A date with Ben

As well all know 2020 has been wrought with challenge and we all have been adjusting to an ever changing new normal.

One of the changes for me during these times of COVID is that I unfortunately have not had as many opportunities to work with Rescues. I was however lucky enough to meet with and get some images of Buena (Ben).

Ben is an 8 year old Hound mix who is currently being fostered in the Oakville area. Ben is going to need to go to a special, loving and patient home. Ben does not trust easy but when he does, he does with his whole heart.

I am positive that the fine folks at Save Our Scruff Rehome and Rescue will locate the perfect forever home for Ben. If you are interested in Ben or any of the rescues available through Save Our Scruff be sure to visit their website here.

A simple tip for better pet photography

Let’s say that you want to take a photograph of your pet or the animal you have in foster, what is one thing you should do to make better photos?

If you are familiar with T-Pain and have heard his song “Apple Bottom Jeans,” then you would have heard him sing “Shawty got low, low, low, low, low, low, low.”

Well that my friends is a simple tip to improve your pet photography. Get down on their level. Get as low as you can and let subject fill your frame as much as possible. This is particularly key when shooting smaller dogs. I recently had the opportunity to shoot a bonded pair for Speaking of Dogs Rescue. Kodi a Pomeranian and Bella a Schnauzer/Yorkie  mix.

I spent the majority of my time on my belly. It was about as low as I could get, without digging a trench. There was a rock and I did attempt to photograph both dogs up on the rock. While Kodi was happy enough on the rock, as the king of all he surveyed. Bella had little interest in being up there, to be honest she had little interest in the session at all, as there were far too many things to see and smell.

There are many other tips I can share but I will start with this one today. Grab your cell phone, your fur baby and get down on his or her level and take your shot. Then compare it to older photos on your camera roll and see how much better it looks. Share those ‘low, low’ photos on social media and feel free to tag me (@inlinedesignphoto) so I can see them too.

The last thing I will ask today is for you to help me get the word out about Kodi and Bella. The more eyes we can get on this bonded pair and all the dogs at Speaking of Dogs Rescue the sooner we can get them all adopted.

Happy shooting!

Good, Better, Best

I thought this week I might focus on the art of post-processing.

First of all what is post-processing? Our predecessors would enhance their images by working on them in the darkroom. They were capable of doing more beyond dipping photographic paper into developer and fixer baths. Photographer Ansel Adams was a master of black and white photography and the zone editing system. In the darkroom he would dodge and burn the film to bring to life details the camera could not capture on its own.

Digital photographers utilize software like Lightroom, Capture One or Photoshop to develop or finish their portraits. A lot of how we shoot and edit is a direct homage to film photography post-processing. We have even maintained some of the same teminology even though the process is very different.

Most clients are aware of Photoshop and some are familiar enough with it to ask if a certain number of years or pounds be removed from their photograph. With pet photography, we usually do more than remove dog-tags, leashes and collars. To date my most unusual ask was to make a male dog a tad more modest… if you catch my drift.

Below find three versions of the same image. Each image represents a different part in the ‘develop’ process. The image below illustrates a fully edited version of an image from Bernard’s adoption photo session. The second image represents the image with some Lightroom edits. The final shows the image as it was captured by my camera on the day.

The final edit

The halfway point

As photographed

Also I would be remiss if I did not mention that Bernhard is still looking for his furever home. He is a senior Beagle who has arthritis but he doesn’t let it hold him back. He is friendly, curious and cute as a button. Please head over to Speaking of Dogs Rescue to learn more about Bernard and the other dogs there, that are waiting to love you.

Telling a little about the telephoto

A few weeks ago I blogged about the latest lens added to the stable. This week I want to talk about a lens that I have had for a while. I would like to talk a bit about my telephoto lens. It is an awesome action lens that I have used to shoot things like; bull riding, barrel racing, golf, dock diving, lure coursing and flyball.

But wait? Bull riding? Barrel racing? Golf? Yes my friends that is correct. As variety is the spice of life, know that sometimes I will challenge myself by shooting other subjects and in other styles. I am convinced that shooting personal projects or subjects other than pets just makes me a stronger photographer.

