A NEW DOG PHOTO BUSINESS NOW?

GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY

Yes, everyone's still inside hunkering down inside, or distantly outside clogging local trails. Yes, some people wear gloves, most wear masks - and everyone's staying far apart. And no one's booking photography sessions - that seems like the last thing on anybody's mind.

So why would I start a dog photography biz, especially now?

Isolation doesn't stop your dog's ball-chasing, smell-chasing and overall goofiness. He can't catch the virus, and still wants to play. He's maturing and changing, and doing fun things you want to capture. And you've likely had a lot more activity with your dog since the whole isolation thing began. It's time to capture the best of that, before it's gone.

It won't last forever

You probably don't want to miss anything in your dog's life. Pictures captured now will show you both at a unique time when you were together a lot.

There aren't any guarantees for what the future holds - you may look back on this as the time you really got close to your pup before the real world started demanding your presence again. If we're lucky, this is the last global pandemic we'll get for awhile.

Derby and his toy

Dogs Are Risk-Free

A neighbor answered my informal request to photograph local pups for free to build my portfolio. (Fortunately, dogs aren't affected by coronavirus.) Derby was a still-small 4 month old corgi, chasing soap bubbles in his back yard and wanting to smell everything in the park to find out more about it. His owner was very happy with the pictures, and grateful we captured that slice of Derby's life. Just a month later, he's shed some of his puppiness and become a more mature dog. And he's bigger too.

So what happens after the world starts to reopen? No one knows exactly. Maybe you'll still go into work to do stuff face-to-face. Maybe you'll keep working more from home. 

It's pretty much a guarantee that your dog will still be doing playful, endearing things to make your life worthwhile. And I'll be ready to capture those moments for you. Just give me a call, or email.

WHY DOG SHOTS?

Dogs are silly, beautiful, and never forget how to play. You don't have to send them to college. Instead, they come with more common sense and intuition than most humans. They also have to exist in our world, so any freedom, fun and food they have is up to us. It's a large responsibility, but dog smiles are worth it. They also need our best care to live what for them is a long life. But for us it's too short. My goal is to use 50 years of experience with cameras and dogs to capture your pup's best expression of his happy life with you. A daily look at pictures of your dog's unique way of being himself with you is one way for him to achieve immortality.

CORONAVIRUS EFFECTS AND DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

Everyone's affected by Coronavirus. You're either being told to stay inside and avoid contact with anybody, or your state says it's OK to get your hair done or nails manicured. Or you're somewhere in between those extremes. Maybe you're able to work from home via the Internet. But no matter how it is for you, your dog's important. He's the only lifeline you may have to a normal life.

Taylor and his pal Godric

The Coronavirus Dog Routine

We've settled down to a routine over the last 7 weeks. In the mornings, my wife and I take our Bernese Mountain Dog Taylor to the dog park. He'll chase and get chewed on by some of his buddies for awhile while we walk the perimeter, or I photograph him playing with the other pups. This playtime with others isn't as critical as it was when he was a puppy. If we didn't get him to the dog park in those days, he'd be a non-stop brat for the next 24 hours. At just over a year old, he's still occasionally bratty, but much more civilized about it.

After he's pooped himself out to where he's just hanging out in the shade of one of the park's big umbrellas, we'll drive to a trailhead and take him for a walk. Since we live in the foothills of Albuquerque's Sandia Mountains, there are some good options for trails.

But by that time, the light sucks for photography. I do most of my shooting at the dog park beforehand, unless it's really overcast.

I have to do something during this Twilight Zone time. Our routine with Taylor isn't that different from what we were doing before, but it's a link to the normal life we previously had. And building a portfolio helps me get ready for the inevitable day when everyone cautiously pokes their nose outside the door and decides it's OK to go out. I also get practice shooting dogs in less than optimal light, and keep my photographic chops up.

Bright Sun Is No Fun

It's no secret - most of us want to shoot in the warm light of morning (if you can drag yourself out of bed early enough), or in late afternoon (or evening) towards sunset. But there is a third way outdoors.

Aside from the fact that it's hotter, mid-day sun is too bright and harsh. Yes the sun is huge, but it's also 93 million miles away. (That kinda tells you how hot it really is - enough to scorch you here, that far away.) it looks like a bright little point source of light and heat - and it makes awful shadows and bad sunburn.

Here in the Desert Southwest, you have to go up a high mountain to find shady trees. Otherwise you get these low, sharp scrubby things, and no shade. But humans build shade everywhere - you have buildings, cars, outdoor awnings. So I use those umbrellas at the dog park as shade creators. Dogs are no fools - most of the time, they'll play under one of them where it's cooler. So all I have to do is get close and capture the shady action, right?

Not quite. When you're shooting a shaded subject with a large, bright, unshaded background, your camera will say, "Oh, it's really bright out here. I need to chop my exposure down." Then, not only do you get perfect background exposure, your dogs and the shade they're in can end up totally black.

There are at least a couple things I do about this. First, I use a flash on the camera to light up the shaded dogs. Yes, everyone says flash on the camera is a no-no, but there's enough bright sunlight sneaking in under the umbrella and bouncing off the ground to fill any hard shadows from the flash. Second, I use a small diffuser. This makes the flash's tiny light source a little bigger, which spreads the light out. That wraps the light around the dogs, and reduces shadows on the ground.

The flash's 'pop' of light will be much brighter if you set its zoom head for somewhere in the range of 70mm to 200mm and leave the diffuser off. If you let it automatically set itself for full coverage of a 35mm or even wider 24mm lens, you'll spread the light power out so much that daylight will make it look too wimpy. Yes, you'll get a spotlight look with a zoomed-in flash lighting a wideangle shot. Yes the shadows will be harsher from an undiffused flash. But with enough ambient light as fill, it can still look good.

Bye for now,
Mark