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Shoot: Gill and dog “Pumpkin”

Lesson 13 from: Pet Photography

Arica Dorff

Shoot: Gill and dog “Pumpkin”

Lesson 13 from: Pet Photography

Arica Dorff

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Lesson Info

13. Shoot: Gill and dog “Pumpkin”

Lesson Info

Shoot: Gill and dog “Pumpkin”

So we're gonna be photographing a dog named Pumpkin and her owners this chill e. I love it. And I love what you're wearing. It's like if everyone can look, this is our what's aware section. So it's like the perfect color. So I'm actually gonna use you guys just upon this set here. So if you want to call pumpkin up and is it pumpkin or punished? Pumpkin? Come on, sweetie. All the way up. So we're going to be doing a shoot with them, and then the last year we're gonna be doing today is with a family, so we're actually gonna be photographing a lot of that on the floor. So to answer some of your questions earlier with the animals not getting up on furniture, we're actually gonna pose everybody on the floor. So kind of show you that. So hot, baby. So what I want to do because I got some feedback What I want to do on this when I'm tethering, I'm kind of just flipping to the image I like and go. Okay, here. Here is the one that I like, So I want to kind of flip through a little bit and go a l...

ittle bit slower and show you guys. Here's why. I don't like this one and kind of give you a reason why. And, um, when we're shooting, So yeah, here. You comfortable taken her collar off? She's girl. Just girl. Hey. Okay. Are you okay with what's on your wrist? Is it a rubber band? Oh, no. It's a hair tie in to perfect, but just little details like that. Just pay attention to those. I'm gonna do a test shot. Make sure that our tethering is working. Yeah, and I like this couch with holiday problem, sir. Hi, sweetheart. Took a color up there. Just call her up. And if we need to get her caller, we can always walker up there again. But there's a lot of smells and this is actually she's smelling on the shelves here. That's what I was saying earlier. If you want to elevate everything, so there's not stuff right down there below high. Get up there, sweetheart. It's not perfect. There you go. OK, it's OK. Just grab a caller. If you want to slip it on her will get her all the way up, But we're gonna do some shots of them together. We'll do, punkin end of it individually. But there's a lot happening here again. This isn't a boring playroom. This is like, Oh, my gosh. Or somebody smells in their blankets and everything happening. So actually, call her off. It was just to get her up there, that was all. So let's so he Let's shoot it. Your Google if I get her Attention. Hands out. Hands out, sweetie vehicle helo. Okay, Yeah, that's what we'll do. Punkin upside down. Okay, stay there. Keep your hands on her, and you're gonna scoot in row. Closest. And then what I like to do if we shoot just this shot, it's Joe. Correct. There's a lot of jail and a little bit of punkin. So let's pull pumpkins legs up on top of yours, elbows and everything. And that's gonna But hold on, do it May. Oh! Oh, yeah. Okay. But this way, their heads, they're a lot closer. I don't like her back legs, but I'm gonna shoot it cause I'm OK with it. All right, Look right here. Gear of her thick. Just like that. Good smile. All right, So what? I'm hello. I'm that one was way over exposed. So let me show you. Um, like I said, I would. So do you see her legs? How? She's kind of leaning away from her owner her back legs. So keep your hands on her, tucking her legs a little bit. Hello. How are you? Okay. Took me perfect, but that on her legs is gonna look a lot more relaxed. You see it? Yeah. Perfect. All right. Give me a big smile. Leaned down road close. Uh huh. Look right here, huh? Keep looking more. And she's getting bored with that noise. So it's OK. Just relax your hand. So they're not moving too much. Perfect things flying across. There it is. Hold on. Okay. I'm gonna fix her legs again. I don't like how you can't see her tail. So she got bored with my mouth noises, but the treats were, like, a little bit too much. Stay there. We're gonna fix your legs again. Yes, we are gonna pull on your booty, So I want her to out. It's okay. There you go. Perfect. But that look, I like a lot better, so All right, look right here. Your job is just to look at me and smile. Pretty big smiles. Hang in there. Okay? All right. I love that. Okay. We're gonna have you look at her for once. You're not looking at me. This is just looking at her. Make sure you're smiling. A little trick. It's if you blow on her. Yes. Thanks. Miles a perfect That was it. We got it. So I'll show you guys, and we're tethering This is the shot for sure. And that's, like, priceless jewels. Like, Great smile. Yeah. She's going to be close to you. She just fine. Just keep her up there, so love the shot with them. I'm gonna show you lips play this one I don't like, so she just kind of looks unsure, Right? Makes sense, but just looks better when her head went all the way up. So you were still cute. Let's just have you sit. Ever sit down there. You can actually stay right where you are. That can step. Why can't I see? Uh, there we go. Watch your Hansen. Uh huh. Uh huh. Okay. Stay there. Okay. We're going to try treats again because she doesn't care about those. I'm gonna shoot this so you can see it. Don't like it at all. Just see how she's, like hunch so far over like that. So perfect. Here we go. I'm not gonna shake it really loud. That's the shot. So just that tiny little noise got her attention. Sorry, I'm crooked there, but that's, like, gorgeous, her colors gorgeous. With that, everything's