Although it was only eight o'clock there was already a bright haze to the day. photographically this made taking photos of distant things a bit tricky. I guess some people would refrain owing to the softness the haze produces, or they'd add con trast to the files later. To my mind the haze suggests the atmosphere of the day.
The trial itself was different to the nurseries of the winter months. A longer more challenging trial with the sheep released from the top of the hill. Having walked up the hill myself some time ago and needing a long rest at the top I'm amazed at how the dogs bound up there as if they are on level ground! Trying to show how far and high the sheep are from the pen in a single picture is difficult. Particularly if the picture is to be viewed small, as here. The dogs and sheep, and people, become specks if a wide view is used. With a telephoto view the details are still small, but the distance is hard to judge.
With each run taking a long time for the action within reasonable camera range I had a lot of 'down time'. I spent some of it photographing hot dogs while struggling to provide some context.
On 'that photography forum' last week I got into an argument about how many shots to take of a subject. One cretin (I can't be arsed being polite) said that he only took three because he shot film and previsualised his pictures before setting up the camera and it would be a waste of time trying to improve his framing/viewpoint. Probably fine for him when he's photographing a church font. It ain't going to run away any time soon... The picture below was my second frame, the first was looser. It works quite well. It's simple, it shows a sheep dog graphic, a water bowl and a lead to suggest the presence of a real sheep dog. I was happy enough with it for what it is.
Then I moved right and saw people chatting in the background and the dog travel cages with crook. The next frame was the third I took as I altered framing and waited for the people to strike more visually interesting poses. Both pictures work, but in different ways. When you don't know how pictures will eventually be presented this matters. Having vertical and horizontal options of the same subject can be handy for editorial purposes. I still think that way even though the chances of my pictures being used like that are nil these days!
Almost everyone who takes photographs at sheep dog trials will take one or two of the dogs in the back of vehicles. I have long since got tired of that but every now and then a dog will catch my eye. This one looked a bit fed up.
I'm starting to lose interest in photographing the action. Partly because it's repetitive, partly because I could do with a different lens, partly because I can't always get the angles I want. This has lead me to go looking for detail shots. On their own they don't mean much, but added together and slotted in between wider pictures they add to the story telling. I've noticed in a lot of contemporary art-documentary photography the projects/books consist almost entirely of this sort of picture. As if the artist-photographer is trying to convey a story by telepathy. I think the pictures are meant to be metaphorical, but metaphors don't always get a message across.
While a head on detail shot can work graphically, there are other ways of shooting them without getting too 'clever'.
I still haven't got round to approaching people to ask if I can get shots of their whistles, but maybe portraits including the whistles might be a better idea. It would get away from the temptation of using the art-documentary style, although such a series of pictures could punctuate a project.
At lunch time there was another difference to the trial, one I'd not watched before, a brace trial where the handlers run two dogs to gather one packet of sheep each, bring them together to run through the usual trial circuit then pen them without the handler to close the gate. Finally the sheep are released from the pen and split into two equal packets to complete the run.
How to show that two dogs are in use became the challenge. Not easy when they are far apart for most of the time.
For some reason I struggled to get the action shots sharp all day. Possibly this was the result of trying different settings to my usual ones. There might also have been some cock-up at play as it wasn't until late on I noticed I hadn't switched the vibration reduction off - which I usually do for action. Next time I think I'll go back to doing what I've done previously. I might get more sharp shots.
Continuing the technical theme I was editing my results and for some reason checked the ISO value of one frame of a dog portrait. There was plenty of detail and no noise. ISO 8000. Amazing what a difference it makes using high ISOs in good light. It was nothing like a shot taken at the same ISO in the auction mart in December. This is why I never trust any reviews of high ISO performance. Unless they are conducted in crappy light levels they are meaningless to me.
As a final technical note, one of the photographs in this post was taken with my latest 'toy' camera. It processed well with detail lifted from the shadow and some highlight recovery. I was almost convinced that this system might be usable if a higher spec body was bought. Then I compared it to a frame from a proper camera and changed my mind! It's not a lack of sharpness or the greater depth of field (which in itself can be useful), it's the transition from in focus to out which is less smooth on teh smaller sensor. Although for some reason my compact, which has an even smaller sensor, doesn't seem as bad. Maybe I need a faster lens? But that would be almost in the price range of a full frame lens and big enough to make the toy camera less compact (which is it's main benefit for me). I ought to take my compact out more I suppose.
When I upgraded my computer I had it in mind to star making short slide shows, some including video clips. It's taken me a while to get round to start learning some new software, but at last I have dipped my toe into it. This is my first silent attempt. I'm getting the hang of titles and captions. Adding sound comes next. Then perhaps video effects, although I want to keep things simple. What will be required are storyboards to plan things out in advance. Eek!!
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