Pictures of Frank and Visiting Puppy Brother

[Mike Jordan]

Sue has been babysitting a younger brother of Frank the last week or so and I finally had some time to set my equipment back up and take some pictures.

Here is a shot of Frank taken first:




And here are some of the puppy (the owner hasn't decided on a name yet):









He was keyed in on Sue who had the cheese. Don't let that cute expression fool you... in a week around Dyna he's been throughly educated in how to be a little monster. Sue does such good training.

Mike

[CarolCorley]

What gorgeous photos! I wish I could get the hang of photographing my dogs, but as soon as they see the camera, they focus on me and stop whatever they are doing. How about a dog photography class for those of us with much less talent.

[Mike Jordan]

Thanks Carol. It's not all that easy all the time. Of course I don't show the shots that didn't come out.

I wish I could hold a class on taking pictures of Bouviers. I'd like to see Bill teach some of it as well. He's got some great outdoor action shots of his dogs.

I wish we had more room and a place for me to set up everything. It would make it a lot easier to take more pictures and I'd shoot more often.

Mike

[Sue]

Hi Carol,

It's pretty tough to shoot dog portraits without some help from a good dog wrangler. Mike has lucked out on his own in the past, but that was *after* the dogs understood the camera game and were glad to play it with him (in exchange for cheese, steak, or other goodies of course!).

When we are shooting puppies or dogs who have not played the camera game before, I spend a few minutes luring the dog into different positions with treats, and clicking and treating when they work with me. Once they have that, I delay delivery of the treat to gain some duration so they will hold position.

Once Mike starts shooting, I initially reward every shutter click (this click plus the flash replaces my clicker as the marker). This slows us down a bit at the beginning, but gets the dog working the camera so that we get better shots as we continue, and once the dog has the idea, Mike can shoot off 4 or 5 chots before I have to step into the frame and treat again.

I position myself just behind Mike so that the dog is looking towards the camera.

It also helps to have the dog elevated somehow. We use the stairs and a platform. This lets Mike shoot straight onto the dog without having to lay on the floor, and restricts the dog's movement a good bit too (at least until the dog figures out that he can jump down... but that's the dog wrangler's problem if she did not teach the dog to hold position well enough).

The biggest problem we have are the volunteers in the peanut gallery who want to come into the studio and show the dog model how it's *REALLY* done.

Cheers,
Sue