Me and my dogs..Really need help on this one

There is nothing more that I like better then a good B&W photo. The problem is I don't know where to even start with it. I have been playing around with it for over a year, but still have no direction. So I shot this just for criticism. Me and my dogs. Very simple, and I figure there are a hundred different ways it could be better. Call me weird, but I actually re-shot this until the dog in the back was looking at me, and the dog below me was looking the opposite direction. Why? I have no idea. I suppose it was the challenge to get them to do that. "Gus" the Pup in front of me is 10 months old. He was watching a flock of birds so I was tightly grasping his collar, looking like my arm is part of his head. I had my camera on a tri-pod and 10 sec timer, made it even more interesting.So let me know how you would shoot this scene, process it, ect. Simple pictures like this with the right photographer will jump out at me. I just can't find that jump. Any critiques will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

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I would suggest two things. First slip a leash or piece of rope through the dog's collar and sit on it to keep the dog in place and allow you to move the location of your arm. Second, I would suggest using a fill flash to help separate your pants leg from the dogs leg, Jeff

CH, right off the bat I would like to say that this is a pretty good photograph and although the background is a bit busy with the tree and scattering of branches, it is not enough to distract. The lighting looks very good here. The dogs and yourself stand out well with good detail and even some catchlight in Gus's eyes as well as the other dog.
A good photographer pays attention to detail and things like what you have with the one dog looking at you and the pup looking away. This is what i would say was a very good moment, and it was that way because you were deliberate in having it so, not just a lucky snap. Your being conscious of the "moment" makes this far from just being a snapshot.
So, for the critique. Not a lot to hit on here other than what you pointed out already with your arm behind the dogs head. Yes, the dog gets blended in a bit with your arm and it could have been better perhaps with your arm down, but this is not a big issue here as I see it. One thing I would add to improve the moment would be to have you looking away a bit perhaps where Gus is looking. You looking directly at the camera takes this down from being a candid scene, to a posed scene. This may actually be the thing that bothers you about it and not realize it.
I'm not crazy about Sepia toned photos usually and in this case it may actually hurt the "arm behind the dogs head" issue here. If you convert the original color image to b&w by different methods mimicking filters you might be able to achieve a stronger separation of your arm and Gus's head. You can then always add a warm tone overall to get that aged feel while still have better separation
The conversion overall looks pretty good in that there is detail throughout and a good tonal range. You have a detail and full range of tone in the white dogs fur as well as keeping detail in the dark areas around the scene.
I would say the lighting, exposure and your processing are very good.
If you would like to post the original color image and allow any of the members to see if they can achieve a better result in conversion, and explain to you what was done it might be helpful in learning to convert your images to b&w.
I think you have a fine photograph and you might be a little tough on yourself. Thats a good thing though, thats how we strive to get better.

Thanks GP and gahspidy. I really appreciate you taking the time to type all of that out for me gahspidy. All great info. Here is the original Raw file converted to JPEG. I posted the EXIF info below it. It would be great to see what you guys can do with it, and it would really help me.
Thanks again guys,

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Darin

I think you did a great job in the original. Some background blur would be ideal, but your conversion is very good. If you do something similar in the future, you could shoot with a lower aperture to get the background out of focus.

I tried to blur the background in photoshop by masking a copy of the picture that was blurred with the Lens Blur filter. The issue I ran into was that the fur from the white dog is quite bright so if I get really close in there blurring around it, you see a white halo (if I don't get close, then you get a halo of sharpness which looks just as unnatural). One quick way to fix this (if you can't get your aperture lower) would be to purposely shoot the same exactly shot out of focus (without you or the dogs) and photoshop it in. I don't think anyone would think of that while shooting though.

Nice job

Thanks for posting the original and the info. I was hoping that maybe your jacket would be a stronger color like a blue and the dogs fur a stronger red coat. Then it might be easy to get separation from the two of you with a different conversion setting. Not the case here.
I think you did as well as anyone could have. What editing software are you using and how do you convert to b&w anyway?

In your final version you have enough detail and separation that its not really an issue as I said previously.
I feel its a good photo.

First off, doing self portraits like this when you have an idea and have to get dogs to look in certain directions in order to implement it ... well, it's more like roulette than photography. Congrats on what you got.

The shot is interesting though it seems a bit overly contrasty to me. I love the dog in the back of you, but the black one fades out a bit. I see why you cropped it as you did, to allow you leg to stay in the scene, but still seems like it could be tighter. Maybe less area above your head too.

As for the directions the dogs are looking, that makes a shot more dynamic and interesting for sure. When someone is looking out of the scene it sort of pulls the outside area into the pic, making it seem bigger. I think you pulled that off, so,.. congrats.

-GB

I agree with Gary, the sephia tone just isn't working for me either. I would go more with a plain B&W and boost the contrast until you are getting true blacks and whites in the shot.

This would be a good one to add to the Self-Portrait Thread in the Viewfinder forum. I really appreciate the comments of the trained eyes on this one -- things I didn't consider until they were pointed out. Your hard work paid off, though. It's a good picture.