Salty dogs . . .

As much as I'm out photographing boats and harbors, and as many dogs as there are in those areas, you'd think I'd have more "dogs on boats" shots.

These are about all I have. A spaniel aboard a sailboat in South Carolina, a floppy-eared dog aboard a fishing boat in Newport, Oregon, and an alert little guy on board a fishing boat in Bellingham, Washington.

The spaniel was particularly challenging to shoot. A light-colored body, a light-colored background, and then a black head. What do you meter for? Expose for the body and the dog's head will be way too black and will have no detail. Expose for the dog's head, and the rest of the scene will be way too light and bright.

I exposed for the area just to the right of the dog's head. But the details still didn't show well in the final image. So I used a layer mask in Photoshop and brought out the details just in the dog's ears and face, especially the eye. Now I have something that's acceptable to me.

Will I ever do anything with these dog photos? Nope. They're just a reminder to me to look more closely for possible photo subjects as I wander around.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh.

Right place, right day

Another little trip up the bay to Toledo to check out the annual car show — this time we got the date right. Beautifully soft, overcast lighting made the cars look even better. Nothing like a car show to encourage one to concentrate on simple lines, simple shapes, bright colors, and an occasional dog. ©Carol Leigh

A quick trip to the fishing boats

While running errands yesterday, we made a quick stop at the docks to see what was going on. Boats sat low in the water, full of crabs waiting to be offloaded, such as this boat, F/V Last Straw (not to be confused with the much smaller F/V Last Dance over on the other dock). A young dog stands watch aboard the M/V Raven, and then a copper bell hangs over the the wheelhouse windows on the turquoise blue F/V Kristin Gail. (Obviously, clear visibility isn't all that important when you're moored in port!) ©Carol Leigh

Boat dog and a minor rant ...

We were running errands this morning but the weather was SO pretty we had to check out the fishing boats en route. This little guy was ever vigilant, looking longingly over the rail for his owner to return to the boat. Gotta love the ears!

And now a minor rant (very minor). Once again I find myself annoyed and frustrated and cranky at technology. I have a new (3 days old) phone that does all sorts of things (e-mail! web browsing! video! camera!) and I don't know how to use it yet. I THINK I know how to make a phone call. I called myself, but I wasn't there — got the answering machine.

The other thing that's bugging me is that I've also got a new (one month old) camera that requires different batteries and different memory cards (of course) than all my other equipment. Gotta stock up on them. And the picture format is such that BreezeBrowser (a program I use daily) doesn't recognize it. So I had to upgrade BB on the desktop computer.

Then I tried to download the images onto my laptop, but my card reader doesn't recognize this type of memory card. So I had to buy a new card reader. Then, of course, BB in the laptop doesn't recognize the format, so I had to upgrade THAT. And finally, the camera has different features than I'm used to, so that's another big learning curve.

Technology. Changing faster than I can dole out the money and read the (nonexistent) user manuals.

To quote Jimmy Buffett, "If the phone doesn't ring, it's me."

©Carol Leigh