Fur, Flashes and the Judicious Use of Cheese

............ This is an excerpt from the Blurb on line publishing blog from the 20/12/11. 

Five Questions for a Pet Photographer

Spread from "Dogonomics" by Gerrard Gethings

Our new “Five Questions” series asks pro photographers to share some tips and tricks of their trade. Today we talk to Gerrard Gethings, professional portraitist and creator of Dogonomics, about the challenges of photographing dogs. Read the interview below, get his book, and then check out his site for more tips, pics, and behind-the-scenes photos.

Blurb: Let’s talk gear. What do you shoot with, and what’s your studio setup?

Gerrard: The gear I use is pretty much all Canon. A 5D MK11 and L series zoom lenses. I would ideally use fixed-focus glass but the animals move around too much and a good zoom gives me much more chance of capturing what I need. I always use flash in the studio and three lights is usually enough. I try to use as few as possible because they need to be very portable and with a few well-placed reflectors you can get the effect of many more.

Blurb: How do you approach capturing the personalities of your canine clientele?

Gerrard: Capturing the personalities of the animals is always the goal. They are all different so creating an environment within which you have total control of the light is the first thing. It needn’t be huge, maybe a few square feet. The owner should always be there to calm and control things. Putting up a backdrop is a good idea, as this will reduce distractions in the final image.

Image from dogtownstudio.co.uk

Next, you get down low; you should always be on the dog’s eye level. Get the dog’s attention and you’re away. It is also a good idea to have the dog in the room as you set up the equipment because bringing a dog in to a newly reorganised room can really confuse them. Oh and fire the flash randomly as you do this, so the dog gets used to it quite naturally.

Blurb: Do you bribe them with treats? Really, how do you get them to do what you want?

Gerrard: Getting the dog’s full attention is key. There are obvious traits that some breeds have which can be utilised. Terriers like things that squeak, sight dogs, such as whippets, will lock on to movement. This does require a certain understanding of dogs in general but, if in doubt, then “plan b” is to get out the treats. I have never met any breed that wouldn’t jump through hoops for a piece of cheese. Again, this is something that the owner can advise you on.

Blurb: How do you get good action dog shots?

Gerrard: There are many ways of representing action. You can use slow shutter speeds so that there is blur in the image. Running alongside the dog with a shutter of about 60th of a second (and very steady hands) can give you some great results – but it can be hit and miss. The other way is the complete opposite. Shutter speeds above 1,000th of a second will freeze every bit of action, but focussing can be a problem.

I set my camera to manual and as I am out walking I change the exposure constantly to fit the conditions. This way, when something happens you can shoot without thinking. The auto settings just aren’t quick enough. It’s also a good idea to zoom into the action, even cropping some of the action out. This gives the impression of quite explosive action which can’t be contained within the frame.

Image from dogtownstudio.co.uk

Blurb: How many shots do you generally take per pup?

Gerrard: This really depends on the situation. Generally, in the studio, I probably take a lot less than when I’m out and about. Maybe 150-200 in the studio because I’ve carefully set up the lighting so I know what’s going into the camera without having to check constantly. Outside, with constantly changing conditions, things are a bit more hit-and-miss so maybe this could be doubled.

Be sure to check out Gerrard’s book, Dogonomics, and read his blog for tips on photographing pets and people.

BY KENT   POSTED IN FIVE QUESTIONS   DECEMBER 19, 2011 – 11:13 AM

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The most fun you can have with a camera........ f1.4

     I recently went to a wedding in Croatia. It was a family wedding and a short trip, plus we were going Ryanair so luggage space was at a premium. In a situation like this there is only room for the bare essentials. A change of clothes, some clean knickers and a camera. Carrying flash guns and spare lenses isn't an option so the good old 50mm f1.4 comes to the rescue every time. This is one of the best selling lenses of all time and apart from the odd tweak has remained largely unaltered for decades. If I could only ever own one lens this would be it. In fact I know one photographer who only ever uses a canon 50mm. If you are feeling flush there is of course the f1.2 but at five times the price I've never really been able to justify it to myself. I am only talking Canon here by the way. Leica make some unbelievable 50mm lenses including the mighty f0.95 noctilux but at £7,000 it really is a luxury.

