Candids & Action Photos
For the most part, candid photos and action photos still require us to be low to the ground so that we can get that soft for foreground in.
However if you are doing photos of say disc dogs or agility dogs or dogs who are kind of in the air you may then need to lift your camera higher in order to track them so you just follow them up as high as they go.
So it really depends on the effect you’re going for. By seeing no ground and pointing the camera higher, they will have the sense of being higher… but sometimes having the ground gives us context as to their height!
The photos below are variations of “leaping” photos. For some, the drama comes from perceived height: they are so high we can’t even see the ground.
For a few others, the drama comes from seeing the ground and having that extra layer with the blurry foreground. We get more of a sense of their place in that space and how they’re moving through it.
Otherwise in general we still need to be trying to keep a sense of the space and of the size of the dog and we can do that by being nice and low.
However we also need to be conscious of not cutting our dogs ears off or having them get too close to the top of the frame which can be quite a challenge in candid shots where they are moving around and you’re trying to track them.
So just try and keep them more less in the centre of the frame. You may just need to lie on your belly so that you’re forced to stay down low.
Plenty of examples below of different kinds of movement or candid photos.
