View allAll Photos Tagged lowangle
Bean on a solo run toward home. This doggie is having way too much fun modeling.
Have a great weekend / 4th of July everyone!!!!!!!
Bean's story:
Bean is a rescue dog who was born in an animal shelter. His mom, a Jack Russell was brought there after the owners moved and abandoned the pregnant dog in the house. Three pups were born and the smallest was not expected to live. We decided to take a look at this tiny little guy and hope for the best. After a couple of weeks we got the call that he did make it and we could pick him up. He was still so tiny weighing only 1lb. and when curled up looked like a little bean so that became his name. Along with the Jack Russell heritage he appears to be part Miniature Pinscher. We were told he would probably be small, weigh about 10 - 12 lbs and likely have some health issues but he surprised us all and at 1 1/2 years is 25 lb. medium size dog of pure energy and no health issues at all.
for our daily challenge - Low
Nikon D7000
Lens Nikkor 105mm f2.5 Ai
Exposure 1/1000 sec.
Aperture f/2.5
Focal Length 105 mm
ISO Speed 100
© Image by Laurarama - All rights reserved. My Images may not be used, copied or altered in any way without my written permission.
Our Daily Challenge: Low Angle
It was only 20 degrees today and I didn't feel like shooting a bunch of shots to get it right so this is what you get.
In an effort to get something different here at Corbett's Glen, I got my tripod about 2 ft. down in the water for this shot.
NO INVITES OR ICONS PLEASE
Caught this guy on a ladder today. He was plastering something on the roof. I almost got hit in the head with some concrete/plaster. Not cool. The things we do for a shot :D
For ODC "Low Angle"
And for The Homeschool project. Lesson#2 Digital black and white
A reworking of flic.kr/p/dacn53. I've learnt a lot from Photoshop since this shot was first edited. Now with more contrast and an application of some dodging and burning. Also thought a square crop might work. Needed an image for a "Goofy Animals" contest on Photocrowd. Thought this would fit the bill.
I thought I'd skip a day of Southern California sunsets to post another Scotch portrait I shot last week. Autumn is finally here--at least the LA version--and with it came a large drop in temperature. For the last few weeks, the days have been mostly perfect, a slight breeze blowing and much cooler evenings. It's no longer chillier in the apartment than outside so Scotch have I are back to spending a great deal of time on the balcony, mostly after he comes back from a walk or gets worked up. Typically I'll sit there with him while he searches for his breath and once that happens, he falls right to sleep.
A year ago when this illness first starting showing up, he simply sounded a bit louder when breathing and couldn't quite keep up the pace he had become accustomed to. He still followed me eagerly out to the car everyday, ready and excited for wherever we'd wind up. My camera bag and tripod had a Pavlovian hold over him and we'd head out into the countryside where he'd end up sleeping at my feet, between me and the tripod. Now, I have to encourage a frozen, timid eyed dog to the car if we need to go anywhere. The effects of age, frequent vet visits over the last year and the 4,000+ mile trip to Southern California seemed to officially end his enjoyment for the car. I still don't regret the decision to move with a senior dog to California in the dead of winter...just wish it had been able to happen a few years earlier.
This week hasn't been particularly great for him and I always struggle to go photograph a beautiful sunset while he's at home sleeping peacefully or having difficulty settling down. I feel guilty. My passion for photography grew from our early adventures together. When he was having terrible seizures as a very young dog, constantly nervous and upset, and getting bullied by almost every dog we'd come across, it didn't seem like he'd be around too long so we spent a considerable amount of my free time road-tripping out to the countryside where he could run off leash, and enjoy being a hunting dog. In turn, I began to photograph him both because it was one of the few ways to see him happy and carefree but also because the vet didn't give me much hope for a long life and I wanted to photodocument him while I could. That's literally the only reason I got into photography and now each trip is alone. He just doesn't have the stamina and it's just not fair to drag him along. He's happier at home.
