Grace

excellent. reminds me of B&W magazine

A wonderful exposure. Excellent work with the the flash on this, you have brought in enough background to give it some depth (of course the ears help with depth too) but managed to keep it from being distracting and keeping all the attention on Grace. The detail is also excellent. Wonderful work Alf.

Those eyes are amazing!  It's a beautiful portrait, and it's bound to melt the heart of any animal lovers.  It says something about you and your wife that you would 'rescue' a dog from a shelter.  I'm sure she couldn't have asked for a better home!

TONY

My sincere thanks, I appreciate your feedback and encouragement. "Expectation" kind of sums up the photograph very well, I wish I'd thought of naming it that : - )

Cheers Tony

Alf

JACQUELINE

Many thanks for your interest and thoughtful comments, much appreciated.  When stationary Grace has two positions, the "cheese" position, and the "Stroke my hairy belly" position, the former being more akin to a lady like posture : - )

Best Regards

Alf

DROR

She's a looker eh?

I think you could be very biased as a referee : - )

Glad you liked it mate!

Best Regards

Alf

TAMARA

Thank you so much for your vote of confidence! Speaking of "losing her" when we first got her, we found she could escape from the smallest gap in the garden fence> I spent two weekends buying new fencing and blocking up all the holes, after which she seemed to lose interest in escaping at all.  Glad you liked this one and I'm honoured you consider it a favorite.

Best Regards

Alf

GAIL

Thank you so much for your interest and thoughtful observations. You are quite right of course, Grace is a "mummys girl" she spends a lot of time with my wife and consequently where you find one of them the other isn't far away.  She did adopt us at a crucial time Gail, and has made a big difference to the household generally.  The framing is a nice idea, and it did cross my mind, I'm glad you reminded me, it's been added to my "to do" list.

Warm Regards

Alf

JAMIE

I think thats always an attractive element of out pets, though I wouldn't go as far as dressing her up in clothes as some people do with their pets. Each to thier own though : - ) I'm very pleased you liked this one my friend.

Best Regards

Alf  

ILKKA

Many thanks, I appreciate your kind words.

Best Regards

Alf

MEIR

Thank you so much, thats a wonderful compliment!

Best Regards

Alf

JOE

I didn't use any flash at all on this. Probably too much to read through up there ^^ but heres the relatively simple way I did this. The light was quite bright, mid day, coming from the right hand and slightly above  kitchen window and from the doorway behind me. I used aperture of f4 for dof and cranked the ISO up to 800 just to make sure the shutter speed captured her without movement ( 1/125 sec)  I then used vignetting in Lightroom to darken the image, and selective darkening in Photoshop and B & W processing, unsharp mask to finish off. Len Marriott made a good suggestion regarding using an "off camera flash" slightly to the right and behind grace in order to highlight her profile, but I must confess this is my first attempt at a portrait and the use of flashes isn't something I know anything about at all.  Always keen to learn though : -)

Glad you liked this one Joe and my sincere thanks for your thoughtful obsevations and positive feedback.

Best Regards

Alf

CHRISTAL

Who could resist them eyes huh? : - )

She is gorgeous, but then I'm biased ! We visited the North Wales dog rescue centre with the intent finding a dog, but the one we showed initial interest in from viewing on the web, was sadly classed as "unsuitable" because he wasn't good with children. We were then introduced to Grace, who immediately decided that we were the people that she would allow into her life and displayed this by rolling over and beseeching us with those amazing eyes.  Then followed the adoption process, and here I must congratulate and applaud the staff at NCAR ( North Clwyd Animal Rescue) www.ncar.ork.uk They questioned us thoroughly and visited our home to make sure that Grace was being taken to a suitable environment, they were most efficient in ensuring that all vetinary matters were up to date, and further made sure that Grace was electronically chipped and linked to us , just in case she did get lost at some point. A brilliant organisition.  I'm really glad you liked this one Christal.

Sincere Thanks and Kind Regards

Alf

That link above should have read www.ncar.org.uk

Wonderful portrait, Alf...beautiful light...excellent tonality...my best

Hi Alf,

A superb shot of a beautiful dog.

You used the Nikkor zoom set to 70mm F/4 square in the center of its best performance range of F/2.8 to F/5.6.

Great presentation in BW, too.

Best Regards,  mike

 

Many Thanks for your interest and positive feedback, much appreciated!

Best Regards

Alf

MIKE P

Sincere Thanks for your thoughtful observations, much appreciated.

I wasn't at all sure about using F4, I have very limited experience in any type of portrait or pet photography. I thought that maybe f4 would limit the dof, and it has to some extent, the far ear being totally out of focus.  I know from the information you have previously provided that image quality deteriorates as the aperture get smaller. But I'm wondering if f5.6 or f8 would have been a better compromise in order to achieve greater dof?

Best Regards

Alf

Hi Alf.

This is outstanding portrait of always human's best friend! 

Grigoriy

She is definately our "best Friend" when there is cheese on offer :- )

Many thanks for your interest I'm really pleased you liked it.

