Last photo for November 2020
I took a bunch of shots of the Duke today following his grooming and haircut. I posted a few tomorrow. They all look rather similar, except that the position of his head and ears changes slightly. Usually, he’s up and running around, but today, when I REALLY wanted his picture, he wouldn’t move. And it was dark and rainy. So the natural light in the living room isn’t great except in mid-summer. If you want to see something more active, you’re going to have to negotiate with the Duke. Bring treats. More than one.
Not cropped, no processing. It didn’t need much except maybe some cropping and brightening.
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Categories: #Photography, dogs, Pets, Portrait
THE NEW SHORT-HAIRED DUKE 
DUKE THE DOG 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Oh my, such a cutie! and what an expression that is!
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That face screams “I’m dying from starvation! Feed me! You’ll be sorry if you don’t!” He is NOT STARVING. You can barely find his rib cage. Sheesh.
If he weren’t such a cutie, we’d have to beat him regularly. As it is, I spend a LOT of time explaining to him — long-form — that he doesn’t need to eat continuously from when he opens his eyes until he finally closes them. Sadly, he doesn’t listen.
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You crack me up, Marilyn! I can just imagine your conversation …. See what soulful eyes and a doleful expression does for you? Just as well you are able to deal with a firm hand!
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Having the fur trimmed/groomed makes Duke look like a different dog. He appears to be ‘sulking’- perhaps about his groomer trip? My Gypsy (long haired dachshund) used to pout after she was taken to be trimmed too. But usually a treat or two and she was back to herself. Duke is a handsome boy whatever his fur length!
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He looks like a pit bull with a fluffy tail, but he still has those great bug-eyes. He must have a shot of pit bull in him somewhere, but his face is much too short and that tail is not even close to a Pitty. He IS a handsome boy and I want him to live a healthy life, so he can’t eat everything. He can try, though.
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That little face–so cute. The lighting is perfect, Marilyn.
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If I use a very fast lens, the pictures are better. This was my fastest lens, a Sigma 30mm (60mm in DSLR) at f1.4. My really long lenses are quite slow — f4 and f4.8. The 12-200 is a little faster at f3.5. I have to go to a non-telephoto lens for truly faster. My 25mm, 17mm, and 45mm are all f1.8 or f1.4. My macro lens is f2.8, which isn’t bad and used to the standard speed for most lenses. In those golden olden days, I shot everything outside, so speed didn’t matter so much — and I also shot a lot of black and white (film) because I could develop it myself. It came in some very fast speeds (yes, we had REAL film speed back then!). Since I’m shooting indoors more now what with quarantine and all — and this is a very well-shaded house — natural light has become an issue. I wish I could wrap my head around flash. I hate the way flash seems to flatten out contours, especially on faces. I am thinking about buying a better flash unit that will let me bounce light. A better flash unit and a silver “bounce” photo umbrella!
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Marilyn–you gave me so much information here–thank you! I still struggle with aperture and light so I saved this to guide me through.
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Just remember that the lower the number, the faster the lens. Anything below f2 is fast. Anything below f1.8 is VERY fast.
The faster the lens (which means the bigger the opening of the lens is when you take a picture), the shorter the depth of field. Higher (above f4 and really, above f5.6) give you much great depth of field — which means that you can clearly see things in the far distance. You want that fuzzy background (called bokeh, a Japanese word that means the fuzzy background in a photograph and there’s no English word, so we adopted the Japanese one) for portraits to eliminate noise and unrelated background stuff, but in a landscape, maybe you want everything you see in the lens. I’m sure there’s a “basic photography for dummies” book out there. This stuff is actually very simple, but it’s a lot easier to explain in person — or in a book that has illustrations. Describing “bokeh” is hard, but SHOWING it is easy.
Most of our cameras have an iAuto setting on them. I used to never use the automatic setting, but as my eyes have gotten worse, I’ve relented and let the camera find the focus.