But back to my telephoto, it is also an awesome portrait lens. It creates an effect called bokeh (BOH-kay). What is that? Bokeh is when the background is blurred or out of focus in such a way that the background appears creamy. It is important to note that your main subject still needs to be in focus.

The human eye is attracted to contrast light and dark or in focus and soft focus. So if your background is softly focused your eyes are likely to be drawn into the more focused part of the image.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, allow me to include some images that were taken with my telephoto lens. Whether I am shooting sport or portrait, I love having this lens as an option.

I might be doing my peers and I a disservice waxing poetic about my lens because every photographer has had at least one person say, “You must have a good camera.” A good camera does not a good photographer make. In much the same way that your favourite restaurant is not your favourite because the chef has a good stove.

Back in the day there used to be a cheap camera challenge on DigitalRev TV’s Youtube channel. It was a show hosted by Kai Wong. He would frequently invite famed photographers onto his show and challenge them to do photo shoots with toy cameras, broken cameras or some other type of limitation. In every case the professional photographer would still be able to capture really compelling images. It is more about the eye behind the lens and the imagination that drives the eye than it is about the gear.

In other words new equipment just allows me to expand my repertoire to capture the images that will best grace your walls.

It doesn't always go according to plan

In an older blog, I wrote about a recent adoption photo session that went really well for me. I guess I spent far too much time dwelling on the experience. I had an adoption session this past weekend and this time I was drop-kicked by Murphy and his law.

I was scheduled to meet Bernard, a 10 year old Beagle, at the home of his foster family. To save set up time I prepare as much of my equipment ahead of time as I can. For example, I preload all the batteries into my speedlights. My intention is to be fully up in running within minutes as some dogs can have particularly short attention spans. So the idea is to get to snapping long before the dog in question ‘squirrels’.

To my shock and horror my flash refused to fire. My first thought was that something blocked the trigger signal but that was not the case. Was my speedlight broken? Nope. As per usual, the problem existed behind the camera. I had put one of the batteries in upside down. After I loaded it correctly the speedlight fired and we were in business. Or were we? Nope, Murphy was still not done with me.

The speedlight fired and immediately stopped working. At this point I break out into what I can only hope is an internal cold sweat. You see Bernard was already on set and I knew I had to get things going quickly before he stormed back to his trailer. It turns out that I had accidentally switched the main speedlight from Group 1 to Group 3, so basically the two lights weren’t ‘talking’.

Bernard was a consummate professional and he was not at all bothered by the late start. When it was time for him to turn it on, he did and he was a pleasure to work with. Bernard is arthritic and based on what I had read on bio, I was expecting him to be a lot less active and a lot less ambulatory than he ended up being. With  ‘dogged’ determination he refused to let his arthritis keep him down.

I am pleased to report that even after the false starts, I was able to come away with a number of images of Bernard that showed him in his best ‘light’. We were even able to shoot outdoors, I was not sure we would have been able to pull that off. The weather network called for snow that day but that did not materialize. Instead we had rain and milder temperatures. It made it difficult to find snow and even more difficult to avoid the less picturesque wet ground.

Once again I invite everyone over to the Speaking of Dogs Rescue website to get more information on Bernard and/or any of their other rescues. Spread the word, let’s get these dogs adopted!

The best little Chili dog in the GTA

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to meet Chili, who was one of the sweetest Yorkies I have ever met. After being in her company for a little while, I was surprised to learn that the veterinarian approximated her age at five years. I did not go to veterinary school so I am not challenging him/her, I am simply saying that is one lively five year old.

Somehow Chili found herself living on the streets in the GTA and lucky for her the fine folks at Speaking of Dogs Rescue came to her, well… rescue. I am confident that it will not take Chili long to find a furever home.

I will say that this was one of the quickest adoption photo sessions I’ve ever done. Chili was a little unsure when I first set out my equipment but she warmed quickly and before long she was throwing off some serious Canine Steel. She was posing like a seasoned vet from the very first frame, that is why it did not take me long at all to get what I needed but I was having such a good time with her that I found it hard to call an end to the session.

If there is any room in your home and in your heart for Chili or any other rescue, then head on over to Speaking of Dogs Rescue. They have several dogs who can’t wait to bathe you with love and affection.

