((( THE IMPORTANCE OF PHOTOGRAPHY )))

[Officially Retired]

As a photographer, it is kind of frustrating thinking about what a shame it is more dogmen are not into photography.

Why do I say this?

Well, just think about what a difference it would make to the history of our breed if everyone had possessed a halfway-decent camera, and then really took the time to photograph some of our history's greatest dogs? Instead of a small, blurry blurb of a photo, just imagine if most dogmen had excellent cameras and took some really excellent shots of their dogs? It would make writing a book about them easier, as well as make reading about them that much more enjoyable. I know Evo has taken some great shots of Machobuck and others, and there were some great shots of Mayday too (and a couple of Jeep), but for the most part quality photography of bulldogs is utterly lacking.

In today's "cell phone generation," people are into the "quick shot" of a dog ... but if you really have a good dog, it's nice to have a camera to document that really good dog for history-sake. I sure wish I knew more about photography back when I started out. I got some decent shots of some old-time dogs, but I sure wish I would have done so with a better camera!

Deep down, all of us appreciate a great picture of a great dog, and yet for some reason few of us ever really bother to purchase a halfway-decent camera to enable ourselves to do so. A basic, quality camera only costs about $500 nowadays, and a halfway-decent lens costs about the same amount. $1000 is a small investment to put out in order to get back a lifetime's worth of crystal-clear memories of your very best dogs ... and, who knows, maybe that dog will go down in history someday ... so why not have a really great shot of him/her, taken at a fantastic angle, rather than a murky shot taken at a poorly-composed angle.

Something to think about anyway ...

Jack

[Runner]

VEry nice post, I am an addicted amateur photographer. I will post some shot later and see if you like them. I use canon equipment

[Officially Retired]

Absolutely, there is a photography section of this Forum here that you are more than welcome to use ... unless it's bulldog pics, and then of course you're welcome to post those in this section

[Lost Breed]

Here goes a pic of my bulldawg i took with a 50D Canon.

[Runner]

Nice

[Officially Retired]

Almost has a sepia tone to it ...

[STONEWALL]

A good friend of mine had some pups stolen from him. Lucky for him he had taken real good pictures of each pup. It helped him ID one of the pups and he was able to get her back.

[QCKLime]

I 100% agree. Two of the things I lamented the most when I first got into dogs was the lack of rock-solid line breedings on some phenomenal dogs, AND the fact that very few people took decent pictures of their dogs, IF they took any at all. Both are a travesty to history.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, pictures of good dogs have only gotten worse, instead of better, with time. There is a onslaught of incredibly terrible pedigree pictures all over peds-online, and not in just the angle or quality of pictures, but hardly anyone takes their dogs off of the chain to get a decent picture these days, so you end up with a ton of dogs on questionable set ups with dirty water in a chewed up plastic bucket and a makeshift house in the background. Exceptions to that image are few and far between

[Officially Retired]

A good friend of mine had some pups stolen from him. Lucky for him he had taken real good pictures of each pup. It helped him ID one of the pups and he was able to get her back.

That is another reason to take photos, true.

Especially with a good camera that has RAW exif capture data ... a thief can lie about having the dog "all along" ... but if you have RAW camera files showing him from puppyhood on, all with dates, etc., it's pretty hard for a thief to lie his way out of that

[Officially Retired]

I 100% agree. Two of the things I lamented the most when I first got into dogs was the lack of rock-solid line breedings on some phenomenal dogs, AND the fact that very few people took decent pictures of their dogs, IF they took any at all. Both are a travesty to history.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, pictures of good dogs have only gotten worse, instead of better, with time. There is a onslaught of incredibly terrible pedigree pictures all over peds-online, and not in just the angle or quality of pictures, but hardly anyone takes their dogs off of the chain to get a decent picture these days, so you end up with a ton of dogs on questionable set ups with dirty water in a chewed up plastic bucket and a makeshift house in the background. Exceptions to that image are few and far between

Well said. Not only agreement on the first part, but as to the second part (aside from too many people leaving piles of $#!^ in the background of their pictures, it has always seemed to me that dogmen have a defective gene when it comes to mowing the lawn ... as almost every "chain spot" photo ever made is surrounded by 3' high, uncut grass