P#15 Q6: What Are Some Exercises Our Listeners Can Do To Improve Their Dog Photography Skills?

Short and Sweet

Jenni Bidner: First, learn to keep your dog photography sessions short and fun. They should be filled with treats and play -- and not be an ordeal for the dog.

If you have kids, and your kids go, "Oh no," every time you pull out the camera, you've probably been doing that police lineup against the wall, and disrupting their fun to take the picture.

Dogs, just like kids, learn that the camera means mom or dad is going to be in a bad mood because they're so worried about apertures and shutter speeds or poses. They will either run away or they will just look tortured.

Anytime you want to do photography, make sure it's light and fun. If the dog's not cooperating, put away the camera. Come back to it in five minutes. Go play ball for a little bit or go on a short walk. Do anything that's fun for the dog and then try it again.

Short and fun takes about the same amount of time as long and arduous, but you'll get much better pictures.

Mess it Up On Purpose

My second tip is before and afters. I do this in my classes all the time.

My books are full of the bad shots followed by how we corrected it into a good shot. You can look at those pictures all day long and fully understand them intellectually but until you take them of your own dog, with your own camera, and do them on your monitor, it just doesn't seem to sink in.

What I actually ask my students to do is take the bad dog photography shot purposely and then take the good shot and compare them. You get that light bulb moment where it really sinks in and you don't ever forget it.

In Summary

The best way to improve your dog photographs? First, keep your photo sessions short and fun. And then, believe it or not, you need to take bad photographs on purpose and compare them to the good ones.

According to Jenni Bidner, these two exercises can go a long way in improving your dog photography skills.