Читать книгу Dogtography - Kaylee Greer - Страница 12

BARK, BARK, BARK, BARK, ETC.

Dogs do speak. And believe it or not, they have a lot to say.

As dog photographers, it is our job to listen. To pay attention to what our canine subjects are trying to say to us and to the world around them.

The kindest words that I could ever receive about my photos are, “Wow, I can really feel the personality of that dog in your photo. I feel connected to him. Even though I’ve never met him, I feel like I know him.”

There’s no higher compliment for someone who’s made it her life’s mission to help be a voice for dogs through still imagery. A common issue I see with photographers who are very new to working with dogs is that their final image makes no real connection between the viewer and the animal in the photo. No oomph. No spirit. No personality. Just a dog. A photograph may be technically perfect: exposed correctly, no blown highlights, detail in the shadows, tack sharp with a strong rule of thirds applied compositionally. And guess what? That’s all well and good. But that photo means nothing—absolutely nothing—if there is no connection between subject and viewer. It means nothing if their voice doesn’t resonate through the image and into the viewer’s heart. What I’m saying is (and this is important, so read this sentence twice if you have to):

The moment trumps the technical.

Every time.

“Oh, so Kaylee, you’re saying that it’s completely fine to ignore exposure, composition, lens choice, and focus modes, each time you take a photo?”

Get the heck right outta town, of course I’m not! But I am saying that if your subject is speaking through the frame—reaching out across the plane to crawl into the viewer’s heart and leaving a tangible mark there—then zooming in to 1000% to check if every pixel is tack sharp is completely unimportant. Capiche?

So why does that fine piece of advice come to you here, right at the beginning of this book, in chapter 1? That’s easy. It’s because this is the foundation of literally every single other thing we will be discussing throughout the course of this happy little book. You cannot build an empire in France without first learning French. You cannot build a brand and do business in Hong Kong without first learning Mandarin. You need to know and respect the language, customs, and culture of the world you’re immersing yourself into. Similarly, you cannot live in the world of dogs and handcraft imagery featuring dogs and their stories, without first learning the language of dog. It’s only fair. It’s their world. We’re just making beautiful photos in it.