This week I took a subject (“sadness”) that I wasn’t really looking forward to photographing and turned it into a jumping off point for a series of photos. I ended up having fun with the assignment, and now have documented one of those small, routine-type of moments in my life.
I’m referring to bath time. For my bulldog.
Bath evenings usually start out fun enough – this particular one we were on the floor playing ball. But then I said Can I ask you something?
1/60 f1.8 50mm ISO800 M
He seemed intrigued. Until the dreaded question came. Do you want to get a bath?
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His honest-to-goodness reaction to the question. There’s my sadness!
Bless his little heart, he begrudgingly obliged and slinked upstairs to meet us in the bathroom.
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Just get it over with, his look conveyed the entire time.
1/80 f1.8 50mm ISO400 M
After a good shampoo and rinse, the challenge then is to lift him out of the tub and simultaneously wrap a towel around him, before “the shake”. This particular night I was successful.
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This is the point the sadness turned into joy and invigoration. We opened the bathroom door and he couldn’t escape fast enough – freedom!
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The next move is always a belly-flop onto his futon to further dry off … and maybe make more laundry for me. This night was no exception.
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Maybe his celebration has nothing to do with trying to dry off, but more so with that look in his eyes. Invigorated. Elated. Relieved. He survived another awful bath!
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While shooting all of these photos, I wanted to be mindful of my shutter speed (moving subject) but also allow enough light in (indoors, evening time). So I shot in Manual mode entirely. This was the first time I didn’t tiptoe back to Aperture or Shutter priority. Once I learned to pay attention to the light meter on my viewfinder, I started getting the hang of adjusting the settings quickly on the fly.
Which is a good thing. Because how else do you capture a thrashing, belly-flopping bulldog late in the evening?
1/50 f1.8 50mm ISO800 M
Thanks for sharing Barkley’s bath time. You did a great job of capturing the event and all his emotions!