Memorable Dog Photos -- To Your Specs, Not Your Pup's

With these tips from expert photographer Jenni Bidner, taking dog photos is a snap -- even if your dog's normally a bundle of energy



We all love our furry best friends -- but given canine nature, it can be hard to take good dog photos. Recently, we sat down for an interview with noted photographer Jenni Bidner, who makes her living photographing dogs. Here are a few of the tips she shared for keeping them still.

Nose to the lens

One of the most difficult things to deal with when trying to capture canine portraits is doggie curiosity. The first thing the average dog does when you whip out your camera is come up and stick her nose in the lens. This is especially true when your own dog is the subject; she loves you, so it's natural for her to come to see you.

Even those who take dog photos for a living have to deal with this. "I have plenty of nose prints on my filters to prove that I have that problem too," Jenni laughs. "I even have little teeth-marks from a very curious wolf puppy on my lens hood.

"The first answer is long-term, and that's to put some obedience in your dog... but even a highly trained search dog can still be a little devil that way. The problem is, any time you pull out your camera or get down low, you're just shining the spotlight on your dog. He thinks it's an invitation to come over for some love, come over for play."

Your options

Fortunately, some dogs have a distance threshold. "If I get a certain distance away from my German Shorthaired Pointer," Jenni says, "he decides he's no longer in my realm of responsibility and ignores me. That helps." You can also remain standing when taking dog photos, rather than getting down low as you normally would.

"Or," she notes, "you can have an assistant who's of out of camera but right next to the dog, controlling them verbally or with a loose leash. Exercise your dog, too. You hear that all the time in dog training. If you just try and bring your dog out, throw them on the X and try and take a portrait, you're probably not going to have success.

"You'll probably have more success after you go out and play some ball and have some fun, and the dog is content with play. He's got enough of it. Then you're going to have a better chance of getting a good shot without the nose print." In other words, if you want to take decent dog photos, you'll need to get a good workout first!

Make 'em comfortable

There are ways to get good canine portraits without wearing your dogs out, or tricking them into staying in one spot. "I like to shoot somewhere they're comfortable, like peeking out of a car window," Jenni says. "Putting them on a rock or a picnic table, something that they're less likely to jump off, is another good method."

This kind of thinking lets you get creative with your dog photos. For example: "One of my students had six or eight dogs she wanted a group shot of, so she threw them in the back of the pick-up truck," Jenni recalls. "They all had their heads over the edge looking at her, but they didn't jump out.

"Here she had them contained, she gets a beautiful portrait that's very fun and entertaining, and they can't run to her!"

Jenni Bidner is one of America's top canine photographers. To learn more about how she handles this challenging field, and to review her tips for taking better dog photos, take a look at this in-depth interview.

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