# Dock Dogs!



## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Not official dock dogs, just amateurs, but I stood shoulder-deep in the water today for these. I think they came out well. There are some more on the blog.


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## Jennifer1 (Mar 31, 2012)

Great shots! It looks like they had a blast.


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## Max's Dad (Apr 23, 2012)

Great photos! Curious, did you have a waterproof camera? Or were you just careful?


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## alphadude (Jan 15, 2010)

Awesome shots!!! Nothing better than action shots of beautiful, athletic Goldens doing their thing. Thank you for posting.


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## Bwilson (Mar 25, 2014)

Great photos looks like fun. Hope to try this out sometime just need to find gator free water.


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## desilu (Nov 2, 2006)

Those are fabulous photos! Thanks for sharing. I love seeing pics of your gorgeous boys.


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## lhowemt (Jun 28, 2013)

love them! What beautiful boys and great photos.


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## OutWest (Oct 6, 2011)

Great photos of gorgeous wet happy dogs. Thanks!


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## lhowemt (Jun 28, 2013)

Which one is on the left (from their perspective)? He sure has something going on with his tongue


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## tine434 (Nov 24, 2013)

Heehehe! The tongue.

The pictures are WONDERFUL


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Fabulous photos!


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

Beautiful pictures!


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

Awesome pictures of your gorgeous boys!

They were truly in their element here and you've captured it so beautifully.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Max's Dad said:


> Great photos! Curious, did you have a waterproof camera? Or were you just careful?


Great question, lol! I am taking a lot of flak on Facebook from close friends who realized I was using my good camera and lens. I was just standing shoulder-deep in the water with my camera with no protection for it. I actually fell down on my first step into the shallow part of the water but managed to keep it above my head as I slid.

Once I was standing in the water, the trick was keeping the dogs from trying to give me the balls after they retrieved them.


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Oh WOW!!!! Your boys are so gorgeous and as usual, the quality of the photos is stunning. Thank you so much for sharing. My favorite is the first with the tongue poking out as if in concentration, how do you ever decide which ones to enlarge and frame????? I couldn't do it 

p.s. I wanted to let you know that you helped me make a giant change in my life this year. I have completely given up sugar or any sweetener in my coffee. I saw you mention in a thread last year at some point that you made small changes like reducing sugar in coffee gradually. The way you worded it spoke to me for some reason, I just flat out went cold turkey one day at the beginning of March (I don't care for artificial sweetener) and figured if I like coffee I could like it without making it into a dessert every morning. Thank you for inspiring me, I have to keep making changes but you opened my eyes to a pretty bad source of sugar consumption that I didn't think I could live without. Turns out I can


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## Brinkleythegolden (Jun 18, 2012)

Wow, great pics!


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

Love the intensity. Great pictures.


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## abradshaw71 (Jan 13, 2014)

Great pictures. It shows how much drive and passion they have for retrieving. Great take offs from the dock, too! Their back legs are pushing off from the edge. Perfect!


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## GoldenLove88 (Jul 25, 2014)

Do you use DSLR? If so then what setting did you use? These pictures are great!


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

lhowemt said:


> Which one is on the left (from their perspective)? He sure has something going on with his tongue


Haha! That's Jax. He does that when he's excited or concentrating. I have a million pictures where his tongue is slightly out.


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## GoldenCamper (Dec 21, 2009)

Very nice shots of your kids having fun Brian


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## Melfice (Aug 4, 2012)

WOW awesome pictures!


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

nolefan said:


> Oh WOW!!!! Your boys are so gorgeous and as usual, the quality of the photos is stunning. Thank you so much for sharing. My favorite is the first with the tongue poking out as if in concentration, how do you ever decide which ones to enlarge and frame????? I couldn't do it


Thanks! I'm pretty ruthless in weeding shots at this point. I have a lot of nice pictures of the dogs, so I try to sharpen my photography skills every time to get something even better. Only shots that are really better in some way that my previous stuff makes the cut anymore. That meant about 90 exposures of the dogs from that ten minutes were weeded to about 6 really good ones.




nolefan said:


> p.s. I wanted to let you know that you helped me make a giant change in my life this year. I have completely given up sugar or any sweetener in my coffee. I saw you mention in a thread last year at some point that you made small changes like reducing sugar in coffee gradually. The way you worded it spoke to me for some reason, I just flat out went cold turkey one day at the beginning of March (I don't care for artificial sweetener) and figured if I like coffee I could like it without making it into a dessert every morning. Thank you for inspiring me, I have to keep making changes but you opened my eyes to a pretty bad source of sugar consumption that I didn't think I could live without. Turns out I can


Wow, congrats! I was able to get myself down to about 6 grams of sugar (~25 calories) per cup and a little milk, but I've had a hard time going lower than that. I'm impressed you could go cold turkey. I really think it's the small, sustainable changes that make a difference.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

GoldenLove88 said:


> Do you use DSLR? If so then what setting did you use? These pictures are great!


Yeah - these were taken with a Canon 6D and a 24-105 L lens. I shot most of these in Tv (shutter priority) mode. I knew I needed at least 1/800 as my shutter speed so they wouldn't blur, and there was just enough light for 1/1000. Even at 1/800, the fastest moving objects are still slightly blurred. 

That high shutter speed maxed out my aperture (f/4 or f/4.5) for most of the shots. The ISO was completely automatic, and it varied depending on how much of the sky I caught in each frame, since the sky is so much brighter. In all the shots, the ISO is either 1000 or 1250. This camera is really good in that it doesn't produce very much noise at those relatively high ISOs.

I also have the camera set to spot meter off the center of the frame, so the dogs are what set the exposure level, not the overall background brightness. If I used an overall metering, the dogs would probably be underexposed, since the sky is so bright.

So, short answer, I set the shutter speed high to capture the action. On most DSLRs, there's a little running dude (action/sport mode) that does much the same thing.


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## Mayve (Aug 21, 2012)

Awesome pics. Your dog's are gorgeous. ....


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

I love your pictures of Comet and Jax. It was great to have a visit with them in real life too!


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