Yellow Lab at the park

JoshF

I'm not sure if pets go in the Wildlife section so please move these if there's a more appropriate place. I tried out my new 7D at a local park with my dog using a 70-200 f/2.8L IS. I am really pleased with the 8 FPS this camera offers and actually took about 700 pictures in the hour we were there. It was a lot tougher than I thought to get good shots in focus. I was holding my camera in hand and moving around to follow my dog. Here's some of my 1st shots with a DSLR. What do you think? Also, any advice on getting better action shots? I used center AF and not the 19 point AF system.

Photosbychuck

Congrats on the new 7D.

My favs #2 & #4



Take Care,
Charles

goldenstarphoto

My favorites are #2 and #3. very cute! Center point autofocus is key to shots like these. Another thing which appears you have done is to get down low to your pets eye level, not an easy thing to do in a park with other dogs running around. Easy to get run over! Definately very nice shots considering your still getting used to your new camera. Can't wait to see more from you!

CoryUT

Good shots. #2 is great, I really like that one. Some are a bit too centered I think. It is tough to catch the guys in action! I have a tough time with my dogs as well. Especially the small one. He's quick, and when I kneel down he seems to think I want him to charge at me.

Well done.

kdog

JoshF wrote:

Also, any advice on getting better action shots?

Yes. I see you're shooting with your lens wide-open at F2.8 or thereabouts even on your action shots. That will give you such a shallow depth of field at telephoto focal lengths that it's a miracle that you got any action shots at all in focus. Decreasing your aperture to F8 or F9 or thereabouts and bumping up your ISO to 400 will give you many more keepers right off the bat. I also suggest using Servo mode or AI Servo (if that's still available on the 7D, which I assume it is). That way, your camera will continuously focus on your moving target as you shoot your bursts. Without servo, you'd be lucky to get even one shot in a burst in focus with the setting you were using. By using servo and a smaller aperture, you should be able to get a much higher ratio of in-focus shots in a burst. For extra credit, research and experiment with the best AF point configuration to use in conjunction with Servo. You may well find out that using all 19 points is the way to go here. But I'm no expert on that camera.

BTW, your camera settings were fine for static shots were the dog ain't moving. In those cases, the wide aperture would give you a nice background blur. But even then, because the DOF is so shallow, you must make sure your focus is right where you want it, probably on the dog's face. You nailed that 4th one perfectly, for example.

Have fun!
-joel