QUESTIONS ANSWERED no 1

I’ve had a number of questions regarding my greyhound and fine art photography that I thought it was time to finally answer. Questions like: How do I manage to get the good and in focus photos of running greyhounds? Who’s in the masthead photo and what are they staring at? What type of camera I use? Where do you find all those dogs? How long did you study photography? What programs do you use to enhance your prints? Just to name a few.

So I thought I would answer these questions and a few more in the next couple of posts, though there will be a bit of demystification going on, I hope you won’t be too disappointed. And because it surprisingly turned into a long post with much rambling, I am going to break it up a bit AND add photos!

Where/how long did you study photography? – (warning: this segment has more to do with general photography than greyhound photography, so please skip to the next post if you are looking for pet related topics.) I’ve never had formal photography training. I like shooting photos. It’s as simple as that. I’ve had people say the reason my images turn out well is because I am not confined to the rules typically associated with photography - because I never learned them. My sister told me it has to do with how I see things. I don’t know. I just like finding the patterns, the flow of a scene, in the view finder and capturing it. I see something I like and I take a picture, sometime it works out, sometimes it is just crap. More often than not it is just crap. Sometimes it comes out like this one; a stained glass window in one of the casinos in Vegas. Much pattern.

Another photography no no - I shoot photos in the middle of the day – Gasp! Heresy. Yes some of my best images are at sunset and sunrise; the time I have been told you are supposed to shoot photos, but as often as not they are taken in the middle of the day. I love the contrast of the shadows and harsh lighting found in the desert. Because the following image was taken in the middle of the day, I was able to capture the lacework orange shadow of the wings on the railing.

I don’t Photoshop or stage the fine art prints – I believe it is more challenging to try to get it all right the first time; composition, lighting, subject, etc. I do Photoshop the greyhound photos; it’s damn near to impossible to get a sprinting greyhound dead center in the frame with correct lighting, etc. The photo below: all natural, as I found this proud beauty in my back yard, and since it is a night blooming cereus, it was withered away in 15 minutes of when I took this photo.

There is never somewhere where there isn’t a photo op (did ya follow that?) - I believe it is possible to find an interesting shot just about anywhere, maybe that comes from living in the visually dull and mostly brown hued desert and finding things to photograph. I do know it is not necessary to be in front of some impressive national wonder or stunning architectural building to get a good photo. I believe you can find beauty in the harshest or most boring of conditions. You just have to look for it. This is the top of a Saguaro cactus in my front yard. I never knew the new needle growth is red, turning to white after a few weeks.

To be continued...