An insight in to the world of a dog photographer.
We seem to be photographing a lot of spaniels at the moment and, when you meet several dogs of the same breed in the space of a couple of weeks, it reminds you just how much personality each individual dog has. They may all be spaniels but they certainly aren’t all the same! Lucy was super cute – in her own little world most of the time, enjoying a good sniff, but really engaging with us when we took her action shots.
As we were preparing to take Lucy’s action shots, a passing man called out: “Good luck with that! I’ve tried to take loads of running shots of my dog and never get one in focus!” We didn’t have time to reply that, really, if we didn’t manage to get one in focus we’d be out of a job! 😉
Michael took this image. What you can’t see here is me crouching behind the bush to the left of the frame. I had to walk Lucy into the undergrowth and wait for the signal from Michael that he was ready to take the shot. Then I encouraged Lucy to run to her mum, who was calling energetically to persuade Lucy to run towards the camera.
You can see from Lucy’s face how much she was enjoying this. She’s almost smiling, knowing that she’s going to get heaps of praise and a nice treat when she reaches her mum’s side. She’s got light in her eyes, which is vital, as she’s heading towards the light source, and she’s leaning as she moves, giving an indication of her speed.
With Lucy being both black and white, she presents more of a challenge exposure-wise. It’s possible to lose detail in the whites of her fur in order to pick out detail in the blacks. This is where the balance of light and the correct exposure are really important to obtain a good photograph. We want to see those happy eyes clearly.
It’s not difficult to say that we adore our job!
Next on pic of the shoot: Milo the jack russell brings us to our knees (literally!)
Get in touch: hello@themightypooch.co.uk
Words: Aislinn Kelly