Spring arrived today and I think we had more snow in some South Island areas today than during winter. 

The joys of a New Zealand spring.

I thought I would write today about taking photos in the snow and some do's and don'ts of photographing your dog.  With examples of both.

Your camera tries to make your images an average 18% grey.  Which means that especially when photographing snow on a sunny day, the photos will often come out a dull grey colour. Especially if you are letting your camera do the deciding on exposure.   The camera wants to average the exposure so will lower it to compensate for all that bright white light.  

One way to help with this is to bump up your exposure.  Sounds funny to overexpose an image in the snow,  trust me, give it a try.  You could add about 1/3 to 2/3 on your exposure compensation dial and see how that looks.    

Mobile phones aren't forgotten here, to lift the exposure on many smartphones you hold your finger on the screen and push it up to raise the exposure, and push it down to lower it.  A very handy little trick.  This is often linked to the focus area and where you touch will also be where the phone will focus.  

I have put some older photos of my dog Raz in the snow to talk about photographing dogs, the snow pics I thought were apt on such a snowy day.  These hints apply to any dog photography.

Many people tell me their action shots are blurry.  

The shutter speed needs to be high enough to capture the action without blurring, raise the ISO if you need to and this will give you a faster shutter speed and you can also use a wider aperature which will raise the shutter speed.  

Shoot in close and make your dog the focus of the scene.  Its hard to see them if they are off in the distance and you may be able to crop the image or it might be easier to just shoot in closer.  

The first image is of Raz up nice and close and the focus of the shot.

The second is Raz leaping in the air and catching the ball, a nice shot, but I was a bit too close and I should have left more space at the top.

The third shot doesn't tell much of a story.  What is she catching?  You can't see the ball so its confusing.  Actually she has missed the ball and its just beside her neck, but the image doesn't really show that.  

Image four is Raz on her front legs, never a flattering shot.  You really want the dog coming off the back legs.  

Number five is a common mistage many people make, the dog is skidding in the snow, but its bum is to the camera and its too far away.

Number six is a really common mistake, your shadow in the photo.  I know its hard to check the around the image when its an action shot, but its not hard to see your shadow is in the image.

I hope this is helpful and if you have any questions please just ask and I will answer if I can.  

Happy Spring

Pam x