Holi Flyball!

We've been busy, and have been doing a lot since our last post. The most exciting thing is probably Flight debuting in flyball, and earning his Flyball Dog title. He still has a ways to go, but I think he'll get there eventually.

One of the most fun things we've done was a photoshoot with our flyball team. Photos with Holi powder and dogs have been getting popular lately, especially for disc and agility photoshoots, and I had been wanting to do some Holi powder flyball shots- and finally talked my flyball team into getting together to have some fun with it.



The results ended up better than I hoped! For most of these photos, the result was completely captured live through the use of powder, though the shots of Flight and Angus were composited by a flyball teammate who happens to be a graphic designer. All photos were taken by me, with the exception of the one of Flight, taken by aforementioned flyball teammate.



This actually ended up being pulled off by just three of us, with five dogs between us, as our boxloader had other plans that day, one of our teammates was on a cruise, and one is still trying to survive the first year with a baby, and isn't quite back into the flyball swing of things yet.



The dogs did fabulous, even Flight. The box was actually shooting powder out (only in the thruster behind the dogs, of course, not into their faces where the ball is loaded), which could rightfully have scared any of the dogs. Especially Flight, who is weirded out by fans and heaters. But while they were all a little confused about the set up, for the most part, they were fantastic- and Flight did better than I thought possible.



I really am thrilled with how these photos all turned out. Our team may be small, but we are fierce, and this project really brings that to light, I feel.



I did have a little fun with some photos of Flight and Ptera, and composited the two of them together into one, which turned out great.



Koira is still enjoying retirement from flyball, and while she was there this day while we put the shoot together, she stayed in the house while we worked with the young dogs, so no photos of her with Holi powder doing flyball.

Portraits

A friend of mine agreed to help me out the other day in getting some pictures of me and Ptera together. I needed one for a specific purpose, but it is nice in general just to have the photos too.

I think we took about 50 photos, and of those, most were either blurry, had me or Ptera not looking at the camera, or looked exactly like the ones next to them. That is pretty much how photoshoots go (and why asking for every photo from a shoot is pretty pointless). I picked out my four favorite to share.

This is the one I ended up deciding to use for the official thing we needed photos for

Benefit of a small dog. I wouldn't want to try this with Koira.

This was one of our first tries, before I got the front of my outfit covered in grass and mud.

And one blooper.

This one may actually be my favorite. It comes right before the one at the top, and I love the crazy look on Ptera's face. I just threw a canister of treats at our photographer. 

Fall Flowers

I have been getting pictures of the dogs with seasonal flowers whenever the opportunity presents itself. In late September, I drove by an awesome field of sunflowers and planned a trip back there later that week for pictures.

Wearing her new fancy collar

This field of sunflowers was more like a narrow strip of them, but it was enough for photos. The day was cloudy with on and off rain and tiny blips of sun.

The wind was blowing pretty good for part of it too

This blue stool has long been one of my favorite props for photos. Especially with things like sunflowers, even relatively large dogs will be much lower than the picture-perfect end of the plant. This stool is tall enough to place the dogs in a much better position for photos. Plus, I just love the color and look of the stool.

With grey rain clouds in the sky

Koira doesn't like posing for pictures near roads. I can't find places like this without driving my them, most of the time. The stool helps keep Koira in one place while I set up for a photo, and treats help her feel a little better about the situation.

Big smile

Panting from nerves and smiling look surprisingly similar, especially if you can get the ears forward. Really, though, if Koira is too nervous about this kind of thing, there is nothing I can say or do to get her to stay on a stool (or anything) and no treat that will be worth eating- and most of all, no way to get her to look at the camera and put her ears up. As long as she is doing all of those things, and we stop before she stops, I figure we're doing okay.

Awkward sibling photo

Your mom made you pose awkwardly with your siblings, right?

"Whatcha doin' up there?"

I hope everyone's fall is going well so far. I am trying to get back into the swing of regularly blogging, but with a ton of agility photos to edit that I am already behind on, a new full time job, flyball class and practice, and trying to get ready for winter (which means stacking firewood, making sure the area around the stove is cleared out and safe, weatherproofing doors and windows, and tons more), I am not sure how often I will be making it to the blog. I feel sad every time a favorite blog disappears from the internet, though, and it seems to be happening like crazy this year, with people leaving with announcements, just disappearing, or simply going from posting regularly to once a month or less, so I hope I won't become one of the many who disappear.

