In the studio with some dogs

In the studio with some dogs

I do not spend enough time in the studio, so often commissions call for me to be outdoors and often in remote spots.

But studio work is a skill that I enjoy and it is good to get into the studio as often as you can.  Once there you can usually shoot a vast amount of photography in a short period of time, given the control over lighting and the subject.

The dogs, including a sixteen-week-old puppy, needed to be photographed for editorial and website use. The requirement was for all the images to be shot against a seamless white background.  With such a background you are able to drop the images into both web pages and traditional print, and the images bleed into the background, showing no edges – provided the webpage is white!

The dogs were a breed that is fast growing in popularity, they are Slovakian Rough Haired Pointers.   They are proving popular as show dogs and as working gun dogs coming from the HPR (Hunter Pointer Retriever) class of working gun dog.

For me, there was something a little surreal having a dog, which I have photographed before outdoors in its working environment, sat on seamless white background lit by high powered flash heads.  But the photoshoot from start to finish was both enjoyable and great fun, and more important the photography was just what was needed to kick-start a new project.

The project is one that started following another commission to photograph the dogs working, and will result in a new magazine dedicated to Slovakian Rough Haired Pointers and HPRs.