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Here's my contribution toward increasing the proportion of working dog pictures on this forum. The dogs are in run order, bits and pieces of Open on Saturday and Sunday. I don't have results, but those of you who care probably know where to find them anyway.

 

This was my first time trying to capture the action at a trial, so I'd appreciate suggestions from experienced working dog photographers. I was surprised by how hard it was to freeze a dog in some kind of action pose, not because my camera wasn't capable but because so often the dogs were still, or trotting placidly behind their sheep. It didn't occur to me until I got back and looked at Mark's Bluegrass photos to capture the start of the outrun.

 

Martha McHardy's Rhaq

 

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Bob Dias' Cub

 

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Bob Stevens and Pat

 

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Ann Mock's Pip

 

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Rob Miller and Jen (who made a difficult pen look easy)

 

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Julie Woods' Twist (by this time, it was raining pretty good, so the dogs look a bit soggy)

 

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Nancy Stevens' Ike

 

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Mike Meredith's Gwynn

 

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A few more photos are here.

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Those are very nice! Good to see some familiar faces. We briefly thought about going to Scio - was it pretty there?

 

I've found using a tripod (or a fence) to be quite helpful as you can pan more easily. I find shed and pen pictures to be easy-ish, except the handler and dog are never facing the same direction, so you're going to get one butt and one face. My favourite place to shoot is somewhere on the drive, though some dogs work quite far back so it's hard to get everyone in the shot.

 

I'm going to take pictures at the set-out at the next trial. It's quite, er, interesting to see how some of the dogs lift. I think their handlers would be surprised. :rolleyes:

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Well done! Nice shots!!

Gosh, thanks for saying that. I carefully waited until a quiet time in the Gallery to post my first real working dog pictures, and then I see that I got maybe a few hours of glory before being upstaged by Mr. Woo (and rightfully so). It's nice to know that you looked at my humble efforts :rolleyes:

 

Jack & Co: The trial was in Scio, Oregon, about an hour and a half south of Portland.

 

Airbear: You bet it was pretty, in every sense of the word. Endless green, long views of the sunset under the clouds, covered bridges, beautiful dogs. I especially enjoyed camping in the field Saturday night. So peaceful -- nothing moving but border collies on dusk patrol.

 

I like the idea of watching the set-out. Even with my long lens zoomed to the max, I could barely make out the action up there, but there seemed to be, er, a lot of variation between dogs. It made me wonder how the heck the lift is judged, since you can't see much detail from afar even with magnification.

 

I did try for better shed pictures, but the best angle had a bunch of RVs in the background, which I decided detracted too much from the raw beauty of the shots.

 

Anyway, thanks to all of you for looking.

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Gosh, thanks for saying that. I carefully waited until a quiet time in the Gallery to post my first real working dog pictures, and then I see that I got maybe a few hours of glory before being upstaged by Mr. Woo

 

Well, he's like that. A glory hog. I apologize on his greedy/fluffy behalf. I think you got some great pictures. I aim to try taking some myself one day, but have not had the free time to go to any of the trials. I may tag along with a friend to one over the border in July, I think it is. Maybe I'll get some as good as yours!

 

RDM

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Here's my contribution toward increasing the proportion of working dog pictures on this forum. The dogs are in run order, bits and pieces of Open on Saturday and Sunday. I don't have results, but those of you who care probably know where to find them anyway.

 

This was my first time trying to capture the action at a trial, so I'd appreciate suggestions from experienced working dog photographers. I was surprised by how hard it was to freeze a dog in some kind of action pose, not because my camera wasn't capable but because so often the dogs were still, or trotting placidly behind their sheep. It didn't occur to me until I got back and looked at Mark's Bluegrass photos to capture the start of the outrun.

 

Nice job and thanks for your contribution!!!

 

The turn at the post offers a good up-close location to capture action shots. Follow the dog around the turn and shoot lots of frames as they go around.

 

If you're close enough, the panels offer good locations for action shots.

 

Watch how the shedding is going and you may find that handlers set up the shed facing the same direction (due to the pressures on the field). See if you can get to a spot where you can look down the line that the shed off sheep are heading towards. This should offer good action shots of the dog coming in on the shed with dog, handler, and sheep all facing the camera.

 

You should see all the frames I have of the handler and dog just waiting at the post in order to get a few good shots of the dog being sent.

 

Most of the action shots I post are the best frame from a series of 4-8 frames. As Denise would say, "hold down the button".

 

Mark

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Alaska, great photos, all of them. Thank you for sharing us. I love to see herding dogs at their work. These dogs look like they did a wonderful job and enjoyed it.

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I like the idea of watching the set-out. Even with my long lens zoomed to the max, I could barely make out the action up there, but there seemed to be, er, a lot of variation between dogs. It made me wonder how the heck the lift is judged, since you can't see much detail from afar even with magnification.

I've never quite understood how the lift is judged. When I scribed for Hub once, he didn't give the lift a score until the fetch was well underway. Not sure if other judges do this too, but his rationale was the fetch will tell you a lot about what kind of lift it was. Lou rarely loses points on his lift, so whatever he's doing, he's good at it. :rolleyes:

 

I'm going to take my camera to set-out at the next trial. Since there's usually two of us setting, I am sure that I can handle a dog and a camera ... I think....

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Most of the action shots I post are the best frame from a series of 4-8 frames. As Denise would say, "hold down the button".

 

Thanks for the suggestions, Mark. Now I can't wait to get to another trial to try them out!

 

I usually make liberal use of burst mode. I've found that 3 frames/second catches a lot of action in agility, frisbee, dog wrestling matches, etc., but it seemed to be hopelessly inadequate to catch a fast working dog. Lots of noses or tails at the edge of the frame, or frames with nothing in them but grass. Better start saving up for the 1D MkIII.

 

Then again, it might be a more cost-effective hobby investment to buy a few acres and some sheep of my own than to start down that path.

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>>>>Marths McHardy's Rhag<<<<<

 

That's my pup...well he is from my breeding.....DeltaBlz Rhaq.....Deltabz Libbi x Martha's Ryan.....that litter was a very nice litter!! And Rhaq is a great dog....well, I *might be biased!!! Martha picked one of the best from that litter.

 

 

Thanks for the pixs....they were very nice

diane

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>>>>Marths McHardy's Rhag<<<<<

 

That's my pup...well he is from my breeding.....DeltaBlz Rhaq.....Deltabz Libbi x Martha's Ryan.....that litter was a very nice litter!! And Rhaq is a great dog....well, I *might be biased!!! Martha picked one of the best from that litter.

 

Ha. I made a typo in the handler's name, and a misread of the run order sheet led to a misspelling of the dog's name. That's a lot of mistakes for three words :rolleyes: I fixed them both.

 

There are a few more pictures of Rhaq here.

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