Pet Photography Challenge

I don't keep up with challenges and year long projects very well. A good part of it is that I don't like being told what to do, or having to do something, so once there are rules in place, I tend to back off.

I did, at the beginning of this year, join a Facebook group for pet photography. Pet Photography Challenge issues a new challenge (or theme) each week. You take a photo that fits the challenge/theme, and post it into that week's album. The world doesn't end if you don't get around to it that week. You can use an old photo if you want (I personally consider that cheating for myself, but it is totally allowed in the group).

And bonus, at the end of each week, group members "vote" for their favorite of the photos with facebook likes. The "winning" photo gets used for the next week as the banner/header photo for the group. It is a bit of R+ training for everyone, a bit of a reward.

So far, I've gotten two photos chosen at the end of a challenge and used as the group's header.

Week 3 Depth of Field challenge winner

Week 5 Bokeh Winner

I will admit that I haven't gotten a photo posted for every challenge. A few weeks, the motivation just wasn't there. On others, the end of the week arrived way before I was ready for it, and it just didn't happen. I did Week 1, backlighting, but with a photo I wasn't totally thrilled about. I missed Week 2, Rule of Thirds, because I just didn't get motivated. Week 4's challenge was From A Lower Perspective, and I had a perfect idea and awesome plan, and I just didn't get it done. It just didn't happen. But honestly, it is fine, because no one scolds you for not participating.

I am enjoying the group a lot. Even the weeks where I don't get a picture up, I am finding the prompts fun, something that gives me different ideas about what to try and what to work on with my photography.

This week (Week 6), the challenge is Window To the Soul. This is the picture I submitted:

Koira is super soulful.

Everyone is welcome to join the group. Even if your only camera is a phone, you can get some decent pictures and work on ways to improve your technique. The camera doesn't make the photographer (though it helps in some situations). Knowing good technique, good framing, good composition, all of that helps more than any camera possibly can. Many horrible photos have been taken with thousand+ dollar cameras!

Tiny Ptera and Medium Koira

I've heard more than once that the size of my dogs surprises people in real life. When we went to BlogPaws and met people who have read our blog, Koira was always smaller than they thought she would be. Pallo was always bigger than they thought he would be.

Posing in the lavender 

Well, I can tell you for sure, Ptera is smaller than you think she is. Every time my neighbor sees her, he says "It's like a dog, but tiny," which is pretty much exactly right. Ptera is 10.5 lbs and measures at 13.5" tall at the shoulder.

Koira posing in the exact same spot that Ptera is in, above.

Koira is a solid medium sized dog by most standards. She stands 19" tall at the shoulder and weighs in at or around 40 lbs. She is heavy for her height because of her muscular build, which I think is part of what throws people off about her.

Ptera and Koira's first official posed picture together. Koira isn't a very big dog, and Ptera really is that tiny.

All this is to say, if I thought it was challenging to get good pictures of Pallo and Koira together because of their differences in height, I don't know why I thought it would be any different with Ptera. Pictures are much easier if both of the subjects' faces are close together in terms of distance from the camera- and when one of my dogs can literally walk underneath the other, their faces are never going to be in the same place! So if you've been wondering why there are no pictures of Ptera and Koira posing together, this is one major reason for that. The other major reason being that I am still in the process of teaching Ptera how to do stand stays and sit stays and pose for the camera, and it is easier to work with her alone than to have both dogs doing it at the same time.

Three kinds of lavender- one behind her, one beside her, and one in front of her

Koira is a pro poser, and she should be after this many years. She has her times when she doesn't want to do it, and refuses to put up her ears. And sometimes she manages to just look sad even with her ears up. Some places are no-goes for posing with her too, due to her phobia of traffic noises (though she is getting better with it!).

Ptera is in the same location that Koira is in above. So tiny.

Ptera so far is fearless, but sensitive. Noises and movement and things don't phase her. Being addressed in a harsh tone can flatten her, though, and being reset for a broken stay tends to make her Dobby ears come out- where instead of nice forward tipped Jack Russell ears, her ears kind of flop half open out to the side, even if the reset is done in an upbeat way with no words of disappointment. Thankfully, she is quick to recover, and while she is sensitive, she is naturally a quick and inquisitive dog.

