This one also just needed some minor adjustments. Take a little off the top (so he isn't quite so entered in the image!), remove the flower in front - too distracting, take the blade of grass on the left side of his face out and blur the areas of grass that are in focus on the sides of the image. I'm not sure if I agree with the crop (I find it feels squishy if the dog's head doesn't have breathing room) but I definitely agree with everything else!
I sat down and had a portfolio review done the other day by a local photographer. It's hard to find someone that can give you honest (and knowledgable reviews). I'm hoping to get a more in-depth one done with a well known pet photographer soon but I couldn't seem to find the time to wrap my head around all the information I needed to provide to make it worthwhile and it was easier to just gather 30 photos together and get some quick and dirty feedback.
It was good. I learned a lot - mainly about what I should be doing better in editing but a little bit about what I could be doing differently while shooting too. Going into this process, I didn't feel like I needed to agree with every comment he said, but for the most part, I found I understood his point and agreed with him.
I thought I would re-edit the images based on the review and then post some before and afters. Mainly so I can remember and refer back to it, but also in case some of you want to learn from my mistakes. :)
I tended to make the same "errors" over and over again. The biggest one is putting my subject in the centre of the frame. There are times when it's the best option, but often it isn't. I know this. I've heard this before, yet I can't seem to stop myself. I don't tend to centre my subject in the middle of the entire picture - but often they are in the middle from side to side or from top to bottom.
In this situation I took quite a few pictures of her under the tree so I just chose one with a crop I could work better with to include the feedback - which was essentially to put her on the right edge and to include more of the tree on the left.
Another common criticism (although I didn't specifically write it down for this one) was to darken the background elements and increase my contrast so I did that too.
Before:
Yesterday I set out to try and get pictures of Lacey being sassy. It isn't as easy as it sounds. I have to be 100% engaged with her or it instantly stops - which means I'm shooting with the camera held down near my knees while I'm flailing a big blue ball around with the other hand. I'm also having to keep Coulee entertained at the same time or she turns into a barking, jealous fiend.
But I occasionally fluked out. I wasn't quite able to capture her cute little run though.. so I'll have to try again.
I'm part of a group on flickr that gets a challenge every 2 weeks... This time around the challenge is minimalism. So off Coulee, Marlin and I went to the university where there is a pretty cool sculpture thing I thought we could use. It is nothing like what I normally shoot, but I quite like it!
It's been a while since I blogged and since I went to Fort Macleod with the pups. So it only seemed fitting to post the pictures I took today of Coulee.