Best Regards

Alf

As a dog lover, I find this to be an emotionally packed photograph. I have seen this look many times from my own beloved dogs. You have captured it beautifully and your PP, just couldn't be better.Beautiful dog, Alf!

A fine portrait shot !! The expression and the feelings conveyed have been brought out well.

Regards,

 

indeed, Alf. this is a stunning use of light in bw to capture the essence of a dog's humanity....  that eye, needy yet poised. awesome ! dp 

They know how to turn on that "look" when they want something and I'm a sucker I can never resist or say NO : - ) In this particular case it's my wife holding a  piece of cheese, that is the object of Graces adoration. It was the only way to get her to sit still!  I'm really glad you liked this one Leo, it's the first time I''ve tried something like this.

Sincere Thanks & Best Regards

Alf

RAMESH

Sincere Thanks for your observations and positive feedback, much appreciated.

Best Regards

Alf

DONNA

Who could resist that expression eh?  "Needy" is a good analogy of Grace psrticularly when theres food about : - ) She is getting more selective though, probably as a result of being spoilt!

Glad you liked this one Donna, always good to hear from you!

Many Thanks & Best Regards

Alf

 

Excellent details, and nice catch lights.

Ben

Sorry I haven't visited for a while.  A long story . . .

What a fine tribute to your companion and friend.  The dramatic tonality and detail portray her as attentive, loyal, and noble.  You are blessed to have adopted her.

My best,

michael

Many Thanks for your interest and observations, much appreciated.

Best Regards

Alf

MICHAEL

No prolems Michael, it's always good to hear from you any time.

I guess you could say we are blessed that she adopted us : - ) She is a lovely dog. As for the photo, it's my first real attempt at something like this, the original was colour, but I'm pleased with the B & W conversion.

Many Thanks & Best Regards

Alf

Beautiful portrait work! I must say that I enjoy your landscapes very much but I am really happy to see you venture out into the land of pet portraiture and hope to see more of your lovely model in the near future! Grace is a beauty and you have really done a great job here! I have a Grace too; my grey cat which is dubbed Gracie. I found her on the curb at the side of the road after 11 P. M. on my way home from school. She had been injured and her eyes were so badly infected they were shut closed. I took her to the emergency animal hospital and was told she was just days away from death. Six week old little Gracie fit in the palm of my hand. I took her home and for weeks fed her with a dropper and cleaned her with wet cotton balls to mimic what she might think of as her mother's tongue. The vet said due to her spinal injury she may not walk again so we all spent time giving her physical therapy everyday by exercising her legs and moving them for her. Today, she not only walks but runs - though with a handicap but she scurries around just fine. She was named Grace because it was by the grace of God that I even found her! I love my Gracie and I am so happy you have found a Grace too! She is lovely! Great image! Thank you for sharing. :)

Hi Alf, Stunning B/W work! Light is perfect and you have captured her essence so well. Congrats, really well done. Best wishes. Sarah

Thank you for your inspirational comments and that very moving story. Just when you despair about the human race, you hear a story like yours that kind of restores ones faith. The joy you must get from seeing "Gracie" scurrying about I think is just reward for your kindness and caring nature. Coincidently our Grace gets called "Gracie" too.  But in her case she was already named Grace when she adopted us from the rescue centre, we thought it was most appropriate at the time as she had a very regal look about her. This illusion was soon dispelled when she decided to find disgusting smelly things to roll about in on her first venture out, but even after the consequewntial bath, the name stuck : - ) I will attempt further images if and when I can catch her in a quiet moment.

I'm really pleased you liked this one Trisha. Sincere Thanks and Best Regards

Alf

SARAH

Many Thanks for your thoughtful observations and positive feedback, very much appreciated. I have started processing the B & W images in a different way, and so far it seems to be working.

Best Regards

Alf

Lovely B&W work with great detail sharpness. I like the dogs "expression" in this one too.

Great work.

Best regards Tore

Coming from a man that has such great knowledge of portraits I take your comments as a great compliment. Thank You!

Best Regards

Alf

Alf, I think I could fall in love with Grace. This is such a lovely portrait. The detail in her fur is wonderful, the light on the tip of her nose is the perfect touch, but it's the light in her eye that really does it for me, absolutly heart melting.

BTW, I heard that cheese and chocolate are very bad for dogs. I could be wrong, but thought I would mention it.

Linda

Love dogs, love this image and what a great expression of love and loyalty, rek.

She is very lovable to be sure : - ) I'm really glad you like the portrait as it's a first attempt, and yes I have to agree that pleading expression in her eye is hard to say no to.  I know you are right about chocolate being bad for dogs, but I wasn't aware that cheese was also bad for them. She doesn't get much in the way of cheese though, as she seemed at one point to be developing a "fuller figure" : - ) So we have cut down on treats altogether, that being said, cheese is still the way forward as far as getting her to sit still for a photo is concerned.

Good to hear from you Linda and Many Thanks for your thoughtful comments.

Best Regards

Alf  

RICHARD

Thank you so much for your interest and kind words, she really has got that photogenic quality and expression of love............for the cheese of course : - )

Best Regards

Alf