Phodography: How to get Great Pictures of your Dog [Paperback]

Kim Levin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2008

Sit. Stay. Say cheeeeeese! At last! Here’s the book that combines heartwarming stories from pet owners with practical ideas for taking good, better, best photographs of our four-legged friends. With full discussions of black-and-white versus color portraits, indoors versus outdoors, composition, and capturing movement, PhoDOGraphy offers techniques that amateurs can use starting here and now. Great examples of dog portraiture, plus tons of ideas for fun new places to pose your furry friend (at the beach! in the park! in the car! in the snow!) make this a great gift for anyone who loves dogs. It’s doggone useful, and doggone adorable, too!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kim Levin is the author and photographer of fifteen books, including Cattitude and Why We Love Dogs. Her books have sold more than 300,000 copies in six languages. She runs her own pet photography business, Bark & Smile Portraits. Visit her at www.barkandsmile.com . She lives in Little Silver, NJ.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Amphoto Books; 1 edition (October 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081742718X
• ISBN-13: 978-0817427184
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #279,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kim Levin is a NY/NJ based photographer who specializes in pet portraiture. Kim Levin Photography combines her passion for photography and her love of animals. Kim has published 18 books including the best-selling Cattitude and Why We Love Dogs. Her newest book Dogplay. The Canine Guide to Being Happy was featured in People Magazine and is available now.

Her other pet portrait books include Frenemies, PhoDOGraphy, Pawfiles, Caternal Instincts, Catrimony, Cattitude, Hound for the Holidays, Growing Up, Why We Really Love Dogs, Why We Love Cats, Dogma, Working Dogs: Tales from Animal Planet's K-9 to 5 World, and Erin Go Bark! Kim's books have sold a half million copies to date and have been published in eight languages.

Kim Levin's dog and cat images are also licensed by Calypso Cards, Sharper Cards, Spirit Cards in Australia, Harry N. Abrams and Brown Trout Calendars. She is a passionate advocate of animal adoption and has supported The ASPCA, Petfinder.com, and other animal humane organizations for many years.

Kim's work is available for corporate, editorial, stock and private assignments. Visit her website at www.kimlevin.com or her blog at www.kimlevinphotography.wordpress.com. Kim lives in NJ with her husband, two children and adopted border collie/greyhound mix.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two thumbs way up!!!, November 3, 2008

By 

Mr. Scott Eccleston (Biddeford, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phodography: How to get Great Pictures of your Dog (Paperback)

Never ever have I gotten a new photography book and had every person in my family pick it up and thumb through it from cover to cover, but the new book "PhoDOGraphy - how to get great pictures of your dog" by Kim Levin changed that.

Why?

Every other page has a full size dog portrait on it while the opposing page not only has the chapter content, but often has 1-3 more thumbnail images. And these images aren't there as "window dressing", every single image is an example of what that chapter is covering with a full explanation of the "how's & why's" behind each of the sample images.

The first thing that came through was that Kim is a real dog lover, and of course this hit home with me as I am the proud dad of two miniature schnauzers, one of the ways this was apparent is Kim's emphasis on the safety of the dog when shooting outside of the confines of the dogs home.

While the book covers every topic you can imagine regarding photographing dogs, it's a quick read, I read it from cover to cover (each time) in just a couple hours (which means normal people could read it even faster).

Kim covers it all, from photographing dogs indoors, outdoors, dogs in motion, how to make use of different weather and seasons, photographing single dogs, multiple dogs, puppies... and more.

Ever see a picture of a dog and they're looking into the camera with its head cocked to one side? Kim walks you through how to capture that exact image.

One of my dogs is black and I can never seem to get a good picture of her, well Kim devotes and entire chapter, "The Black Dog", to this problem.

If you haven't picked up on it yet, I loved this book. It is well written, extremely informative and stuffed with outstanding images from cover to cover.

If you put a copy on your coffee table I guarantee that not only will every person who walks in your house pick it up, you will here things like "oooooh" and "aaaaah".

And you'll learn a heck of a lot about photographing dogs too.

Scott
www.WeeklyPhotoTips.com

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cute pictures, no real info, January 23, 2009

By 

Samantha (Groton, MA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Phodography: How to get Great Pictures of your Dog (Paperback)

I bought this book looking for advice on photographing my dog. Black dogs are notorious for being difficult to photograph, and this had a chapter specifically on black dogs. But there was very little useful advice.

The author comes across as sweet and kind and loving dogs, and she has some interesting photos. But the info is typically, "I used this film at this speed on this photo" (over and over and over...), and "lighting is important" and "dogs alone are cute", "dogs in groups are cute", "dogs with their owners are cute", "zoom in on dog parts is cute", "dogs inside are cute", "dogs outside are cute", "dogs on the beach are cute", and on and on.

I read it in spare moments over the course of three days, then gave it away on our towns "freecycle" list.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who doesn't love Dog Photograpohy?, April 3, 2009

By 

T. Carter "Tricialynn" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Phodography: How to get Great Pictures of your Dog (Paperback)

A great book with great ideas and great tips but a little outdated for the digital age. And the photos were clearly cropped and not the true final product of what the photographer I'm sure presented to a client. The crops were in areas that I'm sure a client would not want their dog's leg or arm or ear or head cut off at. But, her art is wonderful, her spirit and heart is pure. And for that, the book is a keeper, just for that. The ideas of how she gets a pet to be drawn into the camera are great and I am going to try them.