The three or four basic camera functions are simple. It’s modern cameras that give you a thousand choices when you need four are annoying and make it HARDER to take pictures. I don’t even know what most of the settings in my menu are supposed to do. I live in dread of accidentally changing a setting and discovering I can’t take pictures until I figure out what button I pressed or what setting I inadvertently changed.
You are not alone in your confusion!
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Marilyn–you are wonderful. Thank you!
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Photography has gotten much harder because of the way they design modern cameras, but it doesn’t NEED to be that difficult. We don’t need those huge menus. We all used to take great pictures with 4 setting: film speed (ASA), Shutter speed and shutter opening, and a light meter. I used a hand meter before they installed them in cameras. We also didn’t have batteries. Cameras were entirely mechanical. Mind you, I like modern cameras because it doesn’t cost a fortune to get film developed (or to buy the film in the first place), but we’ve made cameras unnecessarily complicated. It’s pretty daunting if you are just coming to photography for the first time, but really, you only need the film speed (I know, there’s no film, but that’s what the ASA setting really are), shutter speed, f-stop (lens opening), and a light meter. The rest is art.
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Great last shot Marilyn. Wonderful subject, such character. Thanks for joining in 🙂
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I was looking for your post, but I found you through someone else’s post. I am always glad I have my last cd card in my computer. Makes the photo easy to find 🙂
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Glad you did 🙂 I have to get my phone for the last photo from there
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It was pouring outside today. Not an outdoor photo day.
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That’s how I feel some days. I just want to lie around in a dark place.
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I hope you don’t have to go to the groomer and get clipped first. That would make ME grumpy too.
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No, I do my own clipping these days.
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Owen clips us and we clip him right back. He actually does GARRY’s hair and that’s something, because Garry’s very picky about his hair. Owen does the buzzing and I do the tidying up and making sure everything is all nice and even. No one will go near my hair even when I point out all they need to do is cut in a straight line. Nope.
Terrified. All of them. Only Kaity will cut it.
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I can’t clean it up in the back or straighten it out, but I am not going anywhere so it really doesn’t matter. I feel sorry for all the barbers in the area. Business will never resume until the virus is reduced and too many idiots will keep it going around.
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Owen takes care of that. I do the clipping around his ears and clean up his eyebrows. I though he had naturally clean eyebrows. In the midst of quarantine, I discovered that HE PLUCKS!
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This is a lovely picture, Marilyn. I like the shadows, they give the picture character.
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Thank you! We don’t get much light in the living room. Most of the light is in the back of the house. The deck, the bedrooms, the dining room and the kitchen get light from early until after lunch, but except in mid summer, we get little or no sun in this room. So I get lots of shadowy pictures. Along with the shadows, I also get a lot of blurry pictures. I could use flash, but I don’t like flash and anyway, I can’t find any of the flash units that came with my cameras, so it’s a moot point.
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Sounds like the Duke doesn’t like his haircut!
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I’ve never met a dog who liked being groomed. Some hate it more than others. The Duke doesn’t like being restrained. Or the soap or being made to smell pretty. And now — a DIET? Duke? The dog who wants to eat the world? Oy!
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Exhausted or piqued???
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Both. They made him CLEAN AND SMELL FRESH. Dogs hate that. Then we brought him home, talked about what a big fatty he was becoming and about putting him on a diet. He thinks we underfeed him NOW, but it’s going to get a whole lot worse. This is going to be the most miserable dieting experience of my life. He will follow us around barking and whining. I may need a tranquilizer gun.
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Would you tranquilize yourself or him?
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Probably me. I’m trying to convince Garry we have to MEASURE his food or we don’t know what we are feeding him. Garry is a hard nut to crack. Oh kill me now.
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I have cups for Morrie and Diego, that I use to measure their dry food out–a different cup for each one. I give them a spoon of wet foot with each meal as well. If I am true to those measures, they stay a perfect weight, but whenever I have housesitters they gain weight. Indulgent aunties and uncles!
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He looks none too happy in that photo.., he may be planning revenge.., at the proper moment of course. Watch your backs folks!
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Watch my breakfast, lunch and dinner, too!
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