Stuart Bailey
- Nov 17, 2020
- 2 min read

Shooting Dogs!?

Updated: Nov 18, 2020

A couple of weeks back I got asked by some of my best friends if I'd take some portraits of them and their new cockapoo puppy called Simba.

They wanted to save some of the memories of him while he was still a puppy as he's already growing at a rapid rate!

Although dog photography isn't something I usually do, I thought it would be a great way to challenge myself and do something a little different for a change.

So on an early and misty Sunday morning we set out to a local park in Bracknell to take Simba for a walk and grab some portraits.

Photographing dogs, especially puppies isn't the easiest of things as they're always on the move and want to explore and sniff everything rather than sit patiently for a photo.

So to get the dog to look at me I starting making noises I never knew I could make to get his attention. I was making tropical bird noises and woofing to make Simba look at the camera.

Despite me looking and sounding like a total looney, the noises worked, and we managed to get some shots of him looking at the camera, as well as some intentional shots of him looking way from the camera too, a bit like a model.

I really want to do more personal work that maybe isn't in line with my usual commercial photography work.

Also, shooting locally in Bracknell rather than driving into central London was a nice little perk too.

Take a look at the photos I took below. I would love to hear your comments, and let me know if you have any stories, good or bad, with photographing dogs, or any other animal for that matter!

I'm pretty happy with the most of the results. I've definitely learnt some things, even from this one shoot, so that was worth it in itself.

One thing I learn on every shoot, is that there's always more to learn!

Never stay comfortable with where you are in your craft. If you want to be great at something then you have to keep learning.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the photos below.

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