3-10, Paisley Puppy

Most parents probably wouldn't be too thrilled when their child comes home from school with a puppy.  Yesterday, however, was an exception.  Our son brought home a puppy-- and its owner!  How about that?!  A puppy play session AND the puppy goes home?  You bet!  That's just our speed-ha! This little cutie's name is Paisley.  She's a 3-month old mini Australian Shepherd.  She's absolutely adorable.  It took her a little time to warm up to the new faces and new place, but then she was like a little firecracker bouncing around in the snow.  This little girl is welcome in our yard any time!  What a treat it was to meet her and watch her play.

Photographing her under the conditions was a little tricky.  Some of the yard was covered in snow, other parts bare grass.  The afternoon sun left shadows on the ground as it was filtered through the trees above.  In situations like this, you want to expose for your subject, the puppy in this case.  If you let your camera auto expose for the whole scene, your camera will try to darken the snow to a gray which will then leave your subject very underexposed.  In order to compensate, you need to expose for your subject thus causing the snow to be over-exposed. In an ideal world, there's not so much contrast between your subject and its surroundings.  In this situation, however, you just have to do your best to  find the happy medium between details in your subject and snow that isn't so bright it's blinding.   On a camera with full manual control, the exposure can be adjusted by changing the ISO (the camera's sensitivity to light), the shutter speed (how quickly the action can be stopped), and the aperture (is everything in the photo clear or has the background been blurred out?).  Playing with these settings can give you an  array of results. This little gal was quick, so I had to use a fast shutter speed (about 1/250, I believe for these).  I could have used a faster shutter speed, but then I would have had to compensate for less light by changing the aperture and/or ISO.   

I started photographing with a shorter lens, and then switched to a longer zoom.  I needed the zoom to capture her moments of stillness during play.  Since we were unfamiliar to her, those moments happened at a distance that was farther away than my shorter lens could reach.  She was most at ease in the comfort of her own space-- and then she was off again!  What a character.  I thought photographing my 3-year old daughter at play was challenging.  This little girl has her beat hands down!  What better way to work on your photography skills than challenging light and a subject who is in constant motion?  And what better way to spend an afternoon than watching children laugh in delight at the antics of a puppy?