A Portrait of a Dog

I will now show you a set of B&W portraits of my beloved four legged friend Hedda, who always follow me when I stroll around taking photographs. Hedda was born four years ago in Poland, and her parents names are Bellini von Nemesis and Santa Julf Bridjit Bardot. To get Hedda I and my wife drove from Munich were we met the Polish "midwife" at a rendezvous point at a gas station beside the Autobahn just outside Leipzig. The only worldly luggage Hedda had with her was a towel with her mother's smell on it. Hedda is an extremely friendly Doberman Pinscher who never has showed any aggression towards other dogs and humans in her life, but in the beginning she scared many Japanese dog owners here in Tokyo because of the breeds reputation. The dogs here in Tokyo are mostly toy breeds that are dressed up in jackets, shoes, sunglasses, and many of them are transported around in pet strollers.

Dog is nice but you missed one important thing - eyes. In generally portrait they should be perfectly sharp and in case of dog they should express it's feelings.
You are on the good way.
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Best regards, swnw.

A very beautiful dog!

IMO the images are underexposed, which is easy to do with a dark subject such as this. Thus, those all important eyes are not showing as they should. There is a lot of detail hidding in those deep shadows (such as the eyes and nose). I tried adjusting those areas and it works fairly well but is very difficult on such a small image.

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Busch

Take the scenic route! Life is too short to do otherwise.

http://www.pbase.com/busch

Nice shots very tricky B/W with a black dog i know i have a rottweiler i ve just given up and shot in colour. cheers lee

I'm not a huge fan of B/W but I love dogs and those are really great compositions.

a lot are so dark doesn't show the dark dog well. BUT a few do and I LOVE THEM. I loved your choice of the wood bg on some, so fitting. Some are great I just love the ones the eyes are not shadowed on. I love bw shots and it's hard to do with a dark dog your very brave lol. Such lovely compositions on most tho, I enjoyed them very much.
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Cherylm
'You can observe a lot just by watching'

http://www.pbase.com/cherylm

Wonderful to see your dog. It's such a lucky dog! And you are lucky too.
Beautiful photos.

We're dog owners as well. We've owned Goldens for over 20 years. We have 1 now; a rescue dog that adds so much to our lives.

He's my first and most regular subject! He doesn't care for dslr's and big glass. He's much more confident with P&S's.

So thank you for sharing! I celebrate your dog's life!

DaveL

We had a doberman for 13 years and when he died it nearly broke our hearts, he was like yours and had the same gentle temperament, it is the owners who make bad dogs not the dog they are lovely creatures. The pic. no.4 is a very typical dobie pose with a slightly apprehensiive look. Good B&W images. Dennis

As I looked at each image of Hedda, I had the same thought " What a wonderful looking dog!". I think you have captured her various expressions perfectly. The somewhat dark B/W rendition, along with your excellent compositions, give her a very regal look. Great work.
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geeno
http://genet.smugmug.com/

What a beautiful dog Bengst. You have captured her personality so well too. Like you, I prefer "real dogs" like Hedda to the little ones they carry in their purses.

Jack
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http://www.pbase.com/jbrandt

Good shots, like the B&W. Beautiful dog. Composition of your shot 9 is similar to the shot below. The dog, Jack, belongs to our son (and his partner) - never had a dog of our own but have to say he's become a our grandpup

I think P1130414 is excellent, best of a good bunch. I think I can just make out your reflection in the eyes!

Good looking dog. My favorite of the set is the last.
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Dez

http://photos.dezmix.com

Oh, my, these are beautiful! I had my favorite picked out, but then scrolled to another favorite, and then another, and another. What a lovely dog, and you did a fabulous job with these.

I cringe at the thought of Tokyo's four-legged fashion models........

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Susan
1 old farmhouse, 2 dogs, 5 cats, 3 computers

Lovely series depicting Hedda, great dog. I really like the 5th one - terrific.

Regards
Steve

Bengt Westerblad said:

I will now show you a set of B&W portraits of my beloved four legged friend Hedda, who always follow me when I stroll around taking photographs. Hedda was born four years ago in Poland, and her parents names are Bellini von Nemesis and Santa Julf Bridjit Bardot. To get Hedda I and my wife drove from Munich were we met the Polish "midwife" at a rendezvous point at a gas station beside the Autobahn just outside Leipzig. The only worldly luggage Hedda had with her was a towel with her mother's smell on it. Hedda is an extremely friendly Doberman Pinscher who never has showed any aggression towards other dogs and humans in her life, but in the beginning she scared many Japanese dog owners here in Tokyo because of the breeds reputation. The dogs here in Tokyo are mostly toy breeds that are dressed up in jackets, shoes, sunglasses, and many of them are transported around in pet strollers.

Click to expand...

I want to thank you all for the the kind comments and technical tips and suggestions. I shot all images using the dynamic B&W setting on the LX3, it was just recent and just before I sold the camera that I started to shot RAW with it, which of course can take more post processing. Hedda's coat is charcoal black and tan and I tried to depict that deep black because the slightest over exposure created a grayish coat in B&W, and it is very difficult to preserve that deep black without loosing details. The three indoor shoots were taken just using the natural light coming from a French window beside her bed, and it was an overcast day so the light was very dim. I had an inspiration for the indoor shoots, and that was to create a clair-obscure/chiaroscuro effect as can be seen in old dutch art where details in the shadow areas melts into the dark background, and that was at least what I had in mind and how well I succeeded is open to discussion. For achieving a different result I also tried to use a camera with a bigger APS-C sensor, my old work horse Sony R1, but the depth of field issue became difficult with such a long nosed subject as Hedda; and I have to confess that I can not see that Hedda's eyes are out of focus in the photos that I supplied here. I put the focus on the eyes, or rather the closest eye to me, and the greater depth of field produced by LX3 includes the front of the nose to the back of the head, the problem as I see it is the light and the exposure rather than an out of focus problem.

Finally, I also want to respond to Dennis who had a Doberman Pinscher for 13 years. We lost our first Doberman Pinscher when we lived in Munich and we were also very heartbroken. I couldn't even afterwards take any walks by myself in the nearby English Garden where I previous had taken my dog for daily walks. I also agree with that it is the humans that create bad dogs, they are not born as bad dogs because they are a certain breed.

Numbers 1, 9 & 11 are my favorites. I think b/w works really well. When I saw the first one, I thought of William Wegman for some reason. Anyhow, excellent series and wonderful dog. Be sure to give her a treat for being such a good model.
Daniel
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http://danielsonkin.smugmug.com/

Great pics, but not happy to see such an enormous and unnecessary collar. I wonder how you would like wearing it?

Sorry. Don't mean to be rude, but it bothers me when I see this sort of thing on a dog.

dmcpics said:

Great pics, but not happy to see such an enormous and unnecessary collar. I wonder how you would like wearing it?

Sorry. Don't mean to be rude, but it bothers me when I see this sort of thing on a dog.

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Hedda wears another slimmer collar now and I agree that the collar on pictures was too wide for her.

I really admired these images Bengt, , to my eye you captured the blacks beautifully and the eyes are alive. In this genre mood and rich depth in the blacks is everything and you achieved that brilliantly. I guess a compelling elegance best describes the spirit.
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