When he's asleep, you wouldn't think there's anything wrong with him at all. When he's awake and calm, he acts pretty normal, but if out on a walk or worked up, he sounds terrible. From afar, people have told me how young they thought Scotch was and up close it's a lot of sympathetic "awwwws" as he pants with me simply saying "he's an old guy". He's still 100% alert, happy and will always prefer to run vs walk, even though he must know it's bad for him at this point. This week however, his heavy breathing has transformed a bit from the really heavy panting into a quiet struggle for air. He shows no signs of panic but silently gasps like a fish out of water until it settles down. Then, it's usually back to normal or to sleep. His seizures were horrible to see when we were both young and each time, I sat there trying to stay calm while reassuring a dog he'd be ok. Now, a decade later, I'm doing the same. When he's extremely worked up, I worry about what I might find in the morning but each day when I wake, he's calm and happy, like the previous night never happened. We had several dogs die from cancer in our family at various stages in life and in those cases, you could see one day when the dog finally had no fight left and was ready and at peace. I keep expecting him to become depressed or unhappy but he doesn't seem ready just yet. He's still extremely happy to be alive. His appetite is fine, his tail never stops wagging, he still jumps up and runs to the door when I pick up his harness, he still runs the second he goes off leash, and he never turns down treats or people food. At some point soon down the road, his breathing will go from stressed to distressed and there won't be anything either of us can do. Until that happens though, I don't expect him to to give in or give up.
This was shot a few nights ago when he was extremely relaxed and lounging comfortably on his memory foam bed.** He has a gel insert on it that keeps him a little cooler all the time. he rotates throughout the day all over the apartment, but this is his favorite spot other than maybe the back porch. He's a big fan of the armrest obviously. Most of his photos recently have come on this couch because I want to disturb him as little as possible when I shoot. He's still so full of life even if his body is slowly letting him down. Still checking the weather daily at the closest mountains, waiting for snow :)
▪️SCOTCH▪️
•Age 13 portrait
•Hollywood, California
•October 25th, 2016
▪️SETTINGS▪️
•Canon T4i
•EF40 f/2.8 STM
•@40mm
•ISO 200
•f/2.8
•1/10th second
--dimmed overhead lighting and iphone 6+ flashlight to illuminate the face.
**and for anyone who is looking for a really high quality bed for their aging [or regular] pet, I would recommend this one in an instant. Scotch used to get my old Rottweiler's hand me down dog beds but I wanted to put that one on the balcony and get him a really comfortable one for inside. We ordered and returned a few before settling on this bed. I got it in Large since he likes to stretch out and it seems very durable, easy to clean and the armrests wrap 3/4 around the bed. It's more than I wanted to pay but it's definitely worth it. I got it off Amazon:
Petfusion Ultimate Pet Bed & Lounge
Size: Large
www.amazon.com/dp/B00TQ47CPW/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_kQAgyb...
I used The Photographer's Ephemeris on tuesday to help me pick a location to shoot and based on the review of the radar and locations I'm familiar with, I decided to return to El Matador Beach which is towards the end of Malibu. Malibu is a WAY bigger area than most probably realize. With the sunsets now an hour later, I had ample time even in traffic to go just about anywhere except of course Laguna Beach, a location I've yet to visit. I'm just not up leaving in heavy rush hour traffic and returning around 10pm. I also had about a half dozen other options along the way if I changed my mind since El Matador in traffic is about 90 minutes but I'm very familiar with that stretch of the PCH.
My first and only previous trip here came early in 2016 and I shot there on a very gloomy, windy and rainy day. If you aren't familiar with El Matador, it's extremely unique and possibly the least dog friendly place I've shot in California. The beach is carved from a massive cliff and the drop from the top to the shoreline is very high. From the large parking lot, you walk down a too narrow for two directions of traffic winding staircase that looks and feels like it should be replaced. The shoreline has large rocks jutting out from everywhere and the beach seems to only be about 50ft deep at it's widest point from surf to cliff. This is a hugely popular shooting location for tourists, wedding photos, models, and pseudo models and on both trips it was much more crowded than I normally like.
The amazing thing about this place is what you see first when you start the descent from the parking lot. Once you get to the steps and look out, you suddenly see the ocean from 150ft up and there's a strong temptation to just stop at each level of the stairs and shoot from a high vantage. Since I arrived a good half hour before the sunset really kicked in, I did pause a few times at the top to take some shots. Once down on the beach, I wandered down until I could line up with the sunset between the rocks and mostly stayed right there, alternating until dark between vertical and horizontal shooting as well as playing around with the depth of field. I shot this particular photo in horizontal to get a different look on the reflections with the 70-200lens and got lucky when this girl happened to appear in the right place. I was setting up to focus hard on the immediate foreground and this was the only shot I took with her in it. It's underexposed since I wasn't counting on her being the prominent subject in the shot but at least I kept her motion relatively static and got the great pose and golden outline from the remaining sunlight.
