Looking up

When shooting photos of dogs, it's always important to focus on the eyes -- which isn't as easy as it sounds, since the camera's autofocus point is usually centrally-located and will most likely focus on the dog's nose in the centre of the frame. Modern cameras usually have multiple focus points which allow you to select an off-centre autofocus point, but even if you don't you can use the focus-lock feature. Focus lock is a feature on all cameras (whether digital or film compact cameras, SLR or DSLR) -- first, frame your shot so that the focussing point is over the dog's eye, then lightly press the shutter halfway to focus (all cameras have a so-called half-press for focussing and metering) and WITHOUT letting go of the half-press, recompose your shot and fully depress the shutter button to snap the picture. While my camera has 11 autofocus points, I generally only use the centre one and utilise focus lock then recompose and shoot. Yes, I'm very old school in this respect, since I come from the old days of manual focus and split prism focussing screens (here's a modern example). Nikon D200, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8