A Brief Interruption

We interrupt this A to Z challenge to bring you more of Lacey in silhouette.  It is weird to be blogging every day, but not necessarily blogging about what I want to blog about, so I'm sure there will be more than one "interruption" along the way.

A few people asked yesterday if I had someone else throw the toy while I took the picture, and in this case I definitely had help.

I normally shoot completely by myself as I tend to walk the dogs mid day when Marlin is at work. For Coulee, this doesn't create many photographic limitations. Coulee likes to "lead out" while playing fetch and will drop the toy off at my feet then go running off into the field.  I can control her lead outs based on how I throw the toy.  So for example, if I want her to get some good exercise, I let her do her big sweeping lead outs (were talking 15-20 seconds of flat out running before she even considers circling back to see what direction I'm going to throw it) and I throw it as far as I can. She usually starts off our walks with these as she is fresh and raring to go.

If I want her to stay in, I stop her lead out quickly by making a noise (to make her look at me) and quickly throwing the toy.  If I keep throwing the toy to a certain place, after a few throws, she leads out to that location, turns and waits for me to throw the toy. So in the case of the silhouettes, if I keep throwing the toy to the top right hand corner of the hill, that is where she'll lead out to. So as soon as she stops and turns to watch, I throw the toy to the top left hand corner of the hill and she runs along the edge of the hill to the toy while I take the photos.  Once she starts predicting that I'm going to throw to the left, she starts to lead out to the left and I change things up by throwing to the right.  Does that make sense?  Basically, I can get her to go anywhere I want merely by throwing a toy there a few times.

Lacey is a little less "cooperative". She does whatever she wants and while she will chase a toy occasionally, she waits for me to throw it before actually running. You know, more like a normal dog.  :)  So I have never been able to get a decently silhouetted shot of her.  Silhouettes aren't hard but the dogs need to be in the right place, facing the right way AND I need to be at the bottom of the hill off to the side instead of ahead or behind them.  I like the sense of movement in my silhouettes so just putting her in a stay in the right place isn't really what I wanted to do.

So anyway, to make a long story short, I called Marlin down to the park the other night so we could finally get some pictures of Lacey.  He hung out at the top of the hill with the pups and threw the toy along the edge to get her to move in the right direction.

So now I finally have my Lacey in silhouette photos I've wanted for a while.  Sorry that the photo processing in these is all over the map.  I was playing around at different times and couldn't decide which I preferred - stark contrast in black and whites or with a little colour and less contrast.

Also, be prepared for more silhouettes tomorrow.  I still have more from this series I want to share and they'll fit in with my theme tomorrow.  :)