shooting dog agility

Hi,
I've recently started attending training sessions with people I know who run their dogs in agility to get some practise at photographing these dogs as they do this wonderful sport.

I'm using a canon 70-300mm USM lens and pre-focusing at certain points around the course and wait for the dog to reach that area. I'm using shutter speed of 1/1000 of sec or faster, so no troubles with focusing or freezing the action (I'll also try panning and other things later on).
However the training sessions are taking place from 11am to 2pm and I'm wondering if anyone can give me any suggestion for shooting at this time of day (as I usually won't shot at these times) the biggest problem is that most of the time the dogs are not running in the best direction for the light and I end up with dark faces and blown out backgrounds and I can't use a flash or reflector.

Also what is the best way to minimise the distracting elements with in the backgrounds, or is that just part of it, to get use to?
Where am I best to take my meter reading from? I am set for centre weight metering.

So if anyone has and tips for shooting this time of day or this kind of sport I'd be interested to hear them.
I will also have the opportunity to photograph gun dogs, earth dogs, lure coursing and obedience. I usually play around with macro kind of stuff, so this is quite different.
Thanks.

Macro girl wrote in post #16200387
Hi,
I've recently started attending training sessions with people I know who run their dogs in agility to get some practise at photographing these dogs as they do this wonderful sport.

I'm using a canon 70-300mm USM lens and pre-focusing at certain points around the course and wait for the dog to reach that area. I'm using shutter speed of 1/1000 of sec or faster, so no troubles with focusing or freezing the action (I'll also try panning and other things later on).
However the training sessions are taking place from 11am to 2pm and I'm wondering if anyone can give me any suggestion for shooting at this time of day (as I usually won't shot at these times) the biggest problem is that most of the time the dogs are not running in the best direction for the light and I end up with dark faces and blown out backgrounds and I can't use a flash or reflector.

Also what is the best way to minimise the distracting elements with in the backgrounds, or is that just part of it, to get use to?
Where am I best to take my meter reading from? I am set for centre weight metering.

So if anyone has and tips for shooting this time of day or this kind of sport I'd be interested to hear them.
I will also have the opportunity to photograph gun dogs, earth dogs, lure coursing and obedience. I usually play around with macro kind of stuff, so this is quite different.
Thanks.

you will need something like a 70-200 2.8 or a longer focal length large aperture prime to minimize or blurr the background. If you can't change your shooting location or use a flash then you'll just have to deal with the dark faces in post processing.

Thanks watt100, I was thinking that I may need an f2.8 lens, not able to get one for quite sometime, just trying to get the best I can out of what I already have, which is probably making it more challenging for myself.

Macro girl wrote in post #16200463
Thanks watt100, I was thinking that I may need an f2.8 lens, not able to get one for quite sometime, just trying to get the best I can out of what I already have, which is probably making it more challenging for myself.

Start a savings plan. Pick the lens you want, divide the cost by 52 or 104 to determine how much to save every week for one or two years so as to have the funds needed to purchase the lens. You can purchase a really nice lens in two years without having to save a lot each week. Savings plans work.

For now: Shoot tight, crop tighter. That can eliminate a lot of background clutter.

Macro girl wrote in post #16200387
Hi,
I've recently started attending training sessions with people I know who run their dogs in agility to get some practise at photographing these dogs as they do this wonderful sport.

I'm using a canon 70-300mm USM lens and pre-focusing at certain points around the course and wait for the dog to reach that area. I'm using shutter speed of 1/1000 of sec or faster, so no troubles with focusing or freezing the action (I'll also try panning and other things later on).
However the training sessions are taking place from 11am to 2pm and I'm wondering if anyone can give me any suggestion for shooting at this time of day (as I usually won't shot at these times) the biggest problem is that most of the time the dogs are not running in the best direction for the light and I end up with dark faces and blown out backgrounds and I can't use a flash or reflector.

Also what is the best way to minimise the distracting elements with in the backgrounds, or is that just part of it, to get use to?
Where am I best to take my meter reading from? I am set for centre weight metering.

So if anyone has and tips for shooting this time of day or this kind of sport I'd be interested to hear them.
I will also have the opportunity to photograph gun dogs, earth dogs, lure coursing and obedience. I usually play around with macro kind of stuff, so this is quite different.
Thanks.

There's no substitute for accurately tracking action and then pushing the shutter button at the right time. Dog agility show images from a Tamron 70-300mm vibration control lens.

Pre-focusing, IMO, is a waste of time. The dogs are going to run through that pre-focused area really fast, and the odds you'll hit the shutter just at the right time are practically zero. Track the dogs on AI Servo instead.

As far as backgrounds, spend some time looking around the ring before you set up. There most likely will be areas where you can line up yourself <--> dog <--> clean background with some good success. You need to spend this time before you set up. I generally walk an agility course with the handlers, looking for good points to set up.

And yes, save for a good fast lens...

Dave

Thanks for all the tips mentioned so far. I suppose most if it comes down to positioning myself in the best spot and that will depend on a lot of other things that are happening at the time.
This is a hobby for me, so I would want to be sure before I spend that kind of money on a lens. I use to train my dog for this, however for health reasons his not able to run any more, so I thought I'd enjoy photographing them.


I've only been to two agility training sessions so far for photography practise and here's one of my photo's.
Edit to Say - Thanks Dave for your input, You take fantastic photo's of the dogs in sport.

Thanks much, and good luck with the shooting!

Dave

I'm also a fan of tight framing and even tighter cropping as mentioned already. However, with extremely tight framing in the first place the probability of focusing errors increase considerably, even more so with longer and faster lenses while trying to get rid of distracting backgrounds.

For that, one possible approach is to think not only the photographer-subject-background distance ratios but also the height of shooting. Simply by getting lower you can often increase the space behind the subject.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of "setting up" anywhere. I ofter try to change the shooting positions a lot - for one, to avoid a catalogue look in the finished photos.

It could be also good to think whether to include the handler as well - after all it's *a sport* the dogs are not doing alone. Of course in various parts of the world including handlers could pose some privacy issues.

(This could be toward something I tried to put into words: http://koirakuvat.kuva​t.fi/kuvat/ )