Dog as Hero - The Mighty Dog Pose

Some dogs have a reserved bearing. They seem to be above all that puppy playfulness, preferring instead to spend quiet time with their human.

My Sheltie Buzz was like that. Especially in the last couple years of his long life, he was reserved and a bit tired, preferring to snooze wherever I was. My active memories of him were from a more vigorous, earlier time in his first years. Back then, he would always try to find me if he couldn't see me, and played with his large Bernese Mountain Dog sister Daisy a lot. He was always a hero to me.

So during the last year he was with me, I was always looking for ways to pose him as a hero.

He liked sitting and looking at me to begin with. I'd also trained him to sit-stay and down-stay when he was younger, well enough for him to earn the AKC's Canine Good Citizen award. So his discipline made it pretty easy.

The Hero Pose

What is a hero pose? I think it shows a dog looking almost larger than life. How do I get it? I use a low vantage point, so the dog looks like he's in charge of everything. I'll also use a wideangle lens close, to accentuate his head and face. He should also stand out well against a compelling background - after all, he needs something to be in charge of. And he should be the obvious main focus. In the early morning or evening, or on a cloudy day, I can use on- and off-camera lighting to separate him from a darkened background. That can literally put him in the spotlight. Contrast also comes down to a lower, more reasonable level in those times and conditions, making for better pictures.

For Buzz, all I needed to do was find striking desert environments for backgrounds, light him dramatically, and pose him.

Backgrounds - Uncommon Landscapes

My wife and I both have flexible schedules. We also love to travel to gorgeous natural outdoor places with trails to get us into them. Since moving to Albuquerque in 2013, that's meant high desert and mountain forests. As backgrounds, I wanted to show the landscapes Buzz shares with us.

There are plenty of green urban parks in Albuquerque, which look like urban parks anywhere in the US. We like the greenspace, but we prefer the high desert landscapes and mountains of the Southwest for a unique sense of place.

Getting Him to Sit

Not every dog will sit still. And some will just want to lie down. I want a comfortable dog, but it's hard to shoot a squirmy pup, and hard to get a flattering look from a dog on the ground. That leaves either sitting or standing.

Most dogs will do a reliable sit, whether their owners ask for it or not. With Buzz, the challenge was to capture him seated or standing, before he got tired and plopped down. I could use off-camera flash since he didn't move much.

With more active dogs, the trick is setting up beforehand and being ready to capture fleeting poses and expressions. You're not going to be able to use a multiple-light setup requiring exact placement of an active dog, but on-camera fill flash will give you options. I don't like an obvious flash look a lot of the time, so I keep the on-camera flash at low power compared to the ambient light.

Into The Foothills

One March day I took Buzz to the Sandia Foothills trails near our house. I had a Canon speedlite with a small softbox on a short stand, a wireless flash trigger on the camera, and a tabletop tripod for a low vantage point. I'd mounted an extremely-wide 14mm lens for a hero viewpoint used close. It was a cloudy day with a storm moving in, so I had soft ambient light with distinct shadows.

I sat him down, placed the flash and camera, and waited for the pose I wanted. Modern LCDs on digital cameras let me shoot without stretching out on the ground to look through a viewfinder, but after roughly lining up the shot in the LCD, I watched Buzz directly. He was looking visionary, with a diffraction sunstar overhead, so I shot.

I tried other spots on that trail, but none were as good. We walked out and got home just as it started to rain.

Valley of Fires - into the Lava

I had another chance to photograph Buzz a few days later on a trip to Valley of Fires, a 5,000 year old lava flow in central New Mexico. I took him out on the trail and sat him down with ropy pahoehoe and clinkery aa lava plus desert scrub for a background. I had the speedlite and small softbox on the short stand, but used a 24mm lens to focus more on Buzz. Again, another cloudy day meant I could spotlight Buzz with the flash. This time he gave me a smile for the best shot.

Lowry Ruin on the Rocks

A few weeks later, we took a trip to Anasazi ruin sites in the Four Corners. We'd always wanted to visit Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep National Monument, but had always been on our way to other places when we passed signs for them.

The Lowry Ruins Great House complex was constructed around 1060 AD, and housed 40-100 farmers who traded food for pots and other goods. People had been living there for at least a few hundred years - Lowry was built on top of earlier pithouses. It's not as grandly impressive as Great Houses at Chaco Canyon or cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, but dogs are allowed at Lowry. And it was another cloudy day.

I set up my single off-camera flash and camera with 14mm lens on the pocket tripod again, and posed him on a low wall. He was a bit more tired this time, so I had to be patient and quick when he sat for me. He rewarded me with another visionary look to his right, and the flash filled on that side, so I shot. Again, this was the best shot of the day.

Hovenweep in the Evening

After a full day walking trails through the ruins at Hovenweep and dinner after, we settled in for the evening. I set up a more powerful Elinchron 400 ELB strobe with a 20" deep parabolic softbox on the short stand, the camera again on the pocket tripod, and 14mm lens. Buzz was tired and wouldn't stay seated, so I had to shoot him lying down. Thankfully, he lifted his head up and offered me a look into the side the light was on, so I shot.

Valuable Memories of a Short Life

You know it's coming, but you always think you have more time with your dog. I'm very glad I shot these pictures of Buzz, because he died just 9 months after the last set in Hovenweep. I remember him from them as the hero he was, at least to me.

Ready to capture some memories with your dog? Click here for more information about a photo session, or call me at 408-483-3782.

Shot Notes

Conventional wisdom says you need to use a large lens aperture to blur a background, especially with wideangle lenses. But close up with 24mm, you'll get blur at f/10 or f/11. You'll want to stop down that far anyway with long-nosed breeds like Shelties or Collies to keep their faces sharp. That's what I wanted at Valley of Fires - a less-distinct but still recognizable background. The 24mm gave that to me in a head-and-shoulders view at f/10-f/11.

With 14mm, you'll get a sharp background even close up if you're at f/10 or smaller. That's just what I wanted at Lowry, Hovenweep and the foothills. It got a little late to capture much background at Hovenweep, but Buzz's whole body is sharp, even with the focus on his eye. I wanted sky detail at Lowry and for the diffraction sunstar in the foothills. Stopping down to get it also gave me sharp masonry at the ruin. You need small lens apertures for diffraction sunstars. Anything smaller than f/8 can reduce your picture sharpness, so I settled on f/11 here.

For a younger, more active dog or at a more remote, walk-in location, I'd have been using on-camera flash. In all cases, I scout for the best ambient sunlight first, whether that's on a cloudy day or diffused through trees.

More Information

Bureau of Land Management (nd), Valley of Fires. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y6qw4g2q.

Colorado State Parks (nd), Lowry Ruins National Historical Landmark. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y5sc7rfz.

National Park Service (nd), Hovenweep Camping. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/hove/planyourvisit/camping.htm.

Josh Miller, Shutterbug (Feb 11, 2014). Sunstar Photos: Creative Diffraction Effects. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/y4e8l99f