   So back to the wedding. Everyone has a little camera these days. At the very least an i-phone. It's always tempting to take the little compact camera for convenience but even the best of them are so limited in low light that I really don't think they are worth taking. I have a Leica D-Lux, a nice compact by any standards but compared to even the cheapest SLR with a fast prime lens it performs like a toy. The sensors in these things are too small to cope and the alternative is that tiny, nuclear flash which knocks the life out of everything it falls upon. It is well worth the extra weight and size to take a proper camera.

This guy just loved to dance

   The above shot is one of many I took of this chap throughout the wedding. I think he danced with every girl and always with a huge grin. The 50mm 1.4 allowed me to shoot hand held at 1/60, in low artificial light and still get sharp detail in the eyes even though he is moving about the floor like a Dervish.

Here he is again. On his last dance by the looks of things.

   The other great fun thing about these lenses is when you set the focus to manual, find your spot and just wait for stuff to unfold. The wardrobe malfunction below only lasted a second but because the camera was pre focused and exposure was set I managed to get the action. I was focusing on the guy to the blond girls right because he kept sneaking a look down her top and I thought it would make an amusing photograph if I could catch him. I got much more than I bargained for when the girls strap broke. Funnily enough when that happened the guy was looking at the stage, listening to the speeches and remained blissfully unaware.

Poodles...Thousands of em.....Don't shoot 'til you see the whites of their eyes

    In November I did a dog show called Discover Dogs at Earls Court. When I say did a dog show I mean I exhibited some of my work at the show in an attempt to drum up interest and hopefully get some commissions. The show was interesting and was also very successful. The clientele were fairly wide ranging. As well as the expected dog obsessed breeders and general dog nutters wearing sweatshirts with a picture of their dog on the front, were those like me, dog lovers who feel no particular desire to show their affections via the gift of fancy dress. Don't get me wrong, my own dog is no stranger to a pair of reindeer antlers at Christmas, but this is once a year and strictly for the holidays. So most of the punters were pretty normal and simply liked dogs.

Hanna and Ann trying to marshal the Poodles

    One of people I met at the show was a woman called Ann who lived just outside London and had 9 poodles and a puppy bulldog. Could we do a portrait of them she asked? In a word, yes. I did at first think it may be possible to get a group shot of all nine. Looking straight into the lens and throwing shapes on command. This was not the case. In fact one of them vomited and ran out of the room as soon as the first flash fired. The above image shows Hanna, who was assisting on the shoot and the dogs owner trying to convince them all to sit together on the sofa/studio set up we'd built in the conservatory. They had one squeaky toy between them which I think made the sound of an elephant, or was it a horse. Whatever it was the dogs were hilariously indifferent to it. Anyway, try as we might we could never get more than 7 of them together at once.

Seven Poodles

In the end we opted to shoot the dogs as single head shots and make something out of it later. The final  images have been used in my book and will be in the dog section of my web site in the not too distant future.It was hard to take a bad shot of any of these dogs. They had that lovely superior look that poodles do so well. We helped this by shooting from a very low angle and trying wherever possible to get eye contact. It was a really tricky and enjoyable shoot.

The first blog from Dogtown Studio

    This is page one of what I hope will be an interesting and informative look behind the scenes at Dogtown Studio. It will act as a diary, platform for discussion, message board and an utterly self indulgent vehicle for the exhibition of all those extra things that happen on a photo shoot but are never seen.

Baxter after a trim

    It is often the case that the best work remains hidden on a desktop or deep inside a hard drive where it will languish until such time that it is revisited. In the old days it was much more likely that you would come across the work again because it would actually exist as hard copy. Somewhere in a drawer or file. In order to access a specific piece of work it would be necessary to see at least some of the original contact sheet and therefore rediscover something interesting. Nowadays, with keywording and all manner of other sophisticated ways of accessing files it is entirely possible to completely forget that images exist. This blog will give that extra, less polished and often more interesting stuff a chance to be seen.

  It seems perfectly logical to open this blog up with a picture of my border terrier Baxter. He is the reason I started photographing animals in the first place. He is handsome, photogenic and incredibly patient. The wig in the above picture was made of his own hair after we stripped him and he sat like this for ages until we got the shot. I'm sure he will appear in future blogs in this site.