New year, new look, new options

In the continuing evolution of Inline Design Photo there is a new toy in the toy box.

I have added an ultra-wide angle lens specifically for pet photography. The ultra-wide lens is not a flattering choice for portraits of people. Yielding an overly large nose, smallish eyes and tiny ears. Not a good look for any man, woman or child. However the result is completely different when the subject is a dog. The same distortion that looks garish on a person looks cute on a puppy.

What really sells this lens is when you get a curious pet leaning in to check out that weird clicking box.  The shape of the lens makes the pet, the subject, appear larger and conversely it makes the background images (trees, rocks, bushes) appear smaller.

What I am really looking forward too is combining this lens with artificial light. Some of my clients prefer naturally lit pet portraits while others embrace dramatic artificial lighting. I really think those clients are really going to beam with the addition of the ultra-wide angle lens. Beam. See what I did there?

The first 3 images shown below are examples of ultra-wide angles and the last image uses  artificial light. I think I will go into more detail about the differences between natural and artificial light in a future post.

Remember with good pet photography, your pet is the hero. Now there are many ways to achieve that end. And by no means is that achieved with a single lens, a single light setup or a single location. The ultra-wide lens is a tool and as much as any good tradesperson can tell you, there’s a tool for every task. There will be times when I will not be able to use that lens. A particularly nervous rescue is not going to like me getting up close with an ultra-wide lens. For him or her I might have to slap on a telephoto lens and back up.

The look as much as I enjoy it is not for everyone and there will be some parents who will prefer to go another way. 2020 is all about options, exploration and continued growth.

They called him Pappy

Speaking of Dogs Rescue is an organization that I have worked with in that I have taken some of the adoption photos of their rescues. Photos that were put up on the website in the hope of helping each and every dog find their forever home. Not only did it allow me the opportunity to photograph dogs, which is something I think we all know I like doing. It also gave me the opportunity to spend some time with a dog that could use a little extra attention. Know that it wasn’t a one way street, I needed attention every bit as much as the dog did.

Over the years I have met quite a few canine characters and today I want to tell you a bit about this wonderful senior beagle named Pappy. I rarely get the backstory of the dogs when I meet them, so I can’t tell you how Pappy came to lose his eye, I can only tell you that it was gone. It was interesting to see that missing orb did not slow him down in the slightest. He was pulling this way and that because he wanted to see and experience everything.

I met Pappy on a December day a few years back. It was one of those winters where we actually had a significant accumulation of snow. We needed a suitable location to start shooting and the entry way of a nearby building strongly resembled a home. As we were making our way there, Pappy’s demeanor changed quite suddenly. One minute he was happily walking along the sidewalk and the next he was angrily stomping through some very deep snow. Pappy was struggling through snow that was easily chest high and regardless of how difficult it was to negotiate Pappy was a pup on a mission.

Pappy put his front paws on the window sill and began to bark and growl at the dog in the window. A one eyed dog who was barking and growling back at Pappy. As you can imagine my first reaction was to burst out laughing. I kid you not, Pappy shot me a dirty look and went back to giving that other dog what for. Not to be deterred, I tried to explain to Pappy that he was barking at himself. Pappy just turned around and shot me this look that said, ‘Quiet woman, I am busy here.’

When that pesky beagle had been suitably subdued a very proud Pappy climbed out of the snow. In fact the second image was taken just after he made his way out. I took it as he looked up at my friend as if to inform her that, ‘he had showed him.’

Pappy eventually found his forever home where he loved and was loved as he lived out the rest of his days.

Yes, your dog is a supermodel

I am not kidding. Dogs really are. You might think that your dog is only interested in sleeping, barking and scarfing down treats but you’d be mistaken. That is not to say that they don’t enjoy those things but deep down what your dog truly is, is a frustrated supermodel.

I can hear you laughing but hear me out. I don’t care if you think your dog is high strung and can’t sit still or is a card carrying member of team Van Winkle and can barely find the energy to go potty. I have worked with enough dogs to know that with the right encouragement any dog will come alive in front of my camera lens. Rescues, with pasts that only they know; purebreds with storied lineage or that cute little pup with the Osterizer mix of a bloodline. It just doesn’t matter, of course their natural personality will always shine through but so will their inner supermodel.