And I am finding out that there are shots you can get, like being totally embedded in the lavender, with a tiny dog that you have no chance of getting with a medium or large dog. But on the other side of the same coin, there are shots where a tiny dog gets totally lost, such as posing with larger things like statues, tall flowers, etc. If the flowers are above her head, it is like she is just getting her picture with a bunch of green stems! There are so many things to get used to about having a tiny dog for the first time, and adjusting my photography to work with her is just one of them.

Barn Hunt

I entered Koira in an official Barn Hunt trial for the first time this past weekend. We did Instinct and Novice in the morning trial, and just Novice in the afternoon trial on Saturday. Unfortunately since I was the one taking pictures at the trial, I don't have any pictures of Koira's runs. But I did toss in a few pictures of other dogs at the trial.

You can see the PVC tubes used in Barn Hunt here. They have plenty of air holes in them, are large enough for the rats to turn around and get comfy, but small enough that the rats don't get rattled around too much if the tube gets knocked off of a bale of straw. This is a mini schnauzer who was running Instinct in the morning.

In Barn Hunt, dogs are supposed to find rats and ignore bedding, and the handler has to tell the judge when the dog has found a rat. The rats are safe and secure inside of a heavy duty PVC tube, and they actually seem to like it, as they will happily hop into the tube if it is placed into their cage. The lowest level in Barn Hunt is Instinct. In Instinct, there are three tubes. One tube it totally empty and has never had anything in it. One tube has rat bedding but no rat. And then the third tube has a rat and some bedding. The goal is for the dog to indicate to the handler which tube has the rat.

Koira mauled all three tubes in Instinct and I called the wrong one as the rat (even though I called the only one she hit twice). She really goes to town on the tubes, biting and hitting them around. I can't let her do that for too long to a tube because if there is a rat in there, we have to make sure the rat isn't being injured by the tube being thrown around. So if the dog hits a tube hard, and you can't call them away to search the other tubes, you pretty much have to call it as a rat or get a DQ. Safety for the rats is very important- most of the rats used are household pets. 

In Novice, which you can run in the same trial as Instinct, there are the same three tubes, empty, bedding, and rat, but instead of the tubes being laid out on the ground, they are hidden in the straw around the course. The dog has to sniff the tubes out. They are also required in Novice to go through a tunnel made by the straw, and to get all four feet up on a bale, called a climb. These events are timed, so you have to do all of it quickly.

Koira hit a tube hard in Novice so I called it, but again, not the rat. I don't know if it was the bedding tube or the totally empty one. She was really into it though, which is why I called it. She did do both her tunnel and her climb before hitting the tube, and was up and excited and eager to search.

Dogs of any size and any age over 6 months can compete, regardless of breed, as long as they can fit through the tunnel. I've even seen Great Danes do Barn Hunt, though they have to belly crawl through the tunnel. This is a young Malinois who was in heat at the trial. Bitches in season can compete, but have to run at the end of their class and have to wear panties.

Our afternoon Novice run, I tried staying totally quiet. People told me I was talking a lot during our morning runs, which can distract the dog. The result was that Koira didn't take the tunnel and didn't get a climb. She hit one tube hard, I called her away to keep searching, she hit another tube hard, I called that one as the rat (because why not?), but no. Neither of those tubes held rats (and since both of them were buried in straw and she had to find and dig them out, and one had to be totally empty, I can't help but assume she is actually scenting for the PVC the tubes are made out of, or the paint on them, rather than for rats or rat bedding). Staying quiet on my part seemed to result in a very flat dog in the ring, who attempted to leave twice, so I don't think we'll be doing that again. The goal after all is for us to have fun, and Koira has always worked better and happier and more "up" in training with verbal feedback from me. So no Qs for our day. 

Koira had fun for the most part, and if we get a chance to do some practice, we may enter another trial in the future. Without practice, though, I think entering trials would be pointless because Koira needs to learn what the goal of the game is. Right now she thinks she is just supposed to find PVC tubes. She needs to learn that she is supposed to find rats in tubes and ignore the other tubes. For that I need some rats and some tubes though, so we'll see if I'm able to do any practice or training. 

