How to Crush a Photo Shoot with Your Pup

Last week I got to take pictures of Ashleigh and her pup. The little nugget‘s name is Greer and we had an amazing time taking pictures at the Shea Wash in Scottsdale, Arizona.

But today I wanted to give you some tips on how to CRUSH a photo shoot with your pup!

The first thing to know is that your pup may not be the best pup to bring to a photo shoot.

If your doggo isn’t well trained, understand that it may not be the best idea to take your dog out on a photo shoot. However. If you do you want to try doing a photo shoot with them then talk to your photographer about doing the session at home. If your photographer knows what they're doing and you have a clean home or nice outdoor space, there's no reason your photos can't look just as nice as a location like the one we chose. And that brings us to our next point.

The second think to keep in mind is the safety of the location of where you’re shooting.

Before our shoot, ashleigh and I discussed how important it is to shoot at a location where there’s not a lot of people around or busy roads nearby. Your pups safety is so important so I highly encourage you discuss this as well! Another important thing to keep in mind is what the area you’re going to is like. For example: At first we planned to go to a location in the desert where there wouldn't be a lot of people and we could be far away from the road. However, after we decided that, I suggested we go somewhere with less desert plant life as a lot of that plant life, not to mention other animals are poisonous or spiky and that of course is not good for a pup.

Next, remember to bring treats!

It really helps to keep the dog focused and of course it's important to reward her after she’s done such a good job! I suggest bringing small treats that she can eat up really fast and that way we don’t have to take pictures with her gnawing on a bone while we're trying to take photos.

If you can, bring a helper.

Ashleigh brought her sister Randee with us for this photo shoot and I’m so thankful she was there to help. I other photographers will often have an assistant there to help but it's so good when someone your dog knows is there as an extra set of hands and more importantly, to get your dog's attention.

These last tips are for the photographer:

HIIIIGGGGGHHHHH shutter speed.

Dog's are quick but you (and your camera) have gotta be quicker. Have your camera on a high shutter speed as well as on continuous shutter mode will help to get much sharper images as well as keep you from missing a great shot of doggy kisses.

Lastly, let the dog be a dog!

Don't worry about trying to get the dog to stay focused on you or pose in a certain way. It's not a human. Don't act like it is! Instead, let the dog run around and let her just play. This not only lets you get more natural looking photos of the dog but the owner as well! Dogs, just like humans, have personalities. It should ALWAYS be our goal as photographers to capture the true personality of our "subjects", whatever the species, not get what we want as the photographers.

This shoot was so fun and I'm looking forward to shooting with more pups in the future!

TaylorRae Schnepp