I had submitted another thread a few days ago about doing some shots of some dogs doing their agility training, as I was asked to go out and do a few pictures. There were basically 3 groups, beginners, intermediates, and experts. There were some lessons learned from the experience. Here are a few things that I learned.

1. The beginners groups, the pictures were far from exciting. The jumps were only a couple of inches of the ground, so most of the dogs just had to step over them. Pictures were took anyways, as it was requested of me.

2. Intermediates were the easiest to shoot. They did some good jumps, but were not terribly fast. The intermediate course was a little more complicated, but not bad enough that I couldn't reposition myself to get more than one shot of the dogs.

3. The experts were faster, so I had to be a lot faster on the trigger. I think I got the least amount of shots in this group, just because the dogs were that much faster. Also because of the course layout, I was moving around more to stay out of the way. Also because of the layout, it seems the handlers got in the way more often as well. Not sure why that happened, but it did.

4. With the intermediate dogs and higher, I found that I needed a minimum of 1/750 for shutter speed, and even that was pushing it. It was cloudy most of the day, so that made it tricky. I didn't want to put the ISO much over 800, as I don't think the *istD can handle it that well.

It was fun, and if asked again, I would do it, keeping in mind the shutter speed issue, and I think next time I would get a lot more good shots. I did it for nothing, so I'm sure they will be happy, and it I do it a couple more times, then they should like them better, as I'll have a better handle on it. Here are a few of the ones that I liked.

1.



2.



3.



4.



5.

[RoxnDox]

I like your results, eccs Number 4 especially, as it really gives a great sense of motion. Number 5 I also like, even with less "flying fur"... Maybe it's because they're Goldens

Our dog trainer runs Obedience trials instead of agility, for the most part, but she runs into the same sort of issues camera-wise. I wish I could say she has a Pentax, but sadly not. She's a camera novice who got talked into moving from a P&S to a C*n Rebel kit. (No training in basic photography of course). I spent an hour before last week's class playing with the rig and figuring out optimum settings for indoor lighting with moving dawgs. She was taking the camera kit to Nationals this last weekend in OK, so I hope I got things reasonable for her needs.

I will say that the 50-200 IS zoom in her kit did give pretty nice results at ISO 800, and the C*n's onboard flash is a lot more effective than my K100D's onboard flash. It was also interesting to compare menus and buttons - I find I really prefer Pentax layouts on both!

Jim

[dcmsox2004]

love those dogs!!! wonderful series....

[IowaBoy]

Good captures of dogs in motion. I did notice as I scrolled thru in my browser that cropping them closer to the top of the dog's head gave me more a feeling of the dog jumping out of the frame into my lap which puts the dog in the upper third of the photo; especially on the 1st 3.

[nobbsie]

Good series, no.4 is definitely the pick of the bunch. You've nailed the timing on those shots which is probably the hardest thing.

I would try getting down lower if possible next time, it would give a greater perspective of the height of the jump.

[jamesc]

love the show, well captured.

[eccs19]

Thanks for all the kind words.

A couple of comments on your comments.

Cropping - I did think about it later that I should have cropped better, but these were kind of quick and dirty just to get them posted. I still have lots of work to do on them. Should keep me busy for a while.

On the down low - I was also thinking that getting a bit lower may have been better, but I was tripod mounted, and always moving out of the way, so not much time for adjustment, but I'll definately keep that in mind for when / if I get called back.

[palmor]

On the down low - I was also thinking that getting a bit lower may have been better, but I was tripod mounted, and always moving out of the way, so not much time for adjustment, but I'll definately keep that in mind for when / if I get called back.

Great shots! Getting these pups while in full motion isn't always the easiest thing to do

You mentioned you had to keep getting out of the way. I'm surprised they actually let you into the ring and in a position where you had to move.. really surprised actually. Was this a practice event or was it an official club sanctioned event with judges ect (like AKC, CPE, USDAA ect)?



Great Job!
John

[eccs19]

I'm surprised they actually let you into the ring and in a position where you had to move.. really surprised actually. Was this a practice event or was it an official club sanctioned event with judges ect (like AKC, CPE, USDAA ect)?

This was actually more of a fun day with ribbons given away at the end, so not really "Official" at all. The owner of the training place was just happy to be able to get some half decent pictures for her use, and to give to her clients.