Monday, May 27, 2013

Mischief Monday: Dirt Colored Dogs (and a Poodle)

I go to a lot of dog events, if you haven't noticed. Most of the time, I bring my camera along. I really enjoy taking pictures during events. I also enjoy going through the photos afterwards, editing them, and sharing them with people. It is one of the best things about going to dog events for me.

But seriously people, stop getting dirt colored dogs!


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Do you have any idea how hard it is to even see a small dirt colored fluffy dog running on dirt, let alone through a zoom lens? And then, once you find the small dirt colored blog that is the dog, how hard it is to get the camera's auto focus to actually focus on that dog?

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Now, I promise I am not trying to insult any of these dogs' looks. They are all wonderful dogs, and pretty gorgeous. But.. they are all brown, or gold, or some similar kind of color. And that color? Yeah, it blends into the dirt.

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And look how many breeds there are that are brown!

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My only issue at all with all these dogs who are brown, red, brindle, etc, is that they are really hard to take photos of. At least on dirt they are. And so many different sports are run on dirt (or golden brown summer grass, which is just as bad!). It makes for hard picture taking.

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Of course, dogs who are black aren't really any better. Auto focus has tons of problems with black dogs no matter what surface they are running on. And then there are exposure problems, you can't see the dog's eyes, or the dog is exposed right and the background is totally blown out, and on and on.

So maybe you are thinking about getting your next dog. And, if your only criteria for that dog is that you want photographers at every event you go to to be able to get wonderful pictures of your dog, here is my advice. Get a poodle. A white, standard poodle. Because seriously, there is no way to screw up those photos!

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10 comments:

  1. Dirt colored dogs may blend with the background but you don't have to bathe them as often since you can't tell how dirty they are ;-)

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  2. Hi Y'all!

    My Human says the most difficult focusing problem she had was getting the settings right, in mid day sun, when photographing my light brown and a guest's shiny black coat in the same frame. Unfortunately we Chessies only come in shades of brown so we blend into the background, like camouflage.

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

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  3. Black works too ;) Even though they say black dogs don't photograph well, I've seen many pictures to the contrary.

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  4. Lol! Of course your white dog isn't going to stay that way too long running on dirt :)

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  5. I have the black dog problem with Remy and Ira. Sometimes they show up great, and others, their eyes blend into the black mask on their faces. I don't know if I could do an all-white dog though... it's like a car, it will show the dirt way more. Haha!

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  6. Loved you photos! I think black dogs are the most challenging to photograph but yep, I noticed white seem a whole lot easier too! But they do tend to show the dirt :)

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  7. Frankie isn't quite dirt coloured but he is very similar to the carpet of pine needles in the forest (where it's too dark to take photos anyway) and the rushes in the sand dunes. Makes it very difficult for my camera to focus on him.

    Loving your lure coursing photos. I imagine it would be great practise for getting action shots :) I'd love it if there was some lure coursing near me to practise my photography ... and let Frankie have a go!

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  8. There's probably a convenient, evolutionary reason why so many dogs are the color of dirt! Now if only floors and toddlers came in the same color.... :)

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  9. This post made my person laugh. I'm not sure why. What's so great about white poodles? Those Dogs sure are running fast though - pawesome photos!!

    Licks,
    Cobi

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