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The delay from when you press the shutter at the perfect moment but the camera takes the picture a second or so lattercan be frustrating when capturing action. Activate your camera’s central focus point or focus group and then aim to keep your moving dog at the center of the frame for a sharp photo. If your camera doesn’t have good or fast enough tracking in Auto Focus or they are moving to quickly straight towards you with your camera for the auto tracking, try pre focussing on a spot that the dog will run through which is where you’ll release the shutter. The ability to change settings like the auto focus/tracking and shutter speed, and selecting a ‘faster’ lens (where the minimum aperture is lower) will enable you to adapt your gear to capture action dogs in a wider variety of scenarios.

Alternatively, many digital cameras have a multiple exposure function in camera (like the Olympus E-M1 and E-M10 cameras I’ve used for the photos you see here) The HDR technique goes some way to replicating how the human eye sees a scene (something which the dynamic range of cameras are not able to do) by combining the pictures to add the full range from bright to dark areas. HDR effects can be created during post processing or in cameras where they have this functionality (the Olympus E-M1 and E-M10 cameras allow this and produce great results). I’ve been inspired to capture and share these creative photo ideas through using the Olympus Olympus EM-1 MkII, EM-10 MkIII and the Olympus

You can see if what will happen if you change your dog’s position relative to the light entering through the window – whether that be by moving them closer or changing the direction that they are facing. There’s good bokeh, but there’s also bad bokeh when the blur is so distracting or harsh that it steals the focus away from the subject. As light passes into your camera through a small opening (i.e. a small aperture at a low focal length) it bends around the edges of the blades and creates the “star” look. More of this on my next article on lighting effects… Want to look at ways to incorporate flash or external lighting in your dog photography?

Capture their reaction when you arrive, whether it’s doggie yoga stretches as they wake up from the car ride or dancing around with excitement to be let loose and explore…because each place is different and unique, especially to your dog. Also don’t forget to take a doggie photo of the road sign at your destination (or if you’re really lucky, a sign that incorporates your dog’s name). The dogs and I took several trips together with these cameras to truly test them out and found that they were pawfect for the travel photos that we wanted to capture. If you’d like to see more of the photos captured with the Olympus cameras be sure to check out our Dog Friendly Destination Guides for Phillip Island, Rutherglen, Kangaroo Valley, Grafton and Potts Point.