# Merced Dog Show



## MikaTallulah (Jul 19, 2006)

Beautiful dogs. I wish my pictures were that nice.


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## Shutterwolf (Jan 30, 2012)

MikaTallulah said:


> Beautiful dogs. I wish my pictures were that nice.


Thanks! its taken years of practice to get mine as good as they are. i only recently learned a few new tricks to make em look even better.


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## Zazoo (Jul 1, 2011)

Love your Photography of your dogs.. They are gorgeous!!


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## Shutterwolf (Jan 30, 2012)

My Golden Madison said:


> Love your Photography of your dogs.. They are gorgeous!!


Thanks! ...Tho I only wish they were my dogs. Sadly, there just dogs i met at the show. I did jokingly threaten to steal a few tho. the owners laughed and said yea, they would probably go with you and jump in the car no problem as long as you have food or a toy LOL (the goldens i met anyway)


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## Shutterwolf (Jan 30, 2012)

Heres one i just finished working on, please give me some critique on it, i just did it for fun. tryin some different things on photoshop. how does it look?


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## GoldenCamper (Dec 21, 2009)

Nicely done, love that Husky photo. The others are a bit too tightly cropped, but just my opinion. If they are not cropped take a few steps back and crop later if need be.



Shutterwolf said:


> Heres one i just finished working on, please give me some critique on it, i just did it for fun. tryin some different things on photoshop. how does it look?


I think we need to see the before photo if you are asking for a critique on your PS skills :curtain:. If your camera angle was a bit higher and the lighting was better you may have had something. JMO.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

Is Rolex the dog in the begging position? He is one of my favorite boys, just the sweetest dog. I think the top right photo is Chloe, the number one golden in the country right now. 

I'm not sure if you are hoping to become a show photographer as a hobby or if the show was just a good place to take pictures, but I'll give you some advice for the former. Just speaking from my own experience, since I take a lot of ringside pictures for friends, some very well trained dogs (like Chloe) are very easy to get good stacked pictures of, but of less trained dogs, stacked photos are a little harder. And a good movement shot of any dog takes a little more experience. You also want to be able to easily edit your photos down quickly after the fact, so getting an eye for what you're shooting at a show is important. Many show photographers in California post their photos on facebook after shows, so you would want to make sure you're only posting good photos of dogs, if that makes sense. I would rather not see photos of my dog than see an unflattering photo  

One thing I might suggest is to look at ads in the GRNews (assuming you are a GRCA member) and look at the stacked and movement shots of the dogs. Not that they are all perfect, but it might give you more of an idea of what to look for when you're shooting.

Also, and this is important if you are planning to sell pictures, your watermark could be photo shopped out in less than a minute. If you're going to be posting photos for people to buy, the watermark needs to be on the dog. Even then it's not impossible to photo shop out, but more difficult.


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## Shutterwolf (Jan 30, 2012)

goldenjackpuppy said:


> Is Rolex the dog in the begging position? He is one of my favorite boys, just the sweetest dog. I think the top right photo is Chloe, the number one golden in the country right now.
> 
> I'm not sure if you are hoping to become a show photographer as a hobby or if the show was just a good place to take pictures, but I'll give you some advice for the former. Just speaking from my own experience, since I take a lot of ringside pictures for friends, some very well trained dogs (like Chloe) are very easy to get good stacked pictures of, but of less trained dogs, stacked photos are a little harder. And a good movement shot of any dog takes a little more experience. You also want to be able to easily edit your photos down quickly after the fact, so getting an eye for what you're shooting at a show is important. Many show photographers in California post their photos on facebook after shows, so you would want to make sure you're only posting good photos of dogs, if that makes sense. I would rather not see photos of my dog than see an unflattering photo
> 
> ...



Thank you Very much, your absolutely right about Chloe, shes the second picture. The one sitting, i don't remember the name, but that does sound familiar. if that isnt him, im pretty sure i met him that day. One thing i LOVE about the goldens at dog shows... is that MOST of the owners are just as friendly as the dogs. Especially the one that has Chloe, and the owner of that male dog that might be Rolex. Actually, now that i think back on it, im pretty sure that is Rolex. 

As far as the show photography, im unable to make it to very many shows. Wanted to go to the one in Sacramento this weekend, but don't have transportation, so for now its just for fun and practice, and to hopefully meet some clients. I don't have anything set up for selling my photos online currently, so im just posting to show off what ive done. I asked a question about watermarks in the Chit Chat section of the forum, and most people were against putting the watermark on the dog. Im aware it can be photoshopped out of almost any picture since i removed the leash/collar on most of the show pics, but i use it to make the picture a bit more professional looking, and to get my name out there. Thanks for the pointer on looking at other show pics to see what people look for as well. ill definitely do that before my next dog show 

As far as the lighting goes in the picture i added to the thread, i actually darkened the background because it was too distracting IMO. i didn't have enough light to make it look good, and i don't have a good flash for my camera. I need to get more clients before i can afford the flash, but its high on my to do list. If anyone here has a used Canon flash they will sell, let me know! lol




GoldenCamper said:


> Nicely done, love that Husky photo. The others are a bit too tightly cropped, but just my opinion. If they are not cropped take a few steps back and crop later if need be.
> 
> I think we need to see the before photo if you are asking for a critique on your PS skills :curtain:. If your camera angle was a bit higher and the lighting was better you may have had something. JMO.


Some of the pictures are cropped, but not all. This has been a bit of a debate between myself and some of my friends for a long time. I used to leave it a bit wider, but several people told me it would look better without all this extra space, so i started making it tighter. that and it gets rid of a messy background that you couldn't avoid at the time of the picture. 

That said, what would you recommend for space in a photo? I can email you one or 2 of those originals and you can show me how you would do it if you want. 

The other picture as i mentioned before, i darkened the background to draw attention away from how crappy it was. I don't have a good flash unfortunately. I will admit the angle should have been better tho, i was kneeling down and wasn't sure how high he was going to sit up. Of course the picture was also at the end of 2 days, where i was nice and sore from constantly kneeling down or sitting to take pictures and pet the dogs so that doesn't help lol.


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## Shutterwolf (Jan 30, 2012)

Also, heres one i just did. hope this is a little better.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

I take a lot of show photos for people, and I make it a point of pride never to photoshop them. When a photo looks produced or photoshoppy at all, right or wrong, people suspect the dog has been touched up.


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## Shutterwolf (Jan 30, 2012)

Ljilly28 said:


> I take a lot of show photos for people, and I make it a point of pride never to photoshop them. When a photo looks produced or photoshoppy at all, right or wrong, people suspect the dog has been touched up.


I fully understand where your coming from, but at the same time... you probly have a much better camera then i do... my photoshopped pics look FAR better then my "natural" pics. Even if all i do is adjust the coloring. 

Im stuck using an old Canon Digital Rebel XTi with an OK lens. Still learning about taking good photos, so when i get something descent, i tend to enhance it and make it better. Once i can upgrade to a better camera with a better sensor and a better lens, i wont have to photoshop as much... or maybe im just too picky, trying to be as good as i can be.


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## Always51 (Feb 19, 2012)

I'm no expert..I just love your photos..very nice...


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## MercyMom (Dec 19, 2011)

Great work and beautiful gorgeous Goldens!


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