Kingsley Singleton: Blog https://kingsleysingleton.zenfolio.com/blog en-us (C) Kingsley Singleton (Kingsley Singleton) Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:24:00 GMT Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:24:00 GMT Cold Day, Warm Hearts https://kingsleysingleton.zenfolio.com/blog/2017/12/cold-day-warm-hearts Today I made one of my regular visits to Animal Helpline Dog Rescue to take portraits of their latest 'guests'. As always, there were lots of volunteers, helping these poor little creatures to be as happy and comfortable as possible; and also training them ready for their new homes. These really are good people, in stark contrast many of those who've put these dogs in the position they're in.

And all the dogs, of course, are beautiful, so making portraits of them is easy. 

DSC_2095 new smallDSC_2095 new small DSC_2382 new smallDSC_2382 new small

It was a pretty cold day, as you can see, but winter does have its advantages. For one thing, the low sun does wonders for furry friends, so we manoeuvred them into patches of sunshine. The result is instant hair-lighting.

I shot all these on my Nikon D810 with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, adding some positive exposure compensation to offset the backlighting from the sun. One of the advantages of that camera, and other very high-res DSLRs like the recent Nikon D850, is the amount of cropping you can do in post production. This means erratic subjects (of which rescue dogs are one), can be shot quite loosely, or in portrait or landscape format, and cropped into the opposite format while still having plenty of detail. 

DSC_2600 new smallDSC_2600 new small

 

]]> (Kingsley Singleton) 2017 dogs rescue winter https://kingsleysingleton.zenfolio.com/blog/2017/12/cold-day-warm-hearts Mon, 18 Dec 2017 19:01:48 GMT First Time in the Snow? https://kingsleysingleton.zenfolio.com/blog/2017/12/first-time-in-the-snow The first snow of the year – in the East Midlands at least – and so I take the chance for some shots of the dogs in the snow. It’s not the easiest of combinations for photography as excitement is at 110%. My 1yr rescue shepsky has been snapping at snowflakes in the garden already, and though the veteran springer is playing it cool, the beat of his tail gives him away.

When I get to the wide open and let them off, the shepsky explodes, running in wide arcs around me and splitting her time between chasing her brother and making new friends with anything brave enough to put up with her.

DSC_1770 smallDSC_1770 small

The thing with snow is, it’s likely to cause the camera to underexpose, and that means the white stuff coming out grey, so you need to tip exposure compensation towards the positive. But positive exposure compensation also means the shutter speed slows, and that’s not a great fit with speeding, snow-crazed dogs. And with the snow still falling it’s darker than the conditions would make you think.

Shooting in aperture priority at the widest setting possible (f/4-5.6 on my Nikon 80-400mm G), the only solution to lift the shutter speed to a reasonable level, is bumping the ISO. It’s better to have some noise hidden in the snow than blurred details. I shot at between 640 and 1250 for most of these images, giving between 1/800sec and 1/1000sec – not perfect, but possibly enough.

It was only after the walk, I realised, that being a rescue dog, this might have been her first time out in the snow.

DSC_1886DSC_1886

DSC_1790 smallDSC_1790 small

 

DSC_1916DSC_1916

DSC_1807 smallDSC_1807 small

DSC_1853DSC_1853

DSC_1880 smallDSC_1880 small

DSC_1965DSC_1965

DSC_1960 smallDSC_1960 small

 

]]> (Kingsley Singleton) https://kingsleysingleton.zenfolio.com/blog/2017/12/first-time-in-the-snow Wed, 13 Dec 2017 08:56:16 GMT