e secret to great holiday dog photography be smarter than your dog at least temporarily PDF document - DocSlides

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e secret to great holiday dog photography: be smarter than your dog (at least temporarily). At my house this takes focus, hard work, a polished plan of attack and a well- developed sense of humor. Here are a few tips, tricks and hard fought lessons that will ensure that this year’s holiday card featur ing your best friend will be worthy of framing, displaying on your desk at work, or even s howing to com plete strangers at the grocery store. Equipment – Almost all cameras have a “portrait” setting. If you can nd the little picture of a human head on the dial on top of your camera, you’re good to go. e little picture of a sprinter is best if you want action shots or expect them to happen unintentionally. Timing – Schedule your photo sessions for when your dog is usually awake but not necessarily up for a jog. Photographers talk about the “golden light” shortly aer dawn or before sunset. Avoid shooting at midday if at all possible. Perseverance – Don’t expect great pictures from a single session. Repeatedly working in the same setting at the same time of day over several consecutive days wi ll create some familiarity for your German Shepherd. e sense of routine will calm you both down right from the start and your dog will become used to seeing a camera in front of your face and right in theirs. Location – Go anywhere and make a day of it. Good dog photog raphy is about documenting good memories with your best bud. Gar land is easy to carry and looks great draped on bushes at the ball eld down the street. You’ll also get a great eect by replacing your dog’s collar with a battery-powered string of lights, especially for images made at dusk. Don’t forget to bring the holiday costumes, like elf hats. Position – Once you’ve found a good location and have mastered the suggested camera settings, put some distance between your Weimaraner and the background. Even a few feet will make a dierence. e resulting images will keep your dog in sharp focus with everything nicely blurred. Plus, don’t only use the camera’s zoom to change the framing of the shot. If you move in close to your Dalmatian and use both the wide angle and the zoom setting, you’ll get unique per spectives and cooler results than you thought possible. Creative direction – Who has ultimate authority at this photo shoot? Not you. e images you will value most are the ones that catch your Pit Bull’s patented look of exasperation. ey know what makes them cute. Observe them and execute the shot. Truth is, you’re probably not smarter than your dog. But if you follow these guidelines and pay attention to how your dog poses naturally, you’ll have a leg up on other holiday dog photographers. Steven Sable is a professional pho tographer in Arizona specializing in photos of “reservation dogs, sometimes partially feral dogs that wander loose on the many Native American reservations across the nation. How to take great holiday dog pictures by Steven Sable 16



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