John & Maria's Photography Pages

In which I enjoy photographing running dogs

Sadly, we don't have a dog at the moment.  Our beloved long haired Jack Russell terrier and ex racing greyhound lived long - 16 and 14 respectively - but have now left us.  But my daughter has two, a bull lurcher cross and a deerhound x greyhound, and I often join her on one of the local dog fields to enjoy their free running.  

Both rapid sighthounds, Sweet Pea (the fawn) and Sampson (the black) represent an enjoyable challenge to photograph, one I couldn't really manage with my previous Canon gear, but can with the Olympus kit.

The key is speed.  The combination of the Olympus EM1 MkII and the 40-150mm f2.8 Pro allows me to set an ISO 800 and f2.8 combination to generate a fast shutter speed - 1/4000 sec in the shot above.  The lightning fast and accurate autofocus of the combination then allows me to pick up the dogs extremely rapidly.  Finally the high speed sequential shooting mode generates a good sequence of shots per burst, giving a variety to choose from.

Sighthounds have a unique high speed running gait called a double suspension rotary gallop, where the feet are barely supported or even off the ground in both the tuck and extension phases. The shot above shows 7 unsupported legs in synchrony. Only Sweet Pea has one foot on the floor. This generates high speed running of up to and even over 40 mph. Sampson is demonstrating his high speed capacity with three phases of the gait in the image below.

These side on shots are relatively easy to capture, requiring only focus lock at the start of the sequence and panning during the rub.  1/2000 sec kept the images sharp and detailed.  Rather harder are head on shots. Even with continuous autofocus and tracking set on it's still a bit hit and miss to keep the eyes in sharp focus with a dog moving at 40mph.  The additional depth of field bonus from the M43 sensor helps - but expect a lot of failures.  But when it does work...

..it yields some lovely images.  Though it's rare for me to get the pair of them head on, together, and both heads in focus.

Why?  Because they usually spend their time coursing each other in frantic activity bursts followed by rest periods.  40mph is energy intensive.

Time for a lie down.  And a roll.