Get Closer: Pet Photography Project 52: Week 49

Our theme is Get Closer for our Pet Photography Project 52, Week 49. We are to get as close as we can, play with the focus or ignore it completely. Experiment and get creative. 

Let me start by saying I LOVE close up shots. I love shots that are just of a dog's eye or nose or fur. However to take those types of shots on my camera, I need a lens that I don't own. I need a macro lens. I've never shot with one before but I'd love to try. Next November I'm going to be in southern California and I hope to hook up with a photographer friend, Audrey of Audrey Ricks Photography. Check out that link - her images are AMAZING. I met her at Barkelona and I'd love to see her again. She has a macro lens and she shoots Nikon. I hope she will let me borrow it. :) I don't know if Audrey even knows I'm going to be on her coast yet and I've certainly not asked her about borrowing the lens. I'll shoot her a link to this post :o. 

I took my man Moose out into my backyard to try and get some up close shots of him. I tied his leash around a tree and he quickly realized that instead of going for a walk when I leashed him up, he was going to be subjected to my lens in his face. Well actually it wasn't in his face because I was using my 70-200mm lens and I have to be a good 10 feet from him in order to get that lens to focus. He still got bored rather quickly.

This was after I'd snapped about 10 photos. He was already bored so he started barking at me. It was getting dark. I had my ISO up to 640 and I don't like to go much higher than that with my camera. At f/2.8, my shutter speed was at 1/80. I am shocked that his nose is in focus in this shot!

I cropped this photo so it appears that I am close to him. I was still about 10 feet from him when I took this. He looks rather bored, huh? This was before the barking.

Here is the same photo from above but I cropped it in close. I don't prefer this image cropped this close because it isn't tack sharp and you can see I need to remove the dandruff on his face when it's cropped this closely. I need that macro lens of Audrey's. :)

Moose lays like this all the time. For a year now I've wanted to get a shot like this of him (only better actually.) When I was trying to take this, every time I crouched down to get eye level with him, he'd stand up. I've not ever attempted to get this shot of him before so this exercise made me at least try. :)

This is a blog circle and next up is Elaine Tweedy, Northeast PA Pet Photographer. Be sure to click the links at the end of each post to see each photographer's take on Get Closer. These are going to be some good ones and for all of us dog photographers who don't have a macro lens, we probably all want one now. I wanted one before this exercise!