Featuring Dottie the Dalmatian a Little More

Whilst I was putting together my top 9 photo selection for Instagram something occurred to me – we don’t feature Dottie, our Dalmatian, enough in photos. So, in 2019 I am going to try an change this.

Dottie has been with us for 8 years in the spring. She was about 2 years old when she came to us, having had an unhappy start in life. She was born deaf, as 1 in every 10 Dalmatians are, so maybe this was the reason she wasn’t treated very well. But, she is a lovely dog and a very much loved member of our family.

So she’s about 10 years old, so 70 in in dogs years. At nearly 40kg she is also way over her ideal weight – that’s my fault. She ran with me an awful lot between 2011 and 2016 and built up muscle mass. But I retired her from distance running and since then she’s put the pounds on, despite a controlled diet and exercise. This leads me to the sad conclusion that her age and health maybe leading to us needing to prepare the inevitable in a couple of years. That’s a day I really never want to happen!

Duke came into our lives and a pup back in 2016. He features on my social media far more than Dottie. This is for a few reasons. One, he comes running with me. Two, he’s more active and this make for better photos. And finally, in the house he is ALWAYS wherever we are, whereas Dottie finds a corners and sleeps – a lot!

Over the Christmas break we’ve been out on more family walks and I upped my photography game two. I even took out two cameras on a couple of walks to cover all bases. So as well as my newer Canon EOS M50 mirror-less camera I have my trusty old Canon EOS 50D out with me too. But my intent was to capture more photos of Dottie. And I have.

I’ve created Duke his own Instagram account as I couldn’t possible share all his cool shots on my own feed with it being taken over. I’d like to create one for Dottie too, but I need to build her portfolio up first.

I chose to share this photograph of Dottie because of her eyes. It’s so tack sharp that it draws me in. No, it’s not an action shot but it’s got a depth to it that I really like and think viewers will love too.

The technical details

• Camera: Canon Canon EOS 50D
• Lens: Canon 75-300mm
• Exposure:
  • 1/1000 sec
  • f/5.0
  • ISO320
  • 160mm

Thanks for reading.

Dave