Your photoshoot – Before your shoot
How exciting its finally come to the day of your photoshoot for you and your four legged friend. By now we will have had a chat about you and your pet and I hopefully have a good idea of what they like and don’t like. So its time to look forward to the shoot and get ready to have some fun.
Before we meet it might be an idea to take your dog around the area we are doing the shoot to familiarise them with their surrounding and give them a chance to have a toilet break before we start. Otherwise I will not miss an opportunity for an embarrassing blooper shot haha.
If you have booked a studio shoot, then I would suggest stopping on route somewhere you can go for a toilet break as the studio has no grassy areas nearby if that’s your dogs preference.
Your photoshoot – What to bring/wear
I usually ask people to bring a magic bag of tricks for their dog/dogs which will have toys and treats in that we can use to play with the dog and get their attention throughout the shoot.
What to wear as far as your dog is concerned – just a collar is perfect, I try to discourage people putting their dogs in harnesses for a photoshoot as they don’t look great, however if there is a medical reason your dog needs to wear a harness and not a collar then maybe we can look at a safe location like a secure field where they don’t need to wear anything.
As far as you the owner are concerned, you can wear whatever you like within reason I will usually get you on the floor with your dog, so maybe no ball gowns haha.
I also ask people to bare in mind colours and wear colours that are easily distinguished from your dog, for example if you have a black dog, don’t wear all black. Again its not a huge problem as it just means we will position the dog differently so they are no directly in front of you.
Your photoshoot – What to expect
I will usually get to the location we’ve arranged slightly early so I am nice and prepared, I will also have my phone on should you get lost or have any other problems.
Then comes the fun part I get to meet you and your dog, and we can have a little chat about how you both are and whether we are sticking with our original plan or whether anything has changed.
I will have already scoped the site and have some places in mind for the shots I want to take so usually I will take you on a little walk around the places I had in mind and start snapping.
I will usually ask the owner to sit the dog in the position for the shot and walk back to me leaving the dog in the sit. I will then usually let rip with all my crazy noises to get the dogs attention. This is the perfect scenario and I am aware that lots of dogs will not sit there steady with a crazy woman on the floor making random noises in front of them. DON’T PANIC, we can work around it and I can edit you out if you are stood next to your dog, or we could change things so you are in the photos with your dog if this is something you are happy to do.
I will usually aim to get between 10 and 20 shots that I will then present to the owner after editing to choose from. Sometimes there are way more but I like to give a realistic number as an expectation in case the dog doesn’t take to being a model as we’d have hoped.
Hopefully we will have now had lots of fun being silly and have got some brilliant shots, which I will take away and edit.
I will let you know when they will be ready to view on my website and in next weeks blog I will talk through the next stages.
Around the circle
I am part of an amazing blog circle filled with super talented pet photographers all around the world.
Next head over to Tracy Allard’s page of Penny Whistle Photography next.
I love that black and white photo!
Thank you, I love a candid shot.
You get some of the most fun images I’ve ever seen. I imagine dogs have a superb time at your photography sessions. Those play shots are just wonderful.
Awww thank you, that’s very kind! 🙂 I have lots of fun so like to think it rubs off on owners and their doggos too.
“No ball gowns” is a good rule and made me laugh out loud. I also like that you discuss how many photos you will provide for viewing. The last photo – LOVE IT!