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Man and his Dog
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Nothing about this shot appeals to me.
The bloke’s eyes look shut. The sand is ruined with footprints. The dog looks bored. The tail is cropped. The bloke’s face looks blown on the left (his right). There’s no “story” that I can see.
Sorry. Just my groat’s worth.
When I look at this, I cant help but wonder if you have better shots of these two which you haven’t posted? There is no ‘connection’ between the man and his dog in the photo, and even less with the photographer? It just looks as if you stumbled upon the man and his dog and snapped a photo, without thinking of composition or angles etc. The viewpoint doesn’t really do justice to either the man or the dog. If the man was the main subject, he is blown out. The dog’s tail is cut off and yet there is plenty of room in the frame elsewhere?
Sorry, for so many ‘negatives’ but the overall appearance/content is not strong enough to disguise the faults.
As you have provided no information about it yourself, I would be interested to hear your own comments about the photo, ie why you took it this way; what you think of it etc? (This was an interesting exercise in a camera competition once, when the judge asked the photographer to comment on his work before he gave his own comments – a very worthwhile exercise).
Ross
thanks pete/brandyman . i absolutely agree with the above.(as it is a personal photo it has more connations for me then it would for a random viewer. as im sure you’ll have noticed he’s missing a front leg. hes very old and was brought for a walk one summers evening and he just gave up unable to walk any further and sat there lookin off into the distance as if he was giving up and it was the end of the line and his owner just sat beside him. i can understand why
most would see nothing but i can almost see a whole dialogue between the twoFunny enough, I did think that the dog could almost have been on its last legs but rejected that view due to the lack of connection from the owner.
I hadn’t picked up on the missing leg aspect, it just looked as if the off-side legs were hidden by the body. Now I’m starting to think the poor mutt only has 2 legs………. :lol:Sorry Keith. Hadn’t noticed the missing leg. Or should I say that I hadn’t noticed a leg was missing?
Poor dog.
Hi Keith, thanks for posting the pic as well as telling the story. I wasn’t sure what to comment on before the story, so didn’t, but knowing your intention behind taking the pic puts things in a different light (sorry – no pun, honest).
The reason why I’m not drawn to it is that the depth of field is pretty large, so both man and dog are in focus, as is much of the scene. Had it been shallower (smaller f-number, larger aperture) you would have kept your intended subject in sharp relief against a hazy background, which would have served to set the scene.
The second thing is that I’m unsure of the main focus of the picture – is it the man or the dog? As it’s a dialogue between the two and it’s ultimately about the dog’s journey, I would have tried to find a slightly different composition, to convey the dog looking resignedly …and the context being his owner looking down on him knowingly.
I’d focus on the dog’s head (eyes) and select a large aperture, so that the owner is just slightly out of focus. With the dog’s leg, it doesn’t really feature in the shot, so maybe go down lower, and again with better framing, would have brought it out more.
Hope this helps. Sometimes I stumble across a scene and don’t know how best to shoot it. Practice is the only way, really. Keep em coming. ;)
thanks guys. i suppose it was nieve of me to assume people would understand the background from just the one photo.
thanks again
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