Working with Three dogs at a Photo Session

I’ve known Sandra for several years through dog sports back when I used to do Agility and Disc with my girl Lexie. In fact, Sandra and I would work together in the kitchen for the big club agility comps and had a ball working alongside each other.

When I launched my photography business I was talking to Sandra and she told me she had just added a new furry family member to her clan and I talked her into doing a photo session with her three beautiful dogs and in return I asked her to be honest about my whole process.

It is my goal to give you an amazing experience and I wanted someone who wasn’t going to pat me on the back for no good reason. And I knew Sandra would be straight down the line (in a kind way) if I needed it.

6-month-old Border Collies are very smart and little escape artists!

Gosh Maple gave us a heart attack twice! Once during a lead swap, she managed to wrangle herself out of our grip. I carefully coaxed her back and then another time she managed to free herself from the crate and gave us a fright. THANKFULLY she didn’t really want to run off and both times we coaxed her back quite easily but when you have three dogs, one photographer and the handler it’s a bit of a challenge. Haha!

Other than those mini heart stoppers, Sandra’s dogs were exceptional. Both Maddie and Marley are so loyal to their mumma and in fact Maddie reminded me of my girl Lexie in that it was terribly hard to capture her attention. She was incredibly focused on Sandra and barely looked in my direction even with all my crazy noises.

Creating a beautiful Photo of all three dogs

Our goal for the session was to create a beautiful photo of all three dogs together. Marley, the middle child, is still learning to accept Maple (haha) and so it was decided that the best option would be to use my artistic skills in Photoshop to create a composite of them together.

To achieve this, I found a spot among the flowering weeds, and we discussed how Sandra would place each dog in this spot one at a time. Once the discussion is completed, I place myself into position and I must stay there until all the dogs have had their photos taken.

This ensures that each dog is captured at the same distance, keeping their sizing correct, the landscape around them correct and so forth. A little bit of forethought really helps to make the composite come together beautifully.

After the Session

Oh, I was so pleased with the photos we captured that afternoon. They really looked so beautiful and dreamy among the weeds. You wouldn’t know they were weeds! Haha Of course, the first image I worked on was the most important piece… Maddie, Marley and Maple composed together as though they were there together in real life. If I didn’t tell you, these were separate photos, would you believe we managed to pull this off on location? I hope my skills would have had you convinced. 😉

The Reveal

When Sandra came to her reveal session, she certainly found it difficult to choose her ultimate favourites from our session together. I always try to help guide the process and offer some advice along the way. To my surprise Sandra couldn’t help but order a few extras beyond our earlier discussions and has ordered a lovely, framed print of the three girls together which I cannot wait to see in person.

Would you like to capture some extra special photos of your dog?

Reach out and we can design the perfect session just for you.