Monday, January 13, 2014

Look Away

Plan C for my Creative 52 photo this week consisted of two ideas of the same theme - Coulee looking away from me out into the distance.  When we open the door to let the girls out, they very first thing they do is run to the back fence to see if anyone is in the park.  They do this every single time without fail, except when I go out with them as that changes their routine.

Me going into the yard with them = play time so their normal routine just isn't followed but I still wanted to get it.  So I just sat on the ground... Lacey immediately ran to "big blue" and brought it to me.  I ignored her. She eventually dropped it and wandered off to sniff. Meanwhile Coulee is standing in the middle of the yard just staring at me and waiting for me to do something. Anything.


When Lacey abandoned the ball, Coulee picked it up out of desperation.  She doesn't like that toy but it was the only one out there.  I ignore it.  She started to bark.  Sigh.  So then I had the idea to throw it over the fence so that she'd look out at it.  She just stared at me and barked.  LOL


A magpie in the neighbour's yard caught her attention briefly and I thought I was going to have my chance, but she did nothing more than turn her head.


Finally after about 20 minutes of me just sitting there on the ground and them wrestling and playing, something in the park caught their attention.  Yay.  (I should have done this in the summer when the park sees more action!)


So it's definitely not my favourite picture of all time but it is a little slice of life that is so ordinary, and so mundane that I had never photographed it before and I'm happy to have it.

My other plan was to take her to the top of Cottonwood Park and have her looking out over the river valley.  I had plans to put her in a stay, drop her toy a few feet out and then take the picture but I knew after how she reacted to the ball on the wrong side of the fence, she wouldn't stare at the toy, she'd stare at me until I released her.  It's times like these that I think a human model would be easier, but I just have to find a way to "manipulate" her into doing what I want.


1 comment:

K-Koira said...

If you have a solid stay, even when a toy is thrown, you can put her in a stay, set up your shot, throw the toy, snap as she looks at it, and then release her to get it. That is how I normally set up my not-looking-at-camera shots with my guys.