gorgeous about that image. She's happy. Her pause there, hanging over the edge. A A Okay, you have character. So it's funny when you meet dogs like this. She actually doesn't like to be, like, told what to do. Is that kind of her personality? So when there's a lot of dogs like my dogs, I manhandle him. This is what we're doing. She's like, don't like, don't pull me over here. I don't want to do that. So, hello. Okay, um, let's get you guys. Yeah, actually, stand up. I'm gonna skip this over. Okay, What I'm gonna do, cause I want your heads close together and I want to see her whole body, so I know I'm using this pose a lot, but again, this is just getting owners heads closer to the dog. So you call her up? If you need this if you need it. But what we want Joe's her but here and head here. Okay. There you go. Perfect. And we actually want her body, like, completely the other way. But she's on her head that way. I'm no head this way, but we want her in a C shape like this are so goofy. All right, if you want to sit there, she's almost there. It's a perfect Keep your hands on her. So I'm not going to shoot this like this. If you can see, keep your hands. Er, it looks horrible without a tail. Okay, I'm just gonna pull her tail up. Not I don't mean that. You look horrible. Good. Right. There we go. OK, and we're going to do one big scoop. Torture bombs are straight against it. I'm pulling your leg out. Yeah, so I could be a little bit more off with her because she's cool with it. It's not bothering the owner. It's all good. Okay, whatever. All right. Scoot your chair back just a little bit. Yeah, I'm lean in and I'll fix your legs. In a sense, it's okay. And she's doing this is her personality She's, like, Stop telling me what to do. It's solely good. You're gonna stay close to mama, though. Look at you. You right there. Right. And I want her really close because I want her to get it. Heverlee. Okay, The cleanest teeth ever. Go ahead. Okay. All right. It's not quite as close as I want, but that works. Yep. Perfect. Keep your hands on her. All right, sweetie. Okay. All right. You're looking at me for the shot. Perfect. Data style film like mad on. There it is. Terrific. Awesome. Okay, I'm good with that. That's the shot I wanted. So what I'm gonna do, I'm actually gonna take one more. If you guys want to look at this shot. Joe's a great smile. See her hand? It's, like, a little bit distracting. It's holding her, but it's like a lot of hand. Yeah. No, no, you're fine. So you're gonna hold over. You're gonna scoot your hand for their back. Yeah, right there. Okay. Ready? Like right here, huh? Yep. Lena, row closely. Lean, lean, lean, lean, and she's hunched over. If you guys can see that, she's fine. I'll get her. But do you see how pumpkins hunched over. Yeah, implementer. Stay there. See how her head went up? Yeah, there it is. Six miles on final still in there it is Perfect. You got it. Go. So yeah, I'm good with that. So just show you guys that one again. So here's tethering head up. And I like this because it shows her whole body It's a completely different shot in the one earlier. And it's going to sell these to pose is because you can see her whole body in her tail and we'll go back to this one where she was hunched, so we don't like that, but their head hunting for it makes sense because she's looking like, like, treat street treats Ball, ball, ball So cool. You are so easy. And actually, since she's staying there, the other shot I got was a real vertical of her. So keep your hands on her. But if you can scoot away, but keep your hands on her. Take your hands off. So, you guys just a hotel owners, like, over and over and over because you don't correct him like No, put your hands back. So I'm just gonna get a shot. So we have a full length. I stayed there. Yeah, off. No, stay there. I don't love her legs, but right and legs all the way out. Sweetie, your legs. Although your legs although, Yeah, There you go. And then if I get her attention, you're actually take your hands out. So I think I lost my Balto is a boat earlier. Hi. I'm gonna fix your legs again. It's OK. Okay. Right there. As soon as I get her attention. Hands out. But don't take your hands out till I get our attention. Perfect. That already Going? Going. Okay, that's it. I'm good with that. You're OK? It's fine. Oh, and I like the one that I got earlier, so I don't have to push her. And she actually looks really good on that if we want her. So that's a different expression. Cool. You did it. Did it? Yep, for easy. And this is a great dog to, and I do this session. My first thought is we have to do an outdoor session with her so we, like, totally got, like, great shots of them here. But like you can tell, she has that energy like, let's play Let's play ball. Let's jump. Yeah, So OK. Oh, you got my ball back. Seriously, I've had this ball for seven years, and it's the same ball that I started my business with. And my little mushroom head guy A medal banana. So I'm just, like, partial to like this one makes this kind of squeaky noise. And this one makes this kind of squeaky noise. So do we have questions before we do the family portrait? Oh, yes. We dio Let's ask a few of these. Was that helpful to kind of show you guys? Sorry to cut you off. Like why? Like, look at this one. Hunching forward like don't like that? Yeah, doesn't. Mike, Mike is right there now in this picture. I love it, but her foot is kind of just off. Would you on the other foot or would you just not worry about it, would I What with the other side? Back foot is just cut off a little bit. Yeah. Would you clone stamp ability would not clone stand out. It's actually I just So Yeah, I'm definitely not recreating