"Tired" - The Brown Dog

The assignment for this week is "Tired", which is not to be confused with "Sleep", since that is next week's topic.

I confess that I'm having a hard time with this one. I know what "tired" looks like - I only have to walk past a mirror to see it - but how do I photograph it and make it look interesting?

I am still trying to think of a fun way to complete the assignment, but in the meantime I took a more obvious approach so that I'd have something to show for the week in case I don't come up with any other ideas.

Poor Brown Dog. He was not at all excited to be my subject again.

"Awww, Mom. Do I really have to?"

"Yes, you do. Now, put away the sad face and look tired. Ready. Set. GO!"

~Crickets~

Stubborn dog.

Well, after a whole lot of bullying on my part, I managed a few shots of Brown in his bed. Sadly, it sits in front of our radiator, and I didn't move the bed to have a nicer background. I thought about it, but my window for taking pictures was very narrow, and I didn't have high hopes for his ultimate cooperation anyway.

By sheer coincidence, I managed to get a shot of the dog yawning.

Unfortunately, I had the camera in Portrait mode and wasn't using a tripod (of course), so the focus is poor. The shutter speed isn't fast enough to capture it well. Pity.

Then I managed to get him to put his head down.

If you know my dog you'll recognize that this expression doesn't actually say, "I'm tired."

What it really says is, "I'm so tired of you, Lady," which is not exactly the same thing. See, he's looking at a wall, pretending he finds it interesting, when he's really just hoping I'll go away.

I didn't go away, so he turned his head, hoping the snub would be more effective in another direction.

This is the closest that I was going to get to coaxing a "tired" expression out of Brown Dog, so I used it as my base.

From the start I like the composition along the top and left of the photo, but I decided to crop it just a little.

I also desaturated it a little and tried to get a little more sharpness around his eyes and nose and in his nails.

On the one hand I like that the photo is so monochromatic, but at the same time the vast expanse of brown bothers me.

I tried it in B&W, and I like it better.

I used a filter on the B&W setting (yellow, I think) and I am happy with the effect.

Still, I really wish that radiator wasn't there. If I had Photoshop I'm sure I could blur it out some, but for now I'll just have to live with it.

I'm going to try to find another approach to this assignment. For his sake, I hope it doesn't involve Brown Dog again.