This time I started out trying to get pictures of the dog's having their microchips read. Space was cramped and it doesn't take long. Getting a well frame shot that both shows what's going on and works as a picture isn't simple. Especially if you want the red light on the scanner to be lit. Being late meant there weren't many dogs left to be scanned so I'll have to try harder next time.
I always find the release pens at trials throw up interesting pictures and there are people to talk to there as well. My target was to get pictures with the sheep ready for release, someone managing them, a dog and handler showing off and the crowd. Having decided to start the day 'old school' with two cameras with 28mm and 50mm lenses attached it was a bit of a challenge.
I also like pictures of sheep being let out and using a fast burst rate is the best way I have found to get them. It means you have a chance of catching unexpected moments like a jumping sheep. The next step is to make the picture more interesting!
On the subject of the unexpected it wasn't until I saw the next picture large on the computer screen that I realised there was something odd going on in it.
Detail shots were also on my wish list. Not many presented themselves though.
The day gradually warmed up and as the crowds were thin and bidding slow I left a little earlier than I'd intended and spent the evening sorting through the photo-dross. There was a lot of nothing shots to get rid of.
The following morning I couldn't face going out again, it was gloomy and threatening rain anyway. But by lunchtime I was bored so headed off to catch the end of the nearest trial. The other trial wasn't far away and many runners were booked in to both. With it being late on and the runners split between venues it was quiet. As at the auction I was still playing around with the crop sensor camera, gradually learning it's foibles and slowly getting more consistent results.
The other camera had a standard zoom attached and as well as using that to take detail shots I also started looking for landscape pictures with the action smaller in the frame. I also got on a bit of a vertical orientation kick for some reason. There might be some scope for progressing in that direction.
On my way home I had to pull over to photograph a hand painted sign. I think I should have slowed the shutter speed to blur the vehicles though.
Sunday morning and I was lethargic again. It was gone ten before I decided that pottering about or finishing off some work wasn't very appealing. The weather forecast wasn't great but it wasn't going to rain. Where to go? One venue I knew was a bit restrictive so I plumped for the other, which I'd been to a week before. Taking a different route I got a bit lost...
One idea I had in advance was to take pictures from a distance if I could get a decent vantage point. As it turned out there is a lay-by on the road which crosses the moor above the trial field and a footpath leading down through it. I slowly worked my way down the hill through the heather, bilberry and cotton grass pausing to fail to make any worthwhile pictures of the latter.
The footpath actually passes right by the release pen where I again hung around for a while before heading back up the hill in order to drive down it to the trial field.
It was more of the same old stuff practising long lens technique and panning, and trying to remember which focus mode works best for it. This technically dependent photography isn't my style. I'm still stuck in my 1970s mode of using the central focusing aid to get focus then recomposing the shot. It doesn't work on fast moving dogs!
My hit rate has improved, and the crop sensor body works better than I thought it did. part of my dissatisfaction was that the display screen doesn't seem to be as detailed as on my other cameras and at higher ISOs it loses detail compared to the full frame sensors. In bright light it's fine, in more usual north of England gloom it's a bit pants. I'm not posing any pictures of running dogs because, if I'm honest, I find them boring.
Probably more boring to normal people are the kind of pictures I like taking!
Pictures which include running dogs with the sheep and shepherd are on my interesting list. It's the interactions and gestures which give them life and make them pictures. Framing them so as to avoid cropping is the big challenge. When stuck for a composition, bang the subject in the centre of the frame.
I'm sure that sheep dog aficionados would concentrate on the dogs in such pictures, whereas I tend to look at the people, although the gestures of dogs and sheep are just as important in making the pictures work.
As the day wore on I went back to looking for wider views. Balancing the size of the dog and handler with the scale of the landscape is tricky. Such pictures are best seen at a large size than I post on-line.
A long weekend of making my eyes and brain work together has left me feeling a bit burnt out.
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