Clovishound
Senior Member
The Pup wanted to travel up to Conway yesterday and take pictures at the Dock Dogs competition. We got up early drove a couple hours and got there just as they were starting. We could have attended the competition they had locally last month at the SouthEast Wildlife Expo, but the crowds there make photographing the dogs extremely difficult. This event had very manageable crowds, and lots more choices for vantage points. The lighting was harsh, and mostly backlit, but at least it was bright enough to get fast shutter speeds with reasonable ISOs. I could have used a shorter lens. The 200-500 was overkill, but I don't normally have that much need for a 70-200, so I don't have one in the bag. The Pup had her FX 70-300 with an FTZ on my old Z7ii. She's trying to see if she can get used to one of the Z cameras.
The morning/early afternoon competition was Big Air Wave, basically a long jump. Some dogs managed well over 20 feet. The handlers throw the bumper and the dogs jump off the "dock" to try and catch it. Actually catching it doesn't provide any points, just the length of the jump. Most of the dogs were very motivated. A few didn't want to jump in the water.
The handlers did their best to motivate the dogs.
The dogs did their best to catch the bumper.
Some of the dogs caught the bumper and some missed it by "that much"!
The late afternoon session was the Extreme Vertical competition. Basically a high jump. The bumper was suspended high above the pool, and the dogs had to jump high to get it. The height of the bumper was adjustable to see who could jump the highest. The lighting was from behind me for these, and the sky as blue instead of a bright dull white, like in the morning.
The Z8 performed well under challenging conditions. I got a high percentage of in focus shots. I'm sure I would have done better with a shorter lens, that didn't have the large mass of glass to move, and a native Z mount would likely have reacted more quickly as well. The dogs did occasionally over run the capacity of the AF system. They were very fast.
I still have more to edit. 20 fps produces a lot of images.
The morning/early afternoon competition was Big Air Wave, basically a long jump. Some dogs managed well over 20 feet. The handlers throw the bumper and the dogs jump off the "dock" to try and catch it. Actually catching it doesn't provide any points, just the length of the jump. Most of the dogs were very motivated. A few didn't want to jump in the water.
The handlers did their best to motivate the dogs.
The dogs did their best to catch the bumper.
Some of the dogs caught the bumper and some missed it by "that much"!
The late afternoon session was the Extreme Vertical competition. Basically a high jump. The bumper was suspended high above the pool, and the dogs had to jump high to get it. The height of the bumper was adjustable to see who could jump the highest. The lighting was from behind me for these, and the sky as blue instead of a bright dull white, like in the morning.
The Z8 performed well under challenging conditions. I got a high percentage of in focus shots. I'm sure I would have done better with a shorter lens, that didn't have the large mass of glass to move, and a native Z mount would likely have reacted more quickly as well. The dogs did occasionally over run the capacity of the AF system. They were very fast.
I still have more to edit. 20 fps produces a lot of images.
