About the Author
Authors KERRIN WINTER and DALE CHURCHILL have worked together as a professional dog photography team since 1991. The advertising industry has repeatedly recognized their work by honoring them with numerous TOPS. Addy's and Diamond awards. Their photographs have appeared in many national magazines, including Dog World. Dog Fancy and AKC Gazette. Professional dog breeders and dog fanciers seek out the Winter-Churchill team when they want to capture the special essence of their dog.
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Chapter One
How Easy is It?
Hundreds of books have been written on photography, yet only a handful of these have addressed the dog lover specifically. A photographer can have the very best in photography equipment and still get a bad shot of a dog. Knowing your subject well, good planning and anticipating problems are really the most important parts of getting great pictures of a dog.
Unlike human models, architecture, landscape and commercial products, which are so often discussed photography manuals, dogs are generally not considered a sufficiently difficult topic to warrant a photography book. However, we think dogs are much more than common creatures of domesticity. To us, and perhaps to you, dogs are living, breathing art with their own idiosyncrasies and peculiarities.
No true dog connoisseur would think of photographing a German Shepherd Dog in the same way the he or she would photograph a Labrador Retriever. A student of movement might like to know how to capture a dog in full extension. A lover of black dogs will benefit by knowing how to make a dark coat sparkle while maintaining a lovely facial expression. The concerns of the dog photographer are rather specific, and we feel that they are worth examining. We know dogs very well and invite you to share in the things that we have learned from our years of trial, error and success in photographing them.
In this book, we'll take you step-by-step through the handling process of your dog. We'll discuss movement, bone structures, colors, textures and faces of the many different types of dogs so that you can understand how best to capture them in your own photographs.
To make your job easier, we have provided information on film types, lenses and the equipment available that will help you in your own shoots. And we'll walk you through a shoot so you can begin to imagine being in our shoes, taking your own shots. If you follow the guidelines we have set forth, we're confident that you will be able to create images that are worthy of a prominent place in your home.