This smooth Fox Terrier was an awesome dog. I've never met a smooth fox before, and I kind of fell in love with the breed, all three of the ones at the trial were just adorable, amazing, friendly dogs. You can also see in this picture the grating at the end of the tube, which gives the rat plenty of airflow.

I also did photos for the morning trial, and for a small part of the afternoon trial, but Koira decided to be a Bad Dog and dig madly and chew on the bars of her crate. Since it was too hot to put her in the car even with shades up, we headed home early. I headed back on Sunday, minus the dog, to take photos for the morning trial and part of the afternoon trial. I left Koira at home, since it was supposed to be hot again and we weren't entered in the trial. I knew she'd have fun if we did enter, but like I said before, I think she really needs to do some practice before we blow money entering trials.

I have been photographing Barn Hunt for a year and a half at this point, and I have to say, it is a fun, enjoyable sport. The dogs seem to love it, and there is a big amount of teamwork needed. And, unlike pretty much every other sport, where the handler is the head of the team, in Barn Hunt, the dog is the head of the team, and the handler has to take cues from the dog. I think it gives the dogs a unique experience different from a lot of the other stuff we do with them on a regular basis.

Has anyone else tried Barn Hunt? How did your dogs do?

Take Pictures With Your Dogs

Take pictures with your dogs, not just of your dogs.

You never know when something will happen. And when you look back, you will want pictures of you together.

You might not like how you look- your hair is messy, you want to lose some weight, you aren't wearing the best clothes, you don't like your smile, or whatever it is. You might just hate getting your picture taken. But get over it, and take pictures with your dog.

I had just finished a two hour hike with lots of elevation gain when we took these photos. My jeans are stained on the knees, I'm wearing just another t-shirt, my hair is in a messy ponytail, etc. Pick it apart all you want. But even though I don't really like posing for photos, I made a point of asking my mom to take my camera and get some photos of me with my dogs. Because a friend of mine lost one of her dogs last week and will be forever grateful for the photos her husband took of her with her dog before he was put down.

So take pictures with your dogs. You might not get a do over. 

And check out this blog post, because I could never say it better. http://dogmasf.com/2014/07/02/do-overs/

WW: The Crazy Trix

I've been trying for years to get a good photo of Trix on the box. She is one of the border collies on our team, and is officially our fastest dog. Her turn isn't always high, but it is always fast and tight. All of this makes getting a focused photo of her on the box really difficult. But I think I managed some good ones.

For more photos from my team's flyball demo and Fun Match at the Oregon State Fair this past weekend, check out this post. 

Oregon State Fair

My flyball team was invited to do a fun match at the Oregon State Fair. The team did a number of demos throughout the day, followed by a 28-race-long fun match in the afternoon/evening. I ended up working in the morning so wasn't able to participate in the demos, but did make it up in time for the fun match.

For the most part, I helped out by box loading for the various singles, pairs, and teams that were running, but I did get a chance to take a few pictures of the dogs in the later part of the evening.

This is Dash, one of our newer dogs. He ran in his first tournament in July.

Dash has a great turn.

And he sure is pretty.

Neena is still pretty new to flyball in terms of years, but old in terms of being solid. She has a great turn that was trained without the use of props, using shaping and a clicker. As you can see, that method really worked well for her.

Nice tight turn

On her way back

Brit is an old hand at flyball, though she hasn't been in it nearly as long as my dogs. She is ball crazy, but very eager and willing. And while she doesn't have the slim and sleek build of the fast border collies, she sure can turn on the speed.

Coming off of the box

On her way back

Taking photos of sports outside is so much easier than indoors. You can keep the ISO so much lower, punch the shutter speed so much higher, and the autofocus tracks so much easier as well. I really like how well a lot of these photos turned out.

Pallo and Koira didn't participate in the fun match. Koira has such a dock diving obsession that I knew if she heard or saw the dock diving happening right next to the flyball area, she would be a terror in her crate. I didn't want to have to manage her the entire time I was there, so she had to stay at home. Pallo came along, but didn't run. He did wear the donation vest over at the dock diving competition for a little while and work the crowd. He picked up $15 in donations for Chase Away K9 Cancer in the few minutes we were over there, and had a great time getting petted and scrounging dropped fair food as well. 

Overall, the fun match went great and the day was a lot of fun. 

