Some More Dog Photography Tips
By KRae Merk | March 15, 2010
Some of the biggest “wower” photos I get are ones that consist of dogs in a full out run and the photo freezes the motion with a blurred background and the dog in focus.
A trick I’ve learned is when you’re after those awesome blurred background photos, you need a high powered zoom lens. My favorite camera & lens for this job are the Nikon D300; Very fast (6 pictures a second), awesome white balance, reliable, very ergonomic, outstanding picture quality, & Nikon 70-300 zoom lens; its inexpensive, very sharp focus, fast, feels good in the hands, (looks good too).
The camera settings I use most of the time for outside are Programmed Auto with the white balance set for the current weather outside. Since most of my dog photography takes place outside and outside the lighting changes by the millisecond so using Shutter, Aperture, or Manual mode, my experiences have been not so good with these settings, now, I do use those settings in other situations, but not usually outside. I will cover the situations I use the other settings in future posts.
Getting back to the dog photography tips, when I’m taking photos with the idea of getting the wow shot I don’t take my finger off the shutter button with the knowledge that I can always delete the ones that aren’t worth saving later on the computer. Also, another tip is putting your camera on a tripod, but I hardly ever use a tripod for outside action dog photography, so I don’t get as clear photos sometimes as I could. Also, move the camera with the same speed and motion of the subject in motion, that’s how you get the blurred background. But the main thing is don’t let off the shutter, I’ve take hundreds of photos and only kept a few in the past, so, you can never take enough photos.
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Some of my Dog Photography Tips That I Use
By KRae Merk | March 11, 2010
Well, I guess one of my biggest dog photography tips is the dog I photograph most of the time is my dog Candy whom I raised from a 8 week old pup. But that isn’t always the case with most photography subjects. Now, I like to photograph dogs in their natural surroundings, (i.e, outside in the backyard, in their house, est.) dogs normally give me their best when I’m in the surroundings they are used to. I do dog photography in studios and I’ve done a few props with the dogs here and there, but my favorite way is in their natural element.
In their natural state you get photos like this;
Now, like I said, I have done a few studio shots, but my favorite type of “studio” shots are ones that have a natural background. (i.e, outdoor backgrounds like the ones below)
That’s the dog photography tip for today, and yes I know, I haven’t posted in like forever, but I’m working on doing a post week, so check back soon!
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The 4-Legged Blues Brothers
By KRae Merk | October 3, 2009
A couple of friends of mine are blues guitarist, and I decided to have a little fun with it. 
Oh, in case your wonderin’… yes one of the dogs did NOT like to wear sunglasses, in this case it was Wolfe. (Wolfe is the one laying down) So, I had to be a Marine and improvise. I found some hay baleing twine and tied them on his head, and yes, he was not happy about that… not one bit… tough… I got a great picture, and that’s all that counts. 
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Sunset and Moon
By KRae Merk | September 28, 2009
A few weeks ago I was shooting the sunset, and after the sun went down I started shooting the moon. (not the stars)
When I shot these cloud, I tried to figure out what they looked like, a squiggly handle-bar mustache?
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Texas…
By KRae Merk | September 22, 2009
I love these photos, for a born and bred Texan, they mean a lot.
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Deer, Outhouses, and ATV’s
By KRae Merk | September 18, 2009
Last time I was out at the “back 49″ (way out in the country) I got a few pics that I likes for reasons that I don’t understand.
This is my faithful Polaris ATV that has endured what I call, “photographer abuse”
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Fixing “Fronkenstien”
By KRae Merk | September 14, 2009
Over Labor Day weekend, my brother Kody was helping some of his buddies in putting “Fronkenstien” back together.
Now, “Fronkenstien” is a older Toyota pickup that has been refitted with super swamper mud tires, and has a reputation of rescuing everyone from the Deep Depths of the Infamous Red Mud.
Fronkenstien had his engin taken out and was rebuilt a few months ago, and I took these pictures while Kody, Lance, and Tom were trying to rewire the engin back up. (I won’t go into details on how they put the pieces and the parts and all the nuts and bolts back in, nor the conversation that followed)
See me in the mirror?
This is Fronkenstien’s “moon roof”
Fronkenstien has many uses; a hat rack.
This Praymantis was “praying” over Fronkenstien, and we all decided to leave him alone, only occasional asking him to pray to God to make the !#$%& thing run!
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Creepie Crawlies
By KRae Merk | September 11, 2009
The other day I was out and about on my faithful Polaris ATV and I spotted a corner in the fence line that offered great pictures for bugs and lizards. 
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Cool Dude
By KRae Merk | September 8, 2009
The other morning, I noticed Wolfe laying down with his paws crossed, and he was so relaxed and cool that I just fell in love with the pictures I got of him.
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Legs, Heads, and Flashlights
By KRae Merk | September 1, 2009
As crazy as the title is, the pics to go with it arn’t as crazy. As any photographer will know, its very hard to put the camera down, (its VERY hard for me) and so I end up shooting anything that I can… for instances, my model horses;
And at night time when all the lights are out, I’ll bring out my Surfire flashlight and keep on shooting, much to my dog and cats annoyance.
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