Sunday, May 6, 2012

Love Thy Dog

     During the course of winter, I got a bit lonely living just in my room and thought of getting myself a dog.  There are many of them desperately being disposed online.  I checked Craig's List.  But it came to me that there are also some animal shelters here in South Korea.  So I was curious.  I found myself on one of their pages.  It's a sad story after another.  But then I saw a link on how to help out.  I see a call for photographers.  Great!



     I know it's true that a picture makes a thousand words, and that first impressions are important.  This is where photographers could come in handy.  A good picture of a potential pet could make or break attraction to future adopters.  As I read some amazing stories of a helping out shelters, I decided I'd like to do the same.  First step was to communicate with these volunteers.  It's another story.  But sufficed to say, I came about to a shelter quite near my place.  It's not so popular on my facebook community.  So I think I should help out.

     But there's a problem.  I have very little experience taking pictures of animals.  In fact, the only subject I had was my cat, Meow.  Fortunately, my boss decided we need a dog.  So in comes a puppy.  An addition to the company.  And thank goodness for that, I got someone else to practice with.

Mint
At first I wanted her out of that leash.  But I'm glad it's on her.  I didn't realize how hard it is to control someone who can't fully understand human language.

Me and My Rope
Her leash is also attached to a long rope stretching about 8 meters long.  The boss considered it would make her happier if she can walk about on a longer distance.

     It was a challenging feat.  "Mint" was playful and curious.  He doesn't stay still long enough for me to compose a shot.  Being a small puppy, I have to lie on the floor to get to her level.  According to some tips, it's best that way.  I was using my Carl Zeiss T* 80-200mm along with my flash unit.  With her black eyes, I just have to get some catch lights on her.  I know I'll suffer post-processing without it.

Black Eyed... something that rhymes with "peas"
Well, she has black eyes.  And this photo shows how important the aforementioned catch light.  Without it, I think her eyes will look like just some hollow spaces on her face.

Photobucket
The Face
The objective is to draw some emotions out from the viewer.  It shouldn't just be a cute picture of a puppy.  It should be something that makes the viewer ask, "What's her story?"  Being the person who took this picture, I think I did it.  But I don't know about the others.

    Despite Mint being a new addition to the company, and me not so much attached to her yet, I had fun taking pictures of her.  It was challenging but educating.  It's a big wake-up call again.  Very much different from taking pictures of Meow.  And if it was already hard to take pictures of this little gal in an open space, I reckon it'll be much harder taking pictures in a shelter.  I need to change my ways.  I have to learn how to act fast.  Really fast.

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