Taking photos at the beach

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Oregon and thought it would be a good opportunity to write about taking pictures of your dog at the beach. There are some challenges in doing so:
Firstly, you are likely going to be at the beach on a sunny day, resulting in high contrast and strong shadows. This is even more obvious when you are photographing close to the water's edge and if the water is very shallow, resulting in strong glare.
Secondly, your dog (if he or she is anything like mine) is going to be excited, running around and splashing in the shallow waters - which of course makes you fear for your gear. Protect your gear at all times. Salt water is your enemy when it comes to your electronics. Make sure you wipe your camera clean of sand and salt water mist.

Rather than "fight" these conditions - make them work for you. Silhouette shots can have their very special appeal or try and capture the special beach environment by taking photos from further away or a high point. If your dog does not feel like the centre of your attention and just minds his or her own business, you may get some lovely shots of a "dog in heaven".

One of the rare moments for Sidney to sit still at the beach - I grabbed it!

I also try and have my dog sit while I walk away and then call him to me, taking a series of action shots of my dog running towards me. While only a few of these usually turn out, you may end up with a photo of your dog having the biggest grin on his or her face. Try and set your camera to 1/1000th of a second for these shots to get good focus.

I love this photo of Sidney running between me and my sister in the background. We all had fun!

My dog is quite dark, so I either go for silhouettes or position him so the sun is lightening his face. I also try and direct him to run through shallow water, creating a lovely reflection.

Sidney running towards me creating almost a silhouette and reflection in shallow water

The most important is - have fun and make sure your dog has it too. So you come back from your trip to the beach happy and refreshed - no matter if you managed to take the star photograph. There is always next time too.

Who let the dogs out???

18 September and a bunch of Cocker Spaniel were out and about for the first Annual Cocker Walk, benefiting the Angels under our Wings Cocker Spaniel rescue. Cockers of all colours mingled, sniffed, got treats, raced around, walked and - raised money for helping fellow Cockers. 

If you're interested to adopt a Cocker Spaniel, contact Angels under our Wings Cocker Rescue and fill in an application form. 

Lisa Atterby runs the rescue from Victoria and has dedicated volunteers in Vancouver who can help you with questions about Cockers and what you can do to help. The Cockers come from high-kill shelters in Los Angeles and most would probably be euthanized if it were not for Angels under our Wings. Milo on the picture above found a new home on 18 September. 

When you see these happy faces of Cockers who found a new and loving home, you will appreciate the difference that Lisa and her volunteers make to these dogs and their new owners. 

See the slideshow for all pictures from the event:

Did you participate? Do you want to order images from the event - 50% of the profit will be donated to Angels under our Wings Cocker Rescue. Please contact Petra at PPP-Photography for your order!

Like a family picnic - well of a very large and dog loving family

On Sunday 11 September 2011 the SPCA held its annual Paws for a Cause event in Stanley Park, Vancouver. It was a lovely day and had the feeling of a big family picnic.  People of all ages with their dogs of all sizes came to Lumberman's Arch to have a good time, chat with vendors and other animal lovers and show off their dog's good looks and talents - OK, also their own good looks and talents.

At 11.30 the sporty crowd went for a run, while at 12.00 the fun-loving crowd got their dogs in a row, ready for a 3km walk in the park. Dogs of all sizes and abilities participated!

I had a table at the Community tent and sponsored the prize for the popular look-alike contest. Glad I was not the judge with all those good looking look-alike teams....

The jury - read the audience - had a hard time to select between these talented participants. Susannah and her Papillon Gergie were just too sporty to ignore and walked away with the prize of a photo shoot and an exclusive album from PPP-Photography. With such a pretty and well trained dog it should be fun to create this keepsake for Susannah.

As per the SPCA website, they raised $740,000 during this event. Thanks for coming out and stopping by my table too. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to keep informed about upcoming events and special offers from PPP-Photography.

Making a portrait session fun!

A portrait session of your dog can be a lot of fun, if you are participating. This is what I found out on a recent portrait session with Caroline and her Doberman Resi and horse Comet.

Caroline wanted action photos of her dog at a local creek. She also was after nice portraits of herself and Resi as well as Comet that she could frame.

