Day out Whippet dog racing.

Took these yesterday - All 'First timers' trialling for racing.

nothing then? No replies . Seems to happen to every post I ever make, maybe won't bother with the forum again - too American Orientated I guess, so us Brits don't fit in.

That's funny, I always think of this forum as very British-centric

I like the shots, and I know how hard they are to get. The ones from the side should be taken from a lower perspective if you can get it. But maybe those side markers are in your way.

Thanks
Dave

There are plenty of Poms on this site, and they didn't jump to respond either------so it's rather odd to read this as a nationalist conspiracy. Lack of response happens all the time, and is not necessarily related to the quality of the images. Don't be so easily offended.

Incidentaly------I love No. 3.

well I'll resurrect this thread because I love seeing whippets in action. so intense they're almost terrifying and yet anyone who knows a whippet will know how soft their natures are. Real Jekyll and Hyde dogs. I have tried and tried to get shots of my whippet running towards me. I have lots and lots of photos but I dont think one is in focus so I appreciate seeing these. How I wish I could get some photos like these.
That little creamy white whippet looks like she'll dislocate her hips!

Here's a couple more for you. Running toward you is tough, the camera or you has to be pretty quick to get the focus right. I'm not sure how well the 400D will track on servo mode.

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Oh be still my beating heart! Dave the 400D does not cope at all well. I wonder if I might have some luck with my new lens, I might fluke a couple.
You've taken the photos I dream of. Unless.......What's your address, I'll fly over and steal your cameras!

Whippeticious wrote in post #6799040
Oh be still my beating heart! Dave the 400D does not cope at all well. I wonder if I might have some luck with my new lens, I might fluke a couple.
You've taken the photos I dream of. Unless.......What's your address, I'll fly over and steal your cameras!

You should post some of your results. It may not be the camera, but the settings and the lighting that is giving you fits.

DDCSD wrote in post #6802822
You should post some of your results. It may not be the camera, but the settings and the lighting that is giving you fits.

You could well be right, I am a beginner. I posted some pics on a dog forum that has a photography section in it and the general opinion there was that I was expecting too much from my camera and lenses, that in itself probably still has to do with my inexperience. I am still trying to understand the basics.:o I have lots of out of focus pics of whippet running towards me though.

Here's one of my many failures. How embarassing, but if you can give me any advice I will be grateful. I'd only just got the camera and had it in sports mode when I took this.

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I don't know the 400D, but a couple thoughts...

1) don't ever ask for photo reviews on a dog forum Well okay, maybe not *never* but all the dog forums I look at have no photographers of any relevance, and are mostly geared toward telling everyone how great their photos are, regardless of what they look like.
2) You picked a pretty hard subject. Solid gray dogs, like solid black and solid white dogs, are *very* hard for the AF system to find - even for my MkIIN. You could get a better result than this by using a smaller aperture and manually pre-focusing on a point and shooting when the dogs hit that point.
3) It's not clear to me that your focus point was on a dog - have you checked?
4) The settings for this photo look fine to me, but watch out for the "action" mode setting - it was a bit of luck it got them right this time. For example I suspect it will never go over ISO 400, which can be a problem.

Keep shooting, and good luck!
Dave

Agree with Dave above...avoid the auto action setting and shoot either manual or perhaps aperture priority depending on sun/cloud inconsistencies.

YOu don't say what auto focus mode you are in. A few tips in case you are NOT doing this:

1) Use AI Servo and High FPS as possible for fast action like this.
2) Use the Center Point only for focus and keep this trained on your subject while you follow it in AI Servo mode. If composition is off, you can always crop to adjust this later in PP.
3) If you have not already done so, look into taking the auto focus function off of the shutter (ie half press of shutter) and moving it to the * button on the back of the camera which you then activate using your thumb. I find that once you are used to this it allows much easier focusing on moving subjects and separates focus and exposure. Search forums here for Custom Fn IV or * button and you should find lots of info on the benefits of this.

very nicely done, especially on the shots where the dog is moving towards you. those can be very difficult, even with a 1 series. the only real crit I'd offer is to watch your horizons. they are off in a couple and its rather distracting imo.

namasste wrote in post #6805264
very nicely done, especially on the shots where the dog is moving towards you. those can be very difficult, even with a 1 series. the only real crit I'd offer is to watch your horizons. they are off in a couple and its rather distracting imo.

Scott, I'm curious any of if these horizon issues are in my photos - if so let me know which. I normally "level" according to known vertical lines in the image, and in this case it was the buildings behind, but if that makes the image look "off", I'd like to hear it.

Dave

tracknut wrote in post #6805534
Scott, I'm curious any of if these horizon issues are in my photos - if so let me know which. I normally "level" according to known vertical lines in the image, and in this case it was the buildings behind, but if that makes the image look "off", I'd like to hear it.

Dave

hey Dave. Maybe the first but honestly, fields can have so many undulations and whatnot that sometimes what seems off, really isn't. The dogs seem well balanced in the image and the awesome bokeh really tames the horizon anyway. I'm going to say yours look fine. Speaking of fine, very nice images as well. I know nothing of this sport but watching dogs do their thing is always awesome to me.