Teach Your Dog to Swim

Like a lot of people, when I first adopted my dog I made a solemn oath not to succumb to the temptations of absurdly over-enthusiastic pet ownership: no dog sweaters, no canine birthday parties, no pet manicures. This was a point of pride more than anything, a line drawn in the sand to convince myself that I am macho and that I can in fact keep it real.

I haven’t completely given up on that oath, but the reality of having a dog is something else entirely: before too long, the dog’s irresistible, ingratiating ways break you down, and you begin wanting to treat him or her essentially like a furry child. It’s a very difficult impulse to resist.

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Photography 101

During the course of obliviously touring Paris, I took about five hundred pictures with my digital camera. For more experienced photographers, especially those shooting digital, that’s not a particularly remarkable number, but for me that amounts to the most shots I’ve ever taken on a single vacation. This is basically a reflection of a new and increasingly serious interest in my camera and how I can get the best shots I possibly can from it.

Never having had formal training in photography, I dabbled for a long time with point-and-shoot digital cameras. As anyone who’s used one can attest, they allow for instant gratification with little or no requirement for actually understanding the inner workings of photography. In that respect, they’re fantastic introductions to the craft.

But in the four or five years I was shooting with these models, I never really got it straight in my head what an f/stop is, for instance, or how to properly meter a shot — I was too easily insulated from the inner logic of picture taking. As a result I continually ran into frustrations in getting the kinds of shots I really wanted. I knew that I’d actually have to learn this craft, but it seemed silly to try and learn it with cameras so clearly designed not to teach it.

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