We started at the creek and admittedly I was a little worried about lighting. We chose the mid-afternoon when I was expecting the sun to shine onto the creek as I was hoping for fast shutter speeds. It worked!

A Doberman as retriever!

What I had not expected is that Caroline was up for the challenge and wanted to participate in the shoot to the extend as she did. This made the shoot so much fun and the image selection extremely large.

A great team!

Now Caroline has the difficult task to select her favourite images from the great variety.

But the funny part is to catch the many mimics that keep making me laugh as I look at the images and work in post-production. Priceless!

Who is kissing whom?

And again?

What to learn from this - be open on a photo shoot and you end up having a great number of wonderful images to choose from and lots of fun memories!

Contact us for your personal consultation!

Family portraiture

I recently had the opportunity to photograph a family of four. A rather sophisticated gentleman, an exuberant lady and two little ones, both girls. A wonderful portrait opportunity!

The Lechner dog family!

Every time I show this picture I am asked - how did you get them to sit still? Did you glue them down? Of course not!!! I worked with these dogs for about 2 hours and there was a constant change of the primary subjects. I created beautiful portraits of the individual dogs but also many funny group shots. As you can see, the dogs were very cooperative!
My recipe is to work with the dogs and not to expect of them to work with me. Then things seem to fall in place. If the dogs are calmer in demeanour it usually is easier to achieve but usually most dogs at one stage seem to just be natural models.

Fany - my secret favourite!

Spike - only adopted the day before the shoot!

Bambi - the big baby

Paula - the boss!

Working with four dogs at the same time gave me the opportunity to create many different images. An ideal situation for creating an album or wall display. The individual portraits are wonderful in full colour or monochrome and I think Sabine found it hard to choose.

Three dogs comfortable with each other

Capture the moment!

I wonder what he is telling her!

If you want to have an offer for a photo shoot of your family - let us know! Fun families like this one will always get preferential treatment!

Indoor - outdoor shots

When you photograph your dog indoors and outdoors, there are different challenges.

For indoors you need to be concerned about lighting. Ideally you have at least two light sources of which one can be natural light - the light coming in from your windows. Avoid direct sunlight that creates too many shadows. Add a secondary light from your flash, ideally removed from your camera so that you can avoid the dreaded glare in the eyes.

If you have a skylight, the natural light may be enough and create a beautiful atmosphere.

Outdoors very different challenges arise. It may be either too bright, creating harsh lighting:

Or it may be too dark so you have to use a high ISO, leading to increased grain in the images. If you want to catch action, you also need to use a fast shutter speed to keep it all in focus. In this following example the 1/320 sec was not fast enough:

Of course, there is also more distraction for the dog, the dog moves around more, you need to keep your camera gear safe of water, other dogs and flying dirt. Don't give up and shoot lots, using the continuous shutter if possible.

Try and catch the action! In this case I used the flash that helped freeze the motion. Look for the treat. I wonder if he is going to catch it!

Get out there with your dog and your camera and enjoy this time together!

To book a pet portrait session with PPP-Photography, contact us today.

How a vet gets to his clients

Many of his clients know Richard Calland from cycling around Vancouver with his two dogs, the Border Collies Coco and Puck. He has a special bike with a basket in the front and the two dogs jump in to be taken around the scenic routes like two ladies from the high society used to take the horse drawn carriage for a ride around the park on a Sunday afternoon.

I went to see Richard on one Sunday in spring to capture this outing. I could not stop laughing about the two girls.

Contact Richard Calland for any veterinary consulting needs and contact Petra Mayer for any photographic wishes!

At the doggy beach - part two

While at the doggy beach that I reported on last time, I took a little "study" of my dog Sidney, playing for himself for a while with a red ball. He was so focussed on his ball, digging around it, nudging it, attacking it and then, finally retreating with it to a location from where to oversee the beach - content.
I am amazed to see him like this still. Sidney did not know what to do with toys when I adopted him almost exactly 1 year ago, then 3 years old. He has changed in that time. He is a stronger, healthier and happier dog and these pictures show this:

Enjoyment - that's what a dog's life is all about!