Project 365 - Day 4 - Trying to get a good shot of Brodie

As some of you know, Brodie is our Golden Retriever.  He is 12 going on 13 years old.   He has cataracts that cover most of his eyes, so he is basically blind.  He started going blind at a very young age, and for the past couple of years he has had no clear sight more or less.  He does fine in our house when you don't move things, but when people come over and you move stuff around he can get kind of confused.  Luckily he takes this in stride.

Brodie has had quite the Christmas season this year.  There were lots of visitors, and he especially likes the little visitors that want nothing more than to sit and pet him all day.  This, coupled with the fact that I have been off for the past three days, has tired Brodie out. 


So I wanted to test out my 24-70 lens.  Haven't taken a shot with it yet, and I was itching to do a portrait of some kind.  But I have no models.  Enter Brodie.  Now, I mentioned the cataracts previously for a reason.  Any bright light refracts on the cataracts and appears to be a blinding flash to Brodie.  This includes bright light coming in from the back window, lightning at night, and also the flash from a speedlight.

So what to do?  Use ambeint light of course.  But Brodie knows the sound of the camera, and that it usually comes with a flash, so as soon as you turn it on he hightails it for his bed.

The answer, ultimately, is to wait til he's asleep and sneak up on him.  I had to handhold this shot at ISO800 and F4 at 1/5 of a second.  Got off 20 shots before he opened his eyes and glared at me with that all knowing dog stare.  But I did get a shot... :-)