PAWS & PIXELS

Unleashing The Art Of Dog Photography

National Dog Photography Day, which fell on the 26th of July, was founded by Kerry Jordan, a professional dog photographer, back in 2018.

When Kerry, a former wedding and family photographer, started taking photographs of her own whippet out in the gorgeous UK countryside, she never imagined the change it would make in her life. People started to take notice, and commissioned Kerry to take photographs of their dogs too, and from there it grew until she launched Fur & Fables to focus entirely on dogs.

So, what is National Dog Photography Day?

National Dog Photography Day is a day to celebrate the growing love of dog owners taking and sharing photographs of their pooches. How many dog social media pages and huge influencers do you see daily? It’s safe to say that, as a nation, we love seeing photos of dogs pop up on our feeds.

Here are some top tips from Kerry:

My dog won’t look at the camera. Make unusual sounds that your dog won’t have heard before, ones that work for me are high pitched ‘keening’, ‘pa pa pa’, ‘brrrrrrr’ in different tones, crumpling a crisp packet above the camera. You may even get a cute head tilt! Why not play the video from today and see if your dog reacts?

For those who aren’t sound orientated, one that seems to always work is the fake throw. Pretty difficult to do if you are on your own, but not impossible! Pretend to throw something over your dog’s head in a short sharp movement.

Do you have a phrase that gets your dog’s attention usually? My lot always focus on me when I start with ‘do you want’ so ‘do you want a biscuit’ ‘do you want to go for walkies’ - set yourself up to take the photo, then say your trigger words.

Bonus points for anyone who can do a video of your dog reacting to some silly sounds!

What happens if my dog hates the camera?

For those who seem to not like the camera at all; treat this as a training exercise. Bring out your camera and put a treat next to it - get them comfortable coming close and seeing it as a positive thing.

When they are comfortable, pick up the camera and start adding a training word like ‘Say cheese’ - make sure all the time it’s super fun for your dog.

Then start pointing the camera at your dog, without worrying about taking a photo - keep up the excitement and the ‘say cheese’ or whatever word you choose so that your dog associates the camera with something super positive. I’d love to hear how you get on!

Stop taking photos of lots of grass!

A lot of people take photos from a standing position, pointing the camera down on their dog – this means that you get a lot of ground in the shot. By bringing your camera down to your dog’s level, you include more of the interesting background.

Light.

For me, this is THE most important lesson for taking a great photograph of your dog. All the other lessons can contribute to it, but getting the lighting correct will be a huge help.

Before you even raise the camera to take a photo of your dog, I want you to look at their face and see how light is hitting it. Is one side in shadow? Is the face quite dark? Can you see any nice little spots of lights in the eyes?

If the dogs face is in shadow, can you move them round? Can you move around?

Print your photos.

One thing about photographing your dog I would always recommend, is getting them printed. Having digital is fab, but unless you are super organised, you can lose your best photos in the other 12,340 photos of your dog!

When looking for somewhere to print, I would advise not to get them printed at high street printers, chemists or supermarkets - they don’t always colour correct photos (so they could come back looking completely different, and can have an odd tint), the paper quality isn’t great, and the images tend to fade quickly. If you are going to invest in getting something printed, find a proper printing company, most of them will have an online option to send files so it does not need to be local.

People from all over the world, including celebrities and brands, take part every year by sharing photos of their dogs using the hashtag #nationaldogphotographyday, and you should too!

So, mark it in your diary: 26th of July 2024. I can’t wait to see your photos!