Family Portrait

Neat family portrait Rebecka - particularly the head-tilt of GP Marcus and the character of Athena, with the paw across her mom and eyes on the younger pup!

Hi Rebecka,

Great shot with those ears. I like the pup getting ready to wander off................................Jim

Great separation, expressions and poses in this Rebecka. They look like a happy crew. No suggestions.

pat

Great family portrait! I like the swagger of the puppy and how he is walking around instead of posing, great shot!

Hi Rebecka, thanks for sharing the family portrait. I like the way you have captured the German Shepard family altogether they are beautiful dogs. A great pose from Marcus

Doesn't Marcus look the noble sire, and proud of his family he should be! What a cool group shot! Love it.

Wow! Three generations in one shot! A great family and a great family portrait, Rebecka. I like the focus on the dogs with the background still there for context but blurred so it doesn't get too much attention. Good choice of aperture and an excellent exposure. Good job of getting all the dogs in one place long enough to shoot the shot also.

Sure looks like a handful, Rebecka. I'm sure this was quite the effort getting the three adults posed and keeping the youngster in the frame. The cocked head of Grandpa is so characteristic of dogs.

Thanks for all the nice comments!

@Mark - it is super easy to pose the adults and the older puppy exactly how I want them. Because these are German Shepherd Dogs, I believe that owning them -- especially a small pack of them! -- comes with major responsibilities. We take them to school and train them literally for years. Sitting and staying and not moving until I release them is something they all learn by the time they are 4 months old. I could walk a quarter mile away and leave them for 10 minutes -- they wouldn't budge. These dogs are SO smart, and love to learn new things, so it's fun for everyone. And because they are such a strong breed with protective instincts, it's so important that I do this for the safety of visitors and delivery people. They need to know to listen to me; if they don't I'm an irresponsible owner, IMHO. Just their approaching a stranger while barking wildly could be enough to give someone a major scare!

The pup on the right in this image is about 2 and a half months old. She sat and stayed for a minute nicely, but then got impatient (totally normal for a pup her age). For some reason I preferred this shot of her walking away and Athena looking at her over her shoulder to the ones where she was sitting nicely. I thought it added interest.

Hi Rebecka! I'm so jealous of having such cooperative canine subjects! If I tried to do this with our two Saint Bernards and our Newfoundland...well, it would be one tail, one dog on their back, and maybe a nose on the far side if I was lucky. I love the great sense of place you've created with your decisions in the field, and your handsome Shepherds look fantastic. I love the four different poses that all work nicely in one group portrait...so much better than all four locked in on some object used to get their attention IMO. The generational aspect just makes this all the more special. Awesome!

PS Thanks for your extremely kind words on my portrait of our new Newfoundland, Shadow. I decided not to photograph her for the first couple months in part to really get to know her personality and try and capture it. I think I was planning a black and white portrait of her from the day we met her at the breeder's in the spring.

Hi Rebecka Having had German Sheps all my life, i know how smart they are. and how easy they pose. nevertheless, you captured some delightful expressions here. excellent work..


Albert Darmo
Canada