Play Ball!
rstwohee
Registered Users Posts: 49 Big grins
This is my first time posting pictures here. I normally shoot indoor, competitive swimming where light is at a premium. I decided to take the camera out and try my hand at shooting in nice, bright natural light. The time of day wasn't ideal but oh well :dunno
I have an Australian Shepherd who LOVES chasing a tennis ball. He delights in trying to get to the ball before it hits the ground and will contort himself in impossible directions just to make that happen. So without further ado.... here's Dev and his fun day at the park:
#1
#2
#3
#4 -- I like this one just because his spit trail glistens in the afternoon sun ... it's a sort of ewww.... awww.... hmmm.... sort of thing
#5
#6 - and Dev at rest... until the next time the ball is thrown!
OK - so I'm ready (I think....) C&C welcome.
Betsy
I have an Australian Shepherd who LOVES chasing a tennis ball. He delights in trying to get to the ball before it hits the ground and will contort himself in impossible directions just to make that happen. So without further ado.... here's Dev and his fun day at the park:
#1
#2
#3
#4 -- I like this one just because his spit trail glistens in the afternoon sun ... it's a sort of ewww.... awww.... hmmm.... sort of thing
#5
#6 - and Dev at rest... until the next time the ball is thrown!
OK - so I'm ready (I think....) C&C welcome.
Betsy
0
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Natural selection is responsible for every living thing that exists.
D3s, D500, D5300, and way more glass than the wife knows about.
The working dogs of Australia inspire a huge amount of admiration and affection among Australians of generations reaching back to the beginning of the 20th Century and earlier. For the first half of that century Australia's economy was founded on wool, wheat, meat, coal and iron. Australia's enormous tracts of semi-arid grassland were exploited for sheep and cattle. Dogs were bred to make suitable workdogs to help manage the large herds and flocks in the harsh conditions, especially the summer heat and dust, of the Australian outback. The kelpie and the border collie are possibly the major sheep breeds, and then there is the cattle dog, of two main colours, the red and the blue heeler. The first dog in our family was a kelpie called Major. The breeding, and the showing of these dogs at agricultural shows and trials continues with intense enthusiasm, even though their role in the agricultural industry has been superseded to a large extent by the "ag bike" and the helicopter. But the dogs are astounding to watch in action with the animals - so intelligent, so understanding of the animals they manage, so able to take the initiative, with such enduring stamina over long periods of hard work. Yet they also make very good family pets. The working dogs, however, were strictly never allowed to double as those. At times in the past when I visited farmer friends there were always half a dozen working dogs, chained and kenneled next to the machine shed when not on the job. I can remember with humour riding with one of these farmers in his ute (utility, a pickup in USA) out in the paddocks mustering sheep. He was hanging half out the window while steering, shouting commands to the dogs, and roundly cursing the sheep, at the top of his voice. A flock of sheep can be as unpredictable and difficult to contain as wild water. Being in the vehicle driven over the uneven ground was something like being in a boat on a choppy sea. But the dogs never missed a beat, and though sometimes they struggled to reconcile their instincts and view of the job with the commands of the "captain" bawling from the cabin, their incipient mutiny never lasted but the ghost of a split second!
http://www.wkc.org.au/Origin.php
What is your dog, Betsy? He looks like a border collie most of all to me. How did you come by him?
Neil
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
Photo #1 was my absolute favorite as well. There's something about seeing Dev honing in on the (obviously disgusting
[That is one nasty ball. Can you tell I'm not a hard-core "dog person?"]
That *was* a brand new tennis ball at the start of the session. If you look closely in #3 you'll see that my husband holds a "Chuck-it". As much as we love our dog, there's no way he or I would touch the ball after a toss or two.
[ #1 is an excellent capture. Did you shoot with H drive? ]
I have to plead ignorance here. What is "H drive"?
[What is your dog, Betsy? He looks like a border collie most of all to me. How did you come by him?]
Dev is an Australian Shepherd which interestingly was bred in the western US and not Australia. There is a lot of speculation as to which breeds were part of the process but certainly the collie line is part of it. Aussies (as we like to call them) were bred to work on ranches and in particular with larger stock. These are highly intelligent herding dogs who learn quickly and love to please.
Dev's proper name is "The Earl of Devonshire" but his name doesn't reflect anything about his origins. Dev was found on a road in Idaho and ended up in the pound. A wonderful woman who does rescue of Aussies and Border Collies "sprung" him from the pound, cleaned him up, had him fully vetted, and then placed him up for adoption on Petfinder. That's where I found him. We had recently put our older Aussie down due to heart failure and needed another buddy in the house. Some emails, phone calls, and then a 1,000 mile cross border (I live in Canada) round trip found us making room for a new family member.
Thanks again for the comments. I appreciate them very much!
Betsy
H drive = high speed burst mode. That plus AI servo, and your IS on #2, is a great combination for "sports" action shots.
Tennis balls are universally the play toy of choice for chase and fetch games for dog pets of this kind in Australia. Australians in general don't seem to be as squeamish about the state of a used ball as you describe, and handle it without problem. Aussie kids typically love to have their pet dogs lick them all over the face. Recent medical research into contemporary surges in allergy related conditions such as asthma is finding a strong prophylactic link between getting down and dirty with pets, and nature in general, and absence of these diseases in children and adults.
Neil
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
Ahhh.... thanks. No I didn't have much luck in high speed burst so all the shots that I kept were shot in low speed burst. I've used high speed burst before when shooting relay takeovers and the like (indoors) and had good success. But when I tried with this series, the shots came out just a little out of focus. I've just got more to learn and practice.
We have no issues with the dog licking faces or the kids getting "down and dirty" playing around with the dog. The reason for the chuck-it is you wouldn't believe how much spit Dev can produce -- it's just physically hard to hold and toss the ball. OK and I'm squeamish about that soggy, sopping thing
Betsy
Were you also set on AI servo, and using the #2 IS setting on the lens?
Neil
http://www.behance.net/brosepix