Читать книгу Dogtography - Kaylee Greer - Страница 29

So now that you know how to speak dog and translate the body language clues that your dog model is giving you throughout the course of your shoot, let’s talk about why it matters, and what it ultimately means for your photos.

Aside from setting up an environment and energy that’s kind and respectful to your dog model where he or she can really thrive, the body language aspect of things is so important because it shows in your images. Let me tell you about sweet Daisy here, to give you a really clear example of the difference that good body language makes in a successful photo.

When my assistant, Sam, and I met Daisy and her owner on-location, we were clearly instructed to take it very slow with her. (Thank you for the heads up, Pre-Session Questionnaire!) Daisy’s owner gave us the full scoop on Daisy before meeting her. Sweet Daisy had had a difficult life in the shelter before she was rescued. Leaving out all the hard details of her early and unstable life, what we knew of her history was that it had made her a more tentative, slightly fearful dog around new people. When we met on-location for Daisy’s shoot, we knew we had to start it all off on the right foot to make the whole day go as successfully as possible. With that in mind, Sam and I sat down to make ourselves as low, small, and non-intimidating as possible. We sat with our backs intentionally turned away from where we knew Daisy would approach, so as not to stare in her direction (remember, staring = aggression in dog language!). This allowed her to come up behind us on her terms and sniff us out while we gently spoke to her as nonthreateningly as possible. Once she got lots of good smells in and worked out that we might be on her side, we were able to slowly stand up and walk alongside her, giving her treats and positive reinforcement all the time. After about 20 minutes of these types of exercises (let’s call it “making friends with Daisy” time), I felt we were ready to begin the shoot. I slowly brought out the camera gear to introduce to her.

At that point, I felt pretty confident that we had built a nice, stable relationship with Daisy. “Ah yes, we’ve won her over and now she’ll trust us for the rest of the day!” was the tune of my internal monologue. I was about to be proven wrong.

I made a poor decision by starting off the shoot using a 16mm lens, a focal length so wide that in order to fill the frame with Daisy’s gorgeous spotted face, I needed to be very close to her to make a compelling image. When I say close—let’s say maybe 8 or 10 inches from her face with my lens. While Daisy was certainly tolerating me and my very in your face, rude human behavior, it is clear to see how exceptionally uncomfortable she is in this photo.

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When you look at this photo, do you marvel at the technical accomplishment and nice, balanced exposure? Do you notice how sharp it is? How nice the white balance looks? How about counting the number of pixels in the image? Of course not. None of that matters.

What you see is an unhappy and uncomfortable dog. That’s it. Move on, nothing else matters.

That day with Daisy reminded me that every single dog is an individual with a unique personality and different requirements to achieve a peak level of comfort. After this set of photos, we decided to take a step back. We couldn’t possibly keep forcing these photos upon Daisy for the rest of the shoot. We couldn’t deliver a gallery to our kind and wonderful client, who loves Daisy so much, of shots that look like her dog is having a horrible and scary time. No way. That’s not what I was hired to do. I was hired to capture this amazing little creature in exactly the way that her owner sees her every day. It’s my job to capture Daisy’s true light—the purity of that sweet and innocent little dog who lives behind the pain of her history. The real Daisy. And it is my job to have her images reflect the exact same kind of joy that she so selflessly brings into her owner’s life every day.

So we took a step back. After this series of shots, we decided to take a break from photography for a bit. We pulled out Daisy’s favorite tennis ball, and my partner Sam, myself, and Daisy’s owner decided we’d play a lively and exciting game of fetch with her to help loosen up the mood. We found a big, lush grassy area and had the time of our lives chucking the ball back and forth. Daisy proudly fetched her prized toy and wiggled with delight. A total 180 from the version of her we’d known only 20 minutes prior. Once I felt like I had given Daisy the proper space she deserved, we then marched across the street to this charming little garden, and there I chose to take her photos in a more respectful and comfortable way. I took out my 50mm lens and backed up quite a bit. I gave her space to find confidence and space to breathe. The resulting photo gives a wildly different feeling than the first one.

This is the dog that Daisy’s mom sees every day when she wakes up to greet the sunny morning. This is the dog that brings endless joy and happiness into the life of the human she’s chosen. This is the dog that I was there to capture that day. She only needed me to respect her in the way she deserved to be respected, and captured in the way that she felt most comfortable to share her true self.

Daisy and her unrelenting joy that could light up the very earth and sky is the exact reason why I feel so privileged and grateful to be able to do what I do.

This photo may be the result of my lens, but that smile is 100% Daisy’s. And this smile is the very best reason I can give you as to why reading and interpreting dog body language at your shoots matters.

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FIGURE 1.17a Before.

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FIGURE 1.17b After.