feet, Okay? It was just across the U. S. So you have it there anyway. If for some reason I did shoot it where it was cut off, I would probably turn that into a vertical image and just do the head in the one Paul, because I'm not recreating photo shop feet. Question came up on our Facebook page from Lee Crystal. I have a question about color casts when using different colored furniture and blankets. I love the red furniture but had problems with getting color cast in the past. Have you noticed that? You know, I really haven't too much. Um, I didn't Yeah, I mean, sometimes I do see when owners air not in the portrait's, but they're wearing like a red or pink for something. Sometimes that's kind of reflecting on pets for, especially if there like white, they kind of had that little bit of a pink. So, like if you wanna tell owners to wear more of a neutral color sidelights not bouncing off of them. But I haven't really had a problem with that in Portrait's because with the owners where it's bouncing, there's like a funky red that's not supposed to be in the portrait when the blankets red. If there's kind of a red tin drum. Like when there's a red blanket. So Yeah. So I Yeah, I'm not doing I'm a super like my workflow is I'm shooting. I'm retouching for tear stains. I'm softening skin on, people cropping, sending to print. I don't use light room. I've never opened light room. I don't know how to use it. Um, I just do everything in photo shop, but my work clothes Very simple. My white balance when I shoot and I might brighten a little bit on levels, photo shopping, that's it. Issue auto white. No, no, I, um custom, white balance when I'm shooting. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And we had a question from Melissa Lapointe. She shoots a lot of dog from a shelter. And her experience. The camera looks like a gun. That's been a big issue in her. Um, so she's had some camera shy shelter dogs again. I do a lot of shelter dogs. I don't go to the shelter a lot. I don't know. Maybe that's the issue, but my camera looks nothing like a client because a lot of people are like when I take out my IPhone or take out my point and shoot and like, this camera looks nothing like that. So the dogs that I photograph, I haven't really see them associate that with it. I have had maybe a handful of dogs need one a year who is. Actually, they're totally fine. And as soon as you bring it up to their face, they're like, Oh, gosh, in that situation, I probably shoot on a tripod and get everything How I want and not actually have to stick my face behind. I'm just talking to them making noises. The pets might not be looking exactly at the camera, but I'm okay in that type of situation. Or if you want to shoot where you're doing remote, you know, and firing the camera sits on a tripod. But of course, if they lay down, you need to move it. If they sit up. Whatever. Yeah, that maybe just don't have it in front of your face. Okay. Yeah, thanks. So seize reflecting Starlight from why? I guess this is wanting a little bit more information, because the question is, what do you do with animals that grow wise here, attempts to get them to look at you and refuse to look at you or respond to any noises you make after a certain amount of time. Does that happen to you? You have such good noises. It's just finding something. I think you can get any animal to react to something. It's just finding something So something's not working. Move on and find something else. But there's not a single dog that we photographed today, that we couldn't get their attention, and they might be referring to cats to cause there's definitely cats, that they're just tough and they're just nervous. And in that case, I didn't really do with any of these guys. But I would have the owners turn them sideways, hold their bottom and all that you see is their head. Zoom in, do a super close up and that were there holding them so they can't run away and you're working a little bit more in trying to get their eyes at the camera. But I really think even if it's one shot, you can get one good shot of every single animal doing something, and I haven't shown a lot of my crazy noises, but you can knock on a wall and get one shot or you can throw a handkerchief in the air because it falls slower than a ball does cause I threw a ball in the air all the time, so you in their handkerchief. But that way it's kind of falling a little bit slower. You can have someone walk behind you. You can crinkle, even shake a treat jar. I mean, there's so many I could probably name, like 18 different things that you could do and something's going to get that animals attention. I mean, I even had people stand behind and take toys and just chuck him in the corner. And even just for that split second, the dogs, just like nervous, never serves. But like, Oh, gosh, what was that? That was your shot.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Pet Photography Slides.pdf
AricaDorffPhoneCallScript.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I've watched A LOT of CreativeLIVE courses and Arica is by far the most effective and talented instructor I've seen. She's also got an extraordinary ability to photograph animals and their humans while remaining calm and in control. Even if you're not a pet photographer, this is a fabulous resource. Putting aside how amazing it is to watch her photograph in what seems like impossible situations and get the shot time after time, she also gives a lot of great information that applies to any professional photographer, whether they photograph pets or not. She's truly an amazing talent and I hope she does many more workshops -- I'm not a pet photographer but I'll watch all of them.

