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Dog Days Shoot Q&A

All right, so we're gonna have a little bit of q and air ready yeah, and before I forget I do want to let people know that my plan once I get home because obviously people want to see these images to and a I were watching I would want to see more of images we did yesterday because I know I was able to describe a few quickly and not do our whole process to everything like I would necessarily for a client. So my plan is once we get home run everything through our process like I would for a normal client and post those in some sort of a blogger post or some sort of format that will let creative live no live no so that way people can see the images from those chutes it won't be tomorrow I'm here for a few days, maybe in a week or two. All right. Well, uh first question as actually that one that three different people had asked and it's, what do you do when the animals are afraid of the strobes that's from happy voice guess ninety nine ass my dog's ears always get pinned back when he