Photographing dog walkers

I frequently find myself photographing dog walkers. It's not that I'm a "doggy" person out to capture the variety of species (both dog and human) who fall into this category. It's simply that we do frequent some of the haunts of dog walkers and they are often useful as human interest or a visual focus in a photographic composition. As we approached the clump of trees that mark the summit of May Hill in Gloucestershire I noticed a few people passing between them silhoutted against the sky. I took several speculative shots with a long lens looking for a contrasty composition. This one, with the dog that didn't want to be restricted by is lead, and the owner who was getting tangled up in it, pleased me most. Not least for the humour of the situation.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

People in landscapes

I'm a bit eighteenth century when it comes to landscapes. Many photographers like their landscapes to be unsullied by the human presence. I can appreciate that, and sometimes like it myself if the content of the view has great interest. But, as with many (most?) eighteenth century landscape painters, I do like a person or two, or an animal, to provide a focal point or to give scale to the composition. The photograph above would be considerably the poorer for the absence of the dog walker.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Dog walking

I often think of dog walkers in the same way that many think of motor-cyclists - relatively harmless on the whole, but the majority are tarnished by a small minority. The spoilers in terms of motor-cyclists are those who speed, accelerate too rapidly, and deliberately make their machines excessively loud. The dog walkers who smear the reputation of others are those with untrained dogs, the sort that rush up to you barking as the owner shouts commands to no avail. The dog in today's photograph was well-trained, inquisitive without looking threatening, and its silhouette along with its owner's made a good point of visual focus among the whites and blues of the snow, the shadows, the clouds and the sky.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100