Photographing Fur Babies

During a recent visit to our daughter’s home I spent a few minutes photographing fur babies. My daughter and her husband have three dogs…. Wayne, Wawa and Casper. It is sometimes a bit of a challenge to catch them remaining still for any length of time… so I made the best of the situation!

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 45 mm f/1.2 prime, f/1.2, 1/80, ISO-4000, subject distance 845 mm

I haven’t used my M,Zuiko 45 mm f/1.2 prime lens very often since acquiring it. I’m very happy that I had it with me as the lighting was quite dark. I took the opportunity to shoot wide open at f/1.2 and was pleased with the resulting images.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 45 mm f/1.2 prime, f/1.2, 1/100, ISO-2500, subject distance 785 mm

I also had my M.Zuiko PRO 12-40 mm f/2.8 zoom lens in my camera bag. This also came in handy as it gave me a bit more depth-of-field when shot wide open.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 12-40 mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm, efov 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/20, ISO-3200, subject distance 905 mm

The stellar IBIS on my Olympus OM-D E-M1X also contributed when shooting successfully at slower shutter speeds like 1/20 and 1/15 of a second.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 12-40 mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm, efov 80 mm, f/4, 1/15, ISO-2500, subject distance 740 mm

During past visits I tried photographing fur babies with my Nikon 1 gear but had very little success given the lighting conditions. There is no IBIS with Nikon 1 camera bodies. All of the 1 Nikkor prime lenses do not have vibration reduction. This combination makes using 1 Nikkor primes handheld at slower shutter speeds less than ideal.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 12-40 mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm, efov 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/20, ISO-3200, subject distance 610 mm

Using a constant aperture f/2.8 PRO zoom and a 45 mm f/1.2 prime lens made a world of difference. As did the IBIS performance of my E-M1X.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 12-40 mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm, efov 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/20, ISO-3200, subject distance 585 mm

Photographing fur babies when they are in cooperative moods is a welcome occurrence.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 45 mm f/1.2 prime, f/1.8, 1/100, ISO-6400, subject distance 885 mm

Each of my daughter’s fur babies has their own personality. There is always a bit of bedlam when we first arrive.

Olympus OM-D E-M1X + M.Zuiko PRO 12-40 mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm, efov 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/20, ISO-3200, subject distance 835 mm

After a few minutes things settle down and my wife and I are accepted as members of the fur family.

Technical Note:
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. All images were produced from RAW files using my standard process.

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3 thoughts on “Photographing Fur Babies”

  1. Tom,

    A big awwww for the post and the images.
    Dogs are my best buddies so couldn’t resist commenting on this.

    Using f/1.2 had that lovely bokeh though the closeup distance made it obvious that it took several shots before the dogs settled down and got comfy (Exhibit A: Image #4). Just by their expressions, I can tell who’s a bit goofy and who’s a bit phlegmatic 😀

    Oggie
    http://www.lagalog.com

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