Black and White Sunday: Logo

I decided it was time to upgrade my logo and watermark for my photography business. This is my new logo. What do you think?

WW: My Beautiful Dogs

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I spent all weekend at a Barn Hunt event in Salem taking photos, and am now sorting through and editing all of the photos from the weekend. And this weekend, I will be doing the same thing for a Coursing Ability Test in Redmond. I am really enjoying this adventure into the world of professional sports photography, but it is most definitely a lot of work!

So, enjoy a few photos of my gorgeous dogs from a couple of weeks ago. 

(Also, these photos go to prove that a photographer's skill has more to do with the outcome of the photo than any fancy equipment. While I did use my Canon 6D to take these photos, the lens I used was a Sigma 90mm that I purchased used for $60. Skill makes a photographer, not equipment.)

Derpy lip

Koira had a bit of a derpy lip as well.

Squirrel watching

And some more squirrel watching.

Wordless Wednesday: Flyball Photos

Okay, not totally wordless. I officially started my professional photography business at the beginning of this year. Right now, I'm swamped with editing flyball tournament photos from the past two weekends. Not to mention that two flyball tournament weekends in a row can be exhausting even if you just run a dog and box load, even without photographing it thrown in!

Barn Hunt

While my dogs tried barn hunt a while ago and more or less failed at it, I still think it is a pretty cool sport. I am doing the photography for an upcoming barn hunt trial in a few weeks, so this weekend, I headed to the trial location to shoot a practice. Lighting indoors in barns can be interesting, so I wanted to get a feel for it before the trial.

For those who haven't heard of barn hunt, the basic idea is pretty simple. Dogs are trained to find and indicate where there are live rats inside a given area, with a course made of straw or hay bales. The rats are kept safe from the dogs in sturdy PVC tubes.

The handler here is holding up the tube with the rat to let their dog get a nice good smell.

To make the entire thing more difficult, there are three kinds of tubes that can be on the course- empty tubes, tubes with used rat bedding, and tubes with live rats. You want the dog to only indicate the tubes with the live rats. This is the part that my dogs failed at, since they were equally excited about the tubes with the rats and the tubes with the bedding. It is something you can certainly train to overcome if you have that problem and want to pursue the sport, I just already have so many sports and training plans that I decided not to with my dogs.

Here is one of the tubes, partially buried in loose hay. There is no real way to tell which tubes have what in them just by looking, so the handlers really have to rely on the dog to tell them what is where.

Depending on the level the dog is in, the number of total tubes and total rats in tubes can change to make the course more difficult. In all levels, the dog is also required to climb onto a bale and go through a tunnel made of bales either before, during, or after finding their rats in order to complete their run.

Butt up, nose down after climbing two bales high and then deciding to check out what is buried in the loose straw a bale below her. The rats can be hidden on the ground, between bales, or on top of bales.

Overall, I had a good time. It was chilly, but not freezing cold. The lighting was kind of crazy since the weather was veering wildly between sun-and-clouds all the way to super-dark-rain-clouds-plus-downpour, and all the stages in between. I'm looking forward to shooting the actual trial in two weeks (and hoping for sun that day!).

Fun with Photos

I shared this photo of Pallo last week on Wordless Wednesday.

This also happens to be my current background photo on my computer. And my current favorite photo of Pallo. To me, the colors just blend so nicely. The depth of field means that Pallo's eyes are totally sharp and in focus while the leaves are a pleasant blurred background. It somehow makes him stand out while blending in, all at the same time.

And, I can't stop messing with the photo.

This is what it looked like straight out of camera (ooc).

It was a good photo. The focus and depth of field are obvious and really play their part. But, it is in no way as striking as the version posted above. The colors are dull and it just seems like its missing something. It is a good picture, but not a great one.

My latest version of this picture is this:

This version might not be some people's favorite. It is a more creative interpretation than the original edit posted above, for sure. Most of the time, my goal is to take the best possible photo in camera, and then enhance it in post processing to make it look just as amazing on the screen (or in print) as it did in person. This version is something a bit different. The colors are vibrant still, but the blacks are muted, giving the whole photo a matte look. I think this look works great on this photo. Pallo's eyes and nose seem to stand out even more. His body seems to pop from the leaves a bit more as well. 

I'm sure I will come up with some other edits. I never can leave my favorite photos alone. At least, not until I get new favorites!