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Image Description
This is a portrait of our first rescue dog, taken in 2015 when she was about 16 months old. The golden late afternoon light of a winter day along with reflection from snow provided amazing light for this photo opportunity.
The Rescue Story
Gracie was found with the rest of her litter mates under a shed in NC, the offspring of two stray dogs. A tragedy averted, the owner of the property reached out to a local humane society to “come get these dogs off my property before I take care of the problem myself.” The humane society quickly collected the puppies, but despite their best efforts were unable to save the mother. This is sadly the state of affairs in many states, where these dogs end up in high-kill shelters with little hope of being adopted. In this case, the humane society in collaboration with a NH rescue organization found homes for all of these puppies.
Gracie Rose is now 11 years old and like Maddie Lou (our other rescue dog), is in fantastic shape for an old gal and living the good life!
Feedback Requests
I wish I did not frame this so tight, but I feel it does a good job of depicting Gracie’s houndy-mutt profile. The light is obviously marvelous, but any feedback is appreciated!
Pertinent Technical Details
EOS 50D handheld
EF 135/2L
f/2 @ 1/3200, ISO 400
Processede in LRC
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Hi Jim. You are certainly right about the quality of the light on this one. Since this is already pretty tight horizontally, and the out of focus dark butt isn’t doing a lot for me, I took the liberty of downloading this and recropping it. Where I wanted the crop, I still had to clone out just a tiny wedge of the rear end. Here it is and you can take it for what it’s worth (two minutes of retiree time at $0/hr).
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Dennis, I like the crop - this portrait works well in a square format!
Jim, I was thinking the very same thing, to crop in to mostly the head, then I scrolled down and saw what @Dennis_Plank had done. Two retired folks at $0/hour. It’s a beautiful dog and the lighting is wonderful. I live in NC and when I see stray dogs out, I often think about if it was the dog that had the option to just drop us out in the middle of nowhere to fend for ourselves, as loyal as they are, it wouldn’t happen. I’m so glad you gave her and Maddie Lou a good home.
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I’m late here and had the same thought as @Dennis_Plank about a crop. It works very well and lets her face and expression dominate the composition even more. Expanding the canvas on top just a bit with content-aware fill could let you add a bit more room on the top if you are so disposed, but it’s not a big deal for me.
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Another sweet image! The light is amazing and your detail excellent.
I like Dennis’s crop suggestion.
Jim, first and foremost thank you for your support to rescuing both your dogs. This is a fine portraiture and I find the original works best for my tastes.
I’ve had many dogs throughout my life and several were rescues as well. One of my long time drag racing friends Leroy Chadderton, (first in the 7’s & then the 6’s in AA-Fuel Alerted) usually had 5 rescues at any given time.
I was lucky to have shared a flight years ago in Alaska between Anchorage & Fairbanks with Will Rogers Jr. I was headed to Ft. Yukon and he was headed to Point Barrow where his father and Wiley Post had crashed.
His father’s quote is the best tribute to our K-9 family members: “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
― Will Rogers
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I always like seeing a good dog portrait. Dennis’s crop looks pretty good and the lighting is special too, A good story and an excellent photo of Gracie–a lucky dog for sure…Jim
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