P#15 Q7A: What are a Couple of Your "Secrets" for Taking Such Wonderful Photographs of Dogs?

The Perfect Shot

Jenni Bidner: My favorite "secret" goes back to the technique of panning the running dog. It's actually what I would call the money shot, in that it's very easy to do and set up. It's very hard to do badly and it's one of those incredible shots that just amazes people -- the profile shot of your dog running.

It's easier to do with someone else's dog and it's easier to do with assistants.

The photographer stands at one side of the field and have one or two assistants throwing a ball across so the dog is running parallel to you. Because you know the basic path the dog is going to cover, you can almost pre-focus the camera.

When you're panning, your camera doesn't have to do too much auto focusing work. You know the dog is going to be running really hard and having a lot of fun. You just click as they go by and your only real job is setting your exposure correctly and timing it so that you get that elegant part of the gait.

It's really fun, really easy to do, and for some reason people don't think of it. It's also one of my best selling portrait shots because everyone wants to see their dog having fun.

This is the same, whether it's a little Chihuahua or a high action dog like the pointer. It just looks great.

Change of Tone

There's another interesting side to these action portraits too. It's much harder to get great photographs of dogs when they're running right at you. If you're alone, you can call the dog towards you, but they're changing distance so quickly it's hard for your autofocus to catch up. It can be done, however.

What's important, whether they're running towards you or across your field of vision, is how the dog is prompted to run.

If you call them and the owner calls them with the "come" command they're running in obedience. Your shepherd is going to have his ears back and a submissive look. They're going to run in a body language that says, "I'm obeying a command" which is great.

It's exactly what you want them to do, but it's not as attractive as if you throw the ball or you call them in a giggly, fun manner and they come bouncing at you with ears up and mouth open and tail flying.

Just that little behavior difference, where you've turned the run into play from obedience, you're going to get a better picture. You would think it's the opposite, but it's not. It's very a subtle change.

You know how dogs sometimes do that big curving run at you when you call them, and it's very annoying because you want them to run straight towards you?

That curving run is actually a submissive behavior because it's very aggressive for a dog to run straight at you. You actually have to train them to run straight at you. When you're photographing them coming at you, be prepared for that little curve that they might take in.

Those are pretty advanced little subtle techniques, but they really do make a difference once you've mastered the basics of exposure and technique.

To Sum Up

How do you get great dog photographs? According to Jenni Bidner, action shots seem to be the best.

To get the best action shots, throw a ball and let your dog have some fun. You'll get much better photographs of dogs than if you had just called to them with the "come" command.