized:

1/640s f/2.8 at 175.0mm iso3200
http://www.pbase.com/palmor/image/110768183/original.jpg


After edits and noise reduction:
http://www.pbase.com/palmor/image/110677847/original.jpg


I know that I broke the "expose to the right rule" when shooting at high ISO but I needed to underexpose to get my shutter speeds up to come close to freezing action. I decided that the extra noise was something I could PP out while a motion blured dog wasn't.


John

[palmor]

Congrats John. A couple thoughts... you may have already covered these:
1. Verify this is an exclusive deal - no other pros allowed to shoot
2. Make sure you have a good plan on how you will market to the attendees: I.e. do you have/need a "booth" of sorts? Will there be a sign-up sheet for the customers (I'm assuming you're not doing on-site sales), will the facility do some marketing in advance and afterwards for you through an email list?

Dave

Thanks for the tips Dave! I have been thinking about both these things and I'll know more about #1 soon I think.

For #2 I was thinking about setting up a table at our EZ-Up and I think I'll print out some framed samples at sizes from 4x6 to 13x19 and display them. I'll also print up some bring business cards and pass them out during the event. The sign-up sheet is a good idea I hadn't thought of. As far as them marketing me I know I'll be in the official program where I'll have the URL to my website. I'm going to ask that they post a link to it on their website as well. The email list is another great idea, I'll find out about that.

Thanks again! I gladly except any tips since this will be my 1st event :) The other thing I have to decide is if I want to sell from my pbase site and take orders via email and checks/paypal or use something like Zenfolio. I setup a trial account there and if I fufill my own orders I only loose 4% and they'll take care of all paypal stuff ect.

A question, for a small one ring trial (3-day) how many photos would you guess I'd sell?



John

[palmor]

Quick question about this... You indicated that you recommend AI Servo Mode in addition to the above. I thought that the in AI Servo AF, the camera continuously focused while the shutter button was pressed. It would seem to me that what you are describing is a 2 finger operation to keep the subject in focus.

Am I missing something here?

You know I'm not sure if it keeps focusing when you press the shutter (I know it does of course when the shutter is half pressed). What it doesn't do though is that after take the photo you have to release the shutter so that is a split second where no AF is taking place. The other advantage is that I can focus on something and release the rear AF button and the focus won't change (so I could focus and recompose on a stationary object). It is good for the quick dog/owner portrait :)


John

[tracknut]

A question, for a small one ring trial (3-day) how many photos would you guess I'd sell?

You have to ask me the toughest possible question? :)

If your stuff is better than the previous photographers (my guess is it is), or if these folks haven't had a photographer before, then you should have folks very happy to see your photos - *if* they see them. Hence my marketing comments. I like your idea about putting up some images to give them ideas of what you do.

But I really can't guess on how much you'll sell. Usually for me, the first time I'm with a particular club I don't do all that well, since nobody knows me. The second time, word is out and I do much better. Not always that way, but there is a trend. And if it's not an exclusive deal, I pretty much don't shoot - it's not worth it.

Dave

[palmor]

You have to ask me the toughest possible question? :)

If your stuff is better than the previous photographers (my guess is it is), or if these folks haven't had a photographer before, then you should have folks very happy to see your photos - *if* they see them. Hence my marketing comments. I like your idea about putting up some images to give them ideas of what you do.

But I really can't guess on how much you'll sell. Usually for me, the first time I'm with a particular club I don't do all that well, since nobody knows me. The second time, word is out and I do much better. Not always that way, but there is a trend. And if it's not an exclusive deal, I pretty much don't shoot - it's not worth it.

Dave


Thanks for the info. I had made an assumption that it would be the newer people who would buy more photos as the people doing it for years probably have a ton of them sitting around the house.. then something strange happened. My wife sent my photos to some of the people we know and they in turn sent them along ect ect. I've been getting emails from people asking for photos and how much I charge. I even have some people asking for multiple photos. Most of these people aren't new so I'm not sure how accurate my assumption is.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. It is a huge help. One other thing that happened tonight is that the even organizer asked if she could put some of the photos I took on the club website with credit and links back to the gallery of photos. I thought that was another good way to advertise since almost everyone at these trials signs up via the website.


Thanks again
John

[palmor]

Got the Zenfolio site all setup... If anyone has any interest take a look and let me know what you think :). I'm fulfilling my own orders for now, I think for the August trial I'll add a bunch of the other stuff that Zen offers (like mugs and key chains).


http://johnwoolley.zenfolio.com

[1downfall]

man those are awesome! great shots of wonderful animals! ooohh...and def. good luck!

[CanadianKitKat]

Congrats on getting the gig :-) I've found dog trials to be well worth my time and effort as far as compensation goes. I sell on-site and find it makes a huge difference to my income. I have my computer up and running the moment there is a break in the action. I download pictures as quickly as possible and usually it's surrounded by competitors the rest of the day. I also leave a couple printed portfolios out for people to look at beforehand to get them started.

One suggestion I have though is to always take a close up reference shot of the handler and dog as they enter the ring. When you get ten black and white border collies running one after the other (not unusual in agility!) they can be a serious pain to tell apart when you're trying to find one in particular.

[PhotosGuy]

I like these. I thought that the in AI Servo AF, the camera continuously focused while the shutter button was pressed. It does, even in burst mode. I can see a reason to hold the focus with the button, but prefer to use Custom Function 13-1 to put point selection on the Multicontroller. It only takes a fraction of a second to set the point you need. put some of the photos I took on the club website with credit and links back to the gallery of photos. Good idea. One suggestion I have though is to always take a close up reference shot of the handler and dog as they enter the ring. Another good idea!

[Slaterza]

Great Post John thanks for the high iso comparison shot it is great to see them together. Love the bearded Collie shots and the dogs really do look like they are having a great time I can see the smiles on their faces.