The eighth challenge in the Embark Pet Photography Challenge Series was “Front Runner.”

The goal: capture the subject running directly toward the camera with plenty of expression. Here’s the final image I created for this challenge:

I have to admit, this challenge intimidated me. I’ve done action shots before, but they can be incredibly frustrating. You’re literally trying to focus on the tiniest detail, the dog’s eyes, while the dog is in motion.

That’s why continuous shooting mode is a lifesaver. You capture the whole running sequence, hoping at least one or two images have sharp eyes and the perfect moment of action: ears flying, paws mid-air, and a joyful expression.

To make it even harder on myself, I chose my black dog for this challenge. By the end, I was pretty frustrated and burned out.

With action shots, you need a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion, no less than 1/1000 sec. A faster shutter speed means less light gets into your camera, so it’s important to have enough ambient light available to pull it off.

To help isolate the dog from the background, you also want a shallow depth of field, which means shooting at the lowest aperture your lens allows. The challenge here is that a wide aperture makes it even trickier to keep a fast-moving dog’s eyes in focus.

The good news is that needing less light can actually work in your favor. It gives you room to bump up your shutter speed or close down your aperture if you need to. If you find yourself needing more light, that’s when you’ll have to raise your ISO. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the higher your ISO goes, the more noise creeps into your image.

Luckily, today’s editing software does a great job helping with that. Lightroom has its own AI Denoise slider that works amazingly well. That said, noise reduction can only do so much. If you crank your ISO way too high, it’ll still be a problem.

For my first attempt, I worked with the cutest little Chiweenie who absolutely loves to fetch. I set my shutter speed to 1/2000 sec and started with an f-stop of 4.5, thinking it would make things a little easier on me. But even at 4.5, I just could not get her in focus. The frustration started building, and honestly, it clouded my judgment. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to her energy level and didn’t notice how tired she was getting by the end of the session.

I can’t even tell you how upset I was that I let that pup go so far 😢. I almost cried and was so angry at myself for not paying more attention. I let getting the shot matter more than the dog and I promised myself right then and there that will never happen again. Of course, that dog didn’t care how exhausted she was. She just cared that she had the greatest time of her life. After we helped her cool down, she had the best nap ever.

Also, a quick lesson for anyone photographing small dogs: it’s best not to place them in grass taller than they are. 😆 Knowing this, I still decided I was going to make it work. The takeaway? Don’t force the session. You most likely won’t get a good outcome.

Here are a few behind-the-scenes shots of her. They’re not my best work but they tell the story.

I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, so I asked the question in our wonderful Embark challenge group. It turns out I had all the technical elements correct but I was using the LCD screen instead of the viewfinder. I was advised never to use the LCD screen for action shots unless it’s a mirrorless camera. Up until this point I had always used my viewfinder, but lately I found the LCD easier for getting down low without crawling on my belly. Turns out I was not going to be able to completely avoid belly crawling after all.

Armed with the advice to use my viewfinder, I tried again with my black lab. What a difference! I could actually track her properly.

I got some nice shots, but since the challenge was front runner, my choices were limited. Most of her runs weren’t straight at me. By the time she lined up, she was usually too close, cutting off part of her body in the frame.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek at her photoshoot:

If capturing the photo wasn’t tough enough, editing nearly broke me. Normally, I enjoy editing, but this image pushed my patience to the limit.

My first editing attempt was a landscape crop, but I quickly realized I didn’t need all that extra space on either side of the dog since there wasn’t anything important there. I usually lean toward warmer colors, but the color cast on my dog was extreme, and I just couldn’t seem to manage it.

On my second attempt, I changed the crop and liked it better, but the overall result still didn’t feel right. I ended up deleting that edit entirely and starting over. By this point, I was feeling frustrated to the point of actually hating the process. I know I was stressed due to time constraints on my side and was so focused on finishing that I wasn’t stepping back to really analyze what I was doing. Editing multiple times only added to my stress and made it harder to think clearly. It was as if I had forgotten all the techniques I had mastered in the past.

My third editing attempt was looking promising, but the color issues still persisted. I decided to post the photo in my wonderful Embark challenge group for feedback. My dog still had a noticeable yellow color cast and I couldn’t understand why I was having trouble identifying it.

A colleague offered to do a quick edit to show me the difference, and that’s when I could really see how much yellow was in the image. I realized once again that I should have taken occasional breaks because after staring at my screen for so long, all the colors were blending together and I couldn’t differentiate anything anymore.

After getting advice from my group, I approached my fourth and final editing attempt differently. Instead of trying to force warmth into the image, I worked with the colors that were already there. This allowed me to manage the color cast much more effectively, and I finally ended up with the photo you see at the top of this blog.

The judges loved the dog’s expression and said it felt like this shot was captured right at the very start of the run, when the dog puts all their power into it and gets that "crazy face". They felt I captured that moment really well.

However, they noted that the plane of focus doesn’t fall directly on the face. While the eyes appear sharp, the rest of the face is a bit soft which they said can be a telltale sign of eye sharpening done in post-production. They didn’t mind the crop, but suggested dialing back the greens which felt a little too saturated.

Action shots are tricky because you only get a split second to nail everything, and sometimes you don’t catch the details, or lack thereof, until you’re editing later. This challenge tested both my technical skills and my patience. From missing focus to editing struggles, it felt like one hurdle after another. But in the end, I learned valuable lessons, not just about photography but about slowing down, keeping the dog’s needs first, and knowing when to take a break myself.

Each challenge teaches me something new, and that’s exactly why I joined this journey. I’ll be redoing this photoshoot because practice makes perfect. As much of a headache as this challenge gave me, I know avoiding it won’t help me grow as a photographer. Sometimes you just have to push through the parts you don’t love to move forward.

Next up: 'Say What'!