Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Seven Faces of Ziva

After I taught violin this afternoon, I tossed a ball with Ziva for awhile.  This temporarily slackened her coil spring energy, so when she became interested in chewing a stick, I grabbed a camera and caught a variety of expressions, from playful to curious and searching.  This sequence was done just before sunset, in a heavily wooded yard.  The camera ISO was 20,000 - 25,600.  After limiting myself to cell phone pictures a day earlier, it felt great to work with such a highly competent instrument in my hands.

As I write this, we are just back from an evening walk, and reviewing and editing the photos again makes me appreciate what a great camera (in this case, a Canon EOS 1DX)  can pull out of semi-darkness.  Of course, it takes some human involvement in the process; you can't just point and shoot and expect much of a reward.  Still, the tools of the trade have gotten awfully good!  Ziva will also be amazingly good when her wild side can be tamed just a bit, not to inhibit her personality, but to preserve my fingers and other body parts.








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4 comments:

  1. YAY!! Ziva's back and SOOoooo cute!! OMG so cute!!! Such a cutie pie!! Oh, she's so cute!!!

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    1. And she's happy to hear from such an admirer! She would say thanks, so I'll say it for her!

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  2. I'm probably anthropomorphizing (again), but her expressions appear to me to be leaning now towards, "I'm adorable again, Human: where's your camera?"

    I can't wait to meet her, and to see y'all.

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    1. While I doubt that Ziva has a concept of pictures (I haven't yet tried to show her any, and as far as I'm aware, dogs don't "pass the mirror test" in the way that non-human primates do), and likely wouldn't recognize herself, I am quite sure, from a galaxy of indications, that she is self-aware and leads a richly complex emotional life. So, while she may not know what I'm doing with the cameras, she certainly welcomes attention. She relishes any signs of special treatment and connection, otherwise known as love.

      I hope you get to meet her soon. You have a landscape print waiting for you, so perhaps that could be the occasion.

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