Probably one of W.C. Fields’ most famous quotes, and as a photographer, one of the quotes that gets repeated to me again and again. But should be really listern to someone who is also famously quoted for saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then give up. No use being a damned fool about it”?

Pretty much 50% of my (shooting) time is taken up by photographing horses and babies, so obviously I have chosen to ignore these ‘wise’ words. This week we have been working with dog groomers Wags Oh La La, mostly taking pictures of their products…. with and without dogs wearing them! We did a similar job for them about a month ago and it was one of my favourite (and challenging) shoots of last year.

Michael and dog on photo-shoot

This shoot was definitely a learning experience! We shot 15 different dogs in dozens of outfits. In all we shot for about 6 hours straight, which I think was pretty good going.

The shoot this week was mainly products but we did few little puppies….. here’s a cute one.

Wags Oh La La photo-shoot

10 Tips for photographing dogs

1. Stick to the same ‘rules’ of portraiture – focus on the eyes, try and convey some character etc etc.
2. Be patient….. oh so patient!
3. Saucepan and a big metallic ladle – BANG! – CLICK – DONE!
4. Try and shoot without an audience – too many distractions and he’s off!
5. Get down to their level – even if it means you do the whole shoot on your belly.
6. Props look great but posing is not easy.
7. The smaller the space you shoot in the better – as long as you have room for yourself that is.
8. Play is good but leave that till towards the end of the session as you don’t want them to get too excited too soon.
9. Flash, natural light…. it doesn’t matter what you use – you know what type of picture you’re after.
10. Shoot loads…. and loads…. and then some more.

Good luck!