Lessons Learned

[Diane Margetts]

This is one of my favorite photos of Dakota. And now ONLY because we are here to learn and improve photography, I must share the comments of the photographer that critiqued this photo because it was a lesson learned for me that I would like you to learn from me rather than through your own experiences. I got a thumbs up in composition. I was told that this was a good photo and if only I had of focused my camera on the dog, it could have been a great photo. Sigh!! It's true. If you blow this photo up, you will see that Dakota is soft and I was focused on the center of the frame. You know, it's just plain carelessness. Dakota and I were coming back from a long romp. He was sniffing around the tall weeds and I told him to lie down. He did and I stepped back and took the pic. I didn't think much about it at the time but when I opened it on the computer, I loved it! After my negligence was pointed out to me, I tried several times to replicate that photo and do it right, but it just never comes out the same--it was a special moment. I have since tried to sharpen it in post processing with some success but not enough to make it "great". My lesson learned is every photo is a once-in-a lifetime click of the camera. ALWAYS prepare as though it's the best picture you will ever take!!!!!

[Diane Margetts]

That's exactly right Leslie!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I do push half way down but never realized that it "froze" the focus. Duh. I will try that.

[Leslie and Halas]

I hope someone with more knowledge will chime in. But I think that your camera will auto-focus by pushing the button half-way down. So if you push it half-way down with your focus area on your subject, keep it pushed half-way down once you're focused (in other words, don't release it), then move the camera so that your subject is off to the side, and then push the button the rest of the way down. I think it should then take the picture with the focus on your subject. I think you could probably try to manually focus, too, but I probably wouldn't be able to do that very well.

[Adina P]

Haha Nancy...I JUST asked this question in the Photog group--sparked by this same blog.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

How do you focus on the side when the focus is in the middle of the frame? Do you take the picture with the dog in the middle and then crop?

[Rose]

Love the photo! Dakota's beautiful!

[Kathy Spyker]

I love the photo!! Dakota looks like he needed a break. He's a beautiful doodle =)

[LG & Sadie]

Thanks so much for sharing this! I love the picture~and love the lesson!