One minute it is all about the distractions. Is that a squirrel? What’s that smell? What is going on over there? Are there any more treats? Then bamm! Your dog is smouldering, smiling, working the camera or coyly looking away.

This natural ability was why I coined the term Canine Steel. I obviously took my inspiration from a movie that curiously I never saw, but I wanted a way to easily identify that moment, during the session when the dog switched on. If you follow me on Instagram and if you don’t you should, you will notice many of them have the hashtag "#caninesteel.

What if you don’t know if your dogs a natural model? What if you did and you’ve got photos to prove it. If you do, I would love to see them. Please tag me (@inlindesignphoto) on social media with your best (or worst) canine steel photos.

And tit for tat here is a few of mine:

Santa Paws is coming to town

Late October an opportunity came along to combine a few of my favourite things. And by doing so I could help raise some much needed funds for the Peel Animal Rescue Society. They were looking for a photographer, (favourite thing number one), to take pictures of all the pets, (favourite thing number two), who would be at Sheridan Nurseries November 24th to visit Santa Paws to tell him what they wanted for the holidays.

We formed a small but mighty team that day; Santa, Mrs Paws, my good friend Jamie and yours truly. Mrs Paws manned the registration table ensuring a smooth and organized transition from one family to the next. Jamie was on lead squeaker, my voice activated light stand and helped to secure my equipment when excited bodies and tails go too close.

It was a lot of fun to see all the different dog personalities and outfits on the day. You had your happy go lucky dogs who couldn’t wait to sit next to Santa. You had your ‘nope, nope, nope’ dogs, who wanted nothing, to do with the man in the red suit.

I went into this event fully prepared to see a sea of canines, so you can imagine my surprise when a cat showed up to take part. Further, you could have knocked me over with a feather when it was the Guinea Pigs turn. Yes, I said Guinea Pig.

All told, it took about 3 hours to shoot about 500 frames, of over 30 participants but the number that brings me the greatest sense of pride is the $700 dollars we helped raise for the rescue. I hope that we helped more pets get home for the holidays.

To donate, volunteer or to take part in the December 7th Santa Paws event contact the Peel Animal Rescue Society (905) 813-1993

Chica and Arnica - Photographing Rescues

I recently got a call to take some adoption photos of a bonded pair that hadn’t been garnering the interest they deserved. If you have been around here for a while you will know that I owe a lot to the photographer that I have become with my earlier work with rescues and adoption photos.

I met these two feisty but lovable Chihuahua-Pomeranian nuggets in a park near where they were staying in foster. It was immediately obvious that they were indeed bonded and their relationship was well established.

Chica, the lighter coat, was clearly the alpha in their relationship. By the time our shoot was complete I had managed to win her over and she happily accepted pets and scritches. Arnica never quite warmed up to me in that short time although her curiousity let her get close a time or two.

Watching those two wander through near chest deep levels of snow was about the cutest thing ever!

I sure hope these two are adopted soon. If you have room in your heart and your life for two little siblings please get in touch with the fine folks at Speaking of Dogs Rescue today.

Now and then - Compare and contrast

Dog adoption photos for a local rescue was my in road into pet photography. I will admit I was always worried, that I would finish the shoot with a car full of puppies. In fact, my brother met me at the front door after my first shoot, to see if I brought home any souvenirs.

This was Luna or at least that was her name when we met. She was one of the first rescues I photographed for Speaking of Dogs. I often wonder how she is doing now. I can’t speak for any other rescue photographer but each dog I photograph becomes mine, in some little way.

My abilities to finish my work has improved by leaps and bounds, as the above images of Luna illustrate. Although I remember at the time being quite proud of that initial image.

My current goal with my clients is to educate. There is a difference between a picture of your furry loved one and wall art. My business is wall art, I don’t want to just photograph your pet, I want to provide you with a piece for your wall that evokes emotion. That reminds you of a special day, a special time or reminds you of someone who couldn’t ‘stay’ any longer.

Ask about a pet photography experience with Inline Design Photo today!