Not all locations are created equal
When planning a portrait session, I put a lot of thought into the location. I always want a beautiful location. But, with my own dogs, I'll take photos even if I know the location isn't perfect. I may just have to shoot a little differently than I would prefer and accept that they won't be perfect.
Last summer, with Lake Mead pretty unusable, I needed to come up with creative solutions to entertain my dogs. So I grabbed a baby pool and a splash pad for Vibe to play with. Vibe's love of splashing in baby pools started when he was young.
Because he's so dang cute, here's an old video of him. We were at a flyball tournament and he was still a baby in need of some playtime. The pool never failed to make his day.
After watching him play for a few minutes, I figured, what the heck? I'll grab my camera and take a few photos of him playing. I could have grabbed my favorite lens (70-200) and started shooting, but the images would have been pretty blah. I definitely had a couple of obstacles to deal with.
First, the pool itself was in the way and it was not attractive, neither was my concrete patio, the BBQ grille, or the stucco behind him.
The next issue was that he likes to splash with his front paws, then bite at the splashing water, which meant his head was down below the side of the pool.
So, I grabbed a black backdrop and did my best to get up close and personal to eliminate the environmental distractions, leaving the focus on him and the water. There's a name for this up-close personal shooting: shooting up close for impact (SCUFI).
To get his head up, I needed to keep him from playing his bitey water game, but I still wanted him to have fun. So, I dropped the toy in the pool, then gave him the okay to get it, and I started shooting as soon as his head came above the side of the pool.
I ended up with several fun images that show his personality and how much he loves to play in the water. They are far from perfect, I could spend more time in Photoshop getting rid of the blue and maybe toning down the brightness of the toy. But I'm okay with the flaws because they were part of the actual scene where he was having fun. Plus, these images make me laugh.
The one below cracks me up. Since only his head was going in the water, his fur was mostly dry except for his face making him look so goofy.
To continue through the blog circle click the link at the bottom of each post, starting with Elaine Tweedy of I Got the Shot Photography in the Endless Mountains of PA gets up close and personal in her photos.
2 Comments
Jan 13, 2023, 12:44:53 PM
Nicole Hrustyk - Awww, I hope you get video and photos of Talley playing in the snow. Those are the little quirks that you'll always remember.
Jan 13, 2023, 10:57:29 AM
Elaine - Vibe is adorable. None of our dogs are interested in their summer doggy pool, but our Talley plays with snow like Vibe plays with water. Great idea to use the black backdrop!