23 April 2012

Animal Portraiture

A few months ago I talked about the possibility of diversifying my offer and including pet photography into the mix of what I offer. I had been out and captured images of stallions at an open day at a local stud and was suggesting I could take this further. Of course I don't jump into things I have to do the research and get a portfolio of images together - this way I can see if it something I enjoy doing and what my competition might be doing. I researched styles, loveliness and pricing of other photographers offers and I think I might have something here. I already love being around and photographing horses. Next I need to try dogs.

Yesterday I finally got round to going to see my cousin who keeps pedigree, cup winning, record breaking, beautiful - Belgian Shepherds. I thought I would start with the most gorgeous animals to cut my teeth on. I spent a wonderful 6 hours drinking tea, catching up on 5 years of family gossip, putting the world to right, avoiding hail showers and playing with the two dogs that currently inhabit their world.

I have seen many images of the dogs in show condition, in show positions, showing off their best features. What I decided I wanted to capture was some of the fun and humour and beauty of the dogs at home and relaxing. Here are my favourites:

Cuba

Cuba

Conway waiting for his chance with the toy 

Conway

Conway

Thanks to Hazel and Dave for a fun afternoon and I will be coming with you to shows in the future. Long time since I have been around dogs this big. (Think it was Rottweilers in 1995!) so it was a real treat to get to know Cuba and a delight to play with Conway - who imho - is going to be a star.

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