In retrospect, I'm disappointed I shot this in vertical and would've prefered the option of cropping this however I wanted, but this turned out to be one of my favorite captures on the evening. I'm glad her shoes stayed dry. Mine didn't.
LOCATION
El Matador Beach
Malibu, California
March 14th, 2017
SETTINGS
vertical composition
@115mm
ISO 100
f/3.5
1/125th second
CPL
Today is the 1 year mark of when Scotch and I arrived in Los Angeles. We had arrived late on Christmas Eve and it took a while to sink in how crazy our trip here had been Scotch and I both slept a ton after 18 hour days in the car at high altitudes. We left on December 14th from downtown Washington DC on a cold, rainy afternoon and had no end date in mind, figuring I'd just play it by ear depending on how it was going. I thought a ton about this trip but didn't do much planning other than making sure I'd have everything I needed for a few months away from home. I had no idea this would become permanent.
It had been my plan for many years to take Scotch on a road trip like this, but I didn't think it would take this long to materialize. In a way, it was lucky since even a few years ago, I wasn't into photography and this trip would've been primarily shots from my phone or a point and shoot and on the quickest route possible. Waiting until I did and having a relatively competent understanding of manual photography gave me the push I needed to set out on the trip. I just wish for Scotch's sake, this move could've happened several years ago before he started...aging. He had just begun showing signs of the Laryngeal Paralysis that became such a major problem out here and the cool winter air back home suppressed many of the symptoms. The trip was pretty demanding for him despite his absolute love for the car and the open road. Since I was in high school, long quiet drives by myself were one of my favorite ways to relax and it had always been such a joy the last 13 years to have a dog who enjoyed it just as much.
As my photography expanded, my dog deteriorated and no longer had the energy or desire to join me on trips to unknown places. I found myself enjoying photography less as he worsened, having trouble justifying not being there for him. During the really hot summer months, I started to prepare myself that he might not make it to winter and there was a slight sense of of relief when summer ended and then when he turned 13 towards the end of October. Over the next 2 weeks, his breathing condition worsened considerably and it seemed like this happy, tough dog might not be able to fight the inability to breathe much more. It was starting to be very real to me that his days were now numbered, not years and when it became clear that he wouldn't last through that weekend, I panicked and scheduled surgery--if it was still an option so late in the illness-- the following morning for his throat. During this rapid deterioration, I started to photograph him non-stop, rarely shooting anything other than him. I skipped amazing sunsets and just shot portraits of him during the few moments he was calm or sound asleep. I didn't want any shot to be the last shot so I just kept going.
Well, it's been almost 2 months since that surgery and he's regained a lot of the muscle that disappeared when he could no longer exercise. He's had a few infections in that time that have been more of an annoyance but he's healing really well, can finally breathe and is smiling a lot more. He's still mostly deaf but that seems like a small tradeoff at this point for him living out the rest of his life on his own terms. My christmas was spent hanging out at the apartment with my brother and Scotch, eating, watching some tv, playing some video games and taking the dog on walks around fairly empty Hollywood. We made it through one full year here and as the calendar flips to 2017, I'm hopeful it will be our best one yet.
I haven't photographed him much since his surgery and am mainly just trying to enjoy his actual company again. I shot this on December 2nd after having just returned from an art store with a 6ftx4ft thin black foam board to use as a backdrop for his portraits. He was very bouncy and having a lot of fun moving just as I'd finish focusing on him. I had to push the shutter speed much higher than I normally would but if he was going to move, I wanted some reasonably detailed shots. This was the photo that made me laugh the most.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!
SCOTCH: age 13
Hollywood, California
December 2nd, 2016
Canon T4i
EF40mm 2.8 STM
ISO 400
f/2.8
1/40th second
This pedestrian bridge spans the Fox River in Geneva, Illinois. On the left can be seen the Fabyan Windmill.
randy-scherkenbach.artistwebsites.com/featured/windmill-b...
Turnstone usually creep about the shoreline, turning over seaweeds and, well, stones - looking for food beneath. But this picture was taken at a very low tide: giving me the chance of a worm's eye view of this terrific little bird.
Now the snow has gone Evan has taken to getting out with his bubble-mower! I looked out the window to see his bubbles sitting on the frosty grass and raced out to get some shots.
I've had lots of fun crawling after this Toad. I really think it looks like some kind of dino when I'm at eye level with these beautiful amphibians.