Perfect day for a pano

Pano dog park 1, originally uploaded by phaird.

Sunday was cool and overcast with a threat of rain. A perfect day to photograph. Well, not normally but because I was testing out a panoramic head, it was perfect for me. The way it works is I attach my camera to a special tripod head that allows me to rotate my camera at a central point. I take about 24 photos as I spin the camera around and then I stitch them all together in Photoshop. A lot of the software (and even some cameras) make it really easy to put together photos that aren't centered properly. Because it's overcast, the lighting is the same all the way around me so my exposure is the same all the way around.
The only down side is that the park was kinda quiet and even though I tried to get around everyone with dogs, it still looks like the park ins empty.
I'm going to the Cape this weekend so I am going to bring the pano head again and do more on the beach, if I can get early enough.

Shelby Chasing dragon fly shadows

Shelby Chasing dragon fly shadows, originally uploaded by phaird.

I'm BACK! Our road trip across the east and the south was great. I didn't get to visit any dog parks this trip but I did hear of a great one in Cleveland called the Lakewood Dog Park. It's in a really nice area of Cleveland and can be busy all times of the week. They even have their own website which means there is a lot of support for dog owners. Let me know if you've ever been to it.

This last Sunday was great. The weather was perfect and I got to meet Shelby. A spunky 1.5 year old pointer who will chase any shadow it can find. Today, the dragon flies were out and he was loving it. The funny part of the whole thing was that it really seemed like the dragon flies were playing along. I don't really know the pattern of how dragon flies fly but they seemed to run in circles and stay around the grass where Shelby could find them to let her chase the shadows.
What was really funny was just figuring out what he was doing. I could tell she was chasing something but I couldn't figure out what. When I talked to his owner, he explained her love for the chase. The only thing that could stop her was a belly scratch but you could tell he was looking for the chase.