I carry my camera around as much as I can, which still isn't often enough. This weekend I carried it as I took a friend from out-of-town to the Eastern Connecticut shore. It's a beautiful area sprinkled with quaint New England towns.
While walking down Main Street in Essex, CT (Where you can buy decals for your car with the letters "SX") I came across the dog pictured above. He was a happy dog. That's not a breed, but to me much more important. I asked his owner if it would be OK to shoot a few pictures, which I then preceded to do.
I'm writing this because I wanted to share my dog shooting technique with you. It's very simple, but very effective. Shoot low. Shoot wide.
Most people take photos of animals from the human perspective. In other words, they shoot while standing. That gets you a lot of the dog's back and not much else. If you get down really low, more of the dog's personality and perspective come into play. In both these shots I held the camera so low I couldn't look through the viewfinder! Framing was just a guess and I threw out most of the shots. If you have a compact camera with a 'live' LCD back, that's less of a problem.
I'm using a Sigma 10-20mm lens at 11mm on a Canon 300D. That's considered very wide angle and affords me a large field of view (and significant spatial distortion of straight and parallel lines). Both shots were 1/100 second exposure, though with a wide angle lens shutter speed becomes much less critical. A wide angle lens is by definition less prone to shake.
Don't be scared to experiment. Don't be scared to shoot and discard. Get close, get low and shoot wide. You'll probably end up with photos very different from those you've taken before.
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July 15, 2008 7:15 AM
if you need to use the viewfinder in those situations lie on your back and take the picture upside down
July 15, 2008 11:23 AM
Which brings up another interesting point--in nearly all digital situations it is easy to correct for orientation. If your only shot isn't perpendicular to the horizon, or upside down on your screen (as with MS's suggestion), it can be fixed with even the most rudimentary of tools.
Geoff Fox
July 15, 2008 5:40 PM
This reminds me of what I was taught both in the field and by my teacher that worked for Newsday- you're not always going to be in the most comfortable or stable positions to take the best shot so you should use your environment to your advantage.
Laying down is an awesome idea, as is sitting down Indian style while taking the pic. Or if there is a light pole by you, brace yourself against it.
I use an Olympus E-510 with Leica lenses, so I have both Live View and the viewfinder. However, you're more likely to achieve a stable shot with the viewfinder.
Nice job Geoff.