CB
 

Arica's presentation was extraordinary. Such an incredible amount of valuable, practical information on everything from the basics of how to run a business profitably to how to attract and maintain value-oriented clientele to actually working with and photographing a variety of pets and their people. Arica demonstrated time and again during the live shoots that she was in mastery of both her techniques and her subjects, and in a way that felt simultaneously relaxed/casual and businesslike. That last session with the horse, duck, chicken, rabbits, dogs and people was a challenging balancing act and she pulled it off flawlessly. Finally, I appreciate all the detail she provided, such as names of vendors and how and why she uses each one. Absolutely no filler, all substance. I am in the process of taking my own pet photography from sideline business/ volunteer work to profit-making status and the timing of this program could not have been better for me. I'm a huge fan and look forward to more from her although it’s hard to imagine that there is anything left for her to cover about this topic because in this course, she did it all. A natural talent: smart, great on-screen presence, honest and a true teacher. Thank you, Arica!

a Creativelive Student
 

Hi I am an aspiring pet photographer. I own 6 dogs and 4 cats that have been rescued in some way. I have learned a lot just by practicing with them. Arica's course today and yesterday showed me what I was doing wrong and everything that I was doing right. I impressed myself that I actually was doing very well. lol. I do have a web site http://squeakynes.wix.com/lisas-creations ,and if you can review it and give me some positive critism, it would just be terrific. There is a tab titled pets etc. My email address is under contact me. Thank you in advance. I tried to watch other courses but none of them would keep my attention. I had no problem with Arica AT ALL. I definitely will attend all and any other courses she offers. Her courses made me realize this dream of mine is just what I am suppose to do in life. I have a lot of the same qualities as Arica and my passion for animals. But...............I WILL NOT photograph snakes, no way. lol Arica, you TOTALLY ROCK. I look forward to the next one. xoxo

Student Work

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