Challenge 2: Get Down

For the second challenge as part of the Embark Photography challenge, I needed to produce an image from a very low vantage point and ideally have a very narrow focal plane visible in the image.  Photography is often done at eye level, but an easy way to really be impactful with pet photography is to get down to their level or even lower to showcase the whole animal against the backdrop.  

Once again this was more difficult (and slightly painful) than I orginally thought it would be.  Now, I'm no stranger to laying down on the ground in some weird fashion in order to get down during photo sessions, but I, admittedly, have never really paid attention to the how the focal plane can play into the rest of the image other than the dog itself... so it was definitely an educational challenge.  

Concept 1 & Photo Session 1 - I met a set of new clients and their pup Louie at World's End in Hingham for a wonderful, early morning session.  It was a stunning morning, filled with such beautiful light and just an amazing setting to capture a session in.  Starting out we had to cross a bridge to get onto the trails and I decided to have Louie pose against the rail and take some images that incorporated some leading lines... completely forgetting (it was early and I hadn't had enough coffee) about the Get Down challenge, but the resulting images were cute and low.  I wrestled with using the image a little bit, but ultimately decided that it wasn't low enough and the focal plane wasn't as evident as I wanted it to be.  There were a couple of other images from that same session, one in the grass and one in the water that I thought might work as well, but decided against them for different technical reasons.

Concept 2 & Photo Session 2 - I met with a friend and his 2 white GSDs at Callahan State Park for a second run at this challenge.  I had scouted the location before and found a few pathways and a small bridge that could work for the challenge.  The sun was still a bit too high, as photographing in direct sunlight is difficult enough... photographing a WHITE dog in direct sunlight is not adviseable.  We waited a short bit till the sun was filtered a bit through the clouds and positioned Maverick on the bridge.  After a few shots Maverick decided that he wanted to play in the muddy stream underneath the bridge and then became a white and black dog lol!  We tried some running images through the pathways, but the lighting was making it difficult and the dogs were clearly getting tired of having to go along with what we wanted them to do... they just wanted to explore and play, so we let them.  I did edit up and thought about using an image of Maverick on the bridge, but I felt that his position (lower than me because the bridge dipped) and that there was some moderate side light on his face that I didn't want to enter that image. 

Concept 3 & Photo Session 3 - The day before the challenge image was due my wife and I took Crash down to a nearby set of fields that have a stone pebble parking lot.  We did a mix of posed shots and action shots at a nice focal length 185mm+ and a nice, low aperture of 2.8 to really dial in that nice focal plane.  After spending about a half an hour shooting I ended up selecting the very first image of the day for entry.  I really grappled with submitting the posed shot or the action shot (which will be in my FB comments), but decided because the focal plan in the action shot as well as the kicked up stones looked a bit blurry to me, that I would go with the posed image.  Plus, I really love the lighting of the posed shot as there is a nice top and backlight that seperates Crash from the background.  Being a dark dog he tends to blend in with dark backgrounds, but the backlight helps him pop.  

Editing:  There wasn't a lot to do here, but I did get rid of stray fur and doggy slobber.  I brightened Crash's eyes ever so slightly and removed a few bugs from the background.  The focal plane on the ground was left alone, as I thought it looked great the way it was.  

Image review:  Charlotte and Craig agreed that the image met the brief and showed that it was shot from a really low angle.  There was some slight conversation about Crash and whether he has a 2nd back leg, which he does, but the legs are lined up so well that they kind of blended together.  The critique on the image was that the background greens seemed a bit too saturated and cool in tempature and Crash's tongue was a bit too long in the image.  (He does have an abnormally long tongue!).  The image was shortlisted and made it into the top 22, but was eliminated just prior to making it into the top 20 for this challenge.  I've gone ahead and made the recommended changes in the edit, which you can see in the Facebook post comments (www.facebook.com/lilmonsterphotography)

Onto the next challenge... Composition 101!