Capture Dog Action!

"I'll meet you at the trail junction."

Previsualize

My wife Pat and I were walking our dogs Taylor and Jessie on one of our favorite trails in the Sandia foothills. I'm never without a camera and at least one lens on these hikes, and the day's overcast light made for great photo ops with an attached flash. I knew the side loop Pat and the dogs were taking rejoined the main trail at a 45 degree angle, with a mountain background. I previsualized a low angle shot as the dogs rounded the trail past a stand of prickly cane cholla. Then I knelt down and waited.

And I got it, just like I pictured it.

With any photography, that's the important part. Previsualizing from experience is the key to capturing dog action.

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Shooting From Experience - But Not Always Consciously

Sometimes it may seem like you're just reacting to the action. But you're using your experience and what you'd like to see to frame and shoot, even when you're not doing it consciously.

I spent several years shooting pro mountain bike races. I liked riders getting big air in trials, mass starts for cross-country, and the speed of downhill. But my favorite was dual slalom, especially when two riders were evenly matched. Then I could get both riders throwing up dirt around a flag, sometimes with intense concentration on their faces, since one little mistake meant a crash and possible injury to one or both riders. That experience taught me to shoot a bit loose, wait for action I wanted, choose shutter speeds to freeze motion or blur it, and use a flash to fill helmeted and visored faces. After a few runs, I'd know what line riders would pick through the course.

The same knowledge and experience applies to shooting active dogs. But there's the added pure joy in the expressions and body language of dogs running and playing. The best captures come from waiting for happy faces to burst around a corner or chase a ball or toy, skittering towards me. I used to wait for the action and expression I wanted, but things were happening so fast that I started missing shots. So now I'll shoot sequences once I get the framing I want, holding down the shutter button on a mirrorless camera. That can be a little more hit or miss for expressions, but a mirrorless camera with good autofocus tracking will nail the sharpness on a dog's eye. With dogs I watch for awhile and get to know, I can begin predicting the lines they follow and their behavior - smiles, growls, toy tugs, jumping, the way they run. I'll know what they're going to do as they play, and I can set up repeated activity to capture it. That gives me the best chance to capture a dog's enthusiastic happiness.

Restrict to Predict

A constrained or well-worn path will keep a dog more predictable in action. In the US Southwest where I live, that's usually what you're hiking on, between the prickly pear and cane cholla. On the trails through the denser forest on the back side of Albuquerque's Sandia Mountains, it's still one uncluttered path through brush that a dog or wildlife will follow. So in any natural outdoor environment, I'll get predictable motion.

I also ask a dog's human what their pup likes, and how he plays and runs. That gives me a rough guide for what to expect, but there's no substitute for actually watching how a dog behaves and plays.

All-Weather Shooting

Mountain bike races are held rain or shine. There's nothing quite like flying mud and spattered racers riding through the puddles. Snow is much easier - it's not going to fly into lens glass or onto cameras. So I'm used to shooting in any conditions - and that's how I end up with pictures no one else has.

And I love action in the snow. There's nothing like a dog hopping through drifts and stopping for an instant frozen drink.

Fresh snow started falling late one late October day in Albuquerque. We leashed up the pups and went around the block before darkness forced us back inside, but snowfall continued all night. The next morning brought drifts for our Sheltie Jessie especially to jump through. We walked up the snowy trail paralleling the road to our favorite park. It was instant grins in a pup free-for-all as Jessie and her big Berner brother Taylor chased each other through the snow.

And the snowy mountain desert with clearing storm clouds gave me great backgrounds for pictures. We walked through fields of sage and cane cholla while Jessie leaped off the ground for attention and Taylor explored new smells. We walked up to our usual stop at a shelter farther up Piedra Lisa Canyon, having the place mostly to ourselves. It always looks a little more as it must have before we got here, with snow covering up most human traces.

Chase a Toy for Predictability

With two dogs, I usually either try to shoot them separately for better control, or have them chase a ball or toy they both like. Jessie loves to go after her favorite squeaky ball, and ultra-competitive Taylor will watch Jessie and go after it too. Towards the end of a walk near sunset, I had my wife Pat walk several yards away and pitch the ball towards me. I set the shot up with the mountain background lit by warm orange light, and used a flash on-camera to light the pups. I shot several sequences with them running at me, but the best shot came from them catching up to the ball and stopping it, dirt flying from paws and ferocious expressions on their faces. (You haven't lived until you've seen a little Sheltie look ferocious.)

Then it was time to head back down the trail to the car. I had several chances for dog silhouettes against an orange sky and dog and human in a landscape with a sunstar. It was a pair of my favorite subjects in my favorite light.

Shot Notes

With action, there's always the choice of freezing motion versus showing it with blur. My usual answer is to shoot both, but you don't always get that choice with a one-time event. I tend to be a sharpness junkie, especially with the outstanding high-ISO performance of recent digital cameras. But there's a place for motion blur, and I sometimes do it accidentally. That's what happened with some of the snow shots. Snow is bright in full sun, but while it's falling, it and the clouds it falls from shadow the sun and cut the light way down. Couple that with a much too low ISO setting chosen for reasonable exposures in <brain fart> full daylight with large apertures, and, well... oops. But using on-camera flash caused at least some details in those pictures to be sharp, something you need if you're shooting slow shutter speeds. And my motion-following panning skills are pretty good from all those years shooting bike races, necessary to keep your moving subject sharp while you blur everything else.

I wanted to show the impact of Jessie and Taylor ball-chasing, but I was using a slow f/4 zoom in end-of-the-day light for those pictures, so I chose a high-enough ISO for a fast shutter speed at f/4. Thankfully, there was enough light to make it work.

Not how you capture dog action… — *Not* how you capture dog action…

I always shoot a broad scenic with humans or dogs in it for an establishing or ending shot. Everyone wants to see where you are, and they love it when subjects fade into the sunset.

Every camera and lens I use for active dogs is weather-sealed. I never worry about snow and light rain. That used to be a problem with Nikon's first-version Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 EDIF. That lens went to the repair shop every time I tried to use it on rainy mountain bike race courses. A little moisture at the lens mount, and it was all over. Canon's L-series lenses and recent lenses from Sigma are all weather-sealed to varying degrees. It pays to read the manufacturer's own information plus independent reviews to check this before you buy.

More Information

Mark Bohrer Photo (Nov 7 2020), Schutzhund in New Mexico. Retrieved from markbohrerphoto.com/blog/schutzhund-in-new-mexico.

Activelight (Apr 21, 2010), Sports Photography – The Sea otter Classic. Retrieved from activelightphotography.com/media-credentials-and-event-photography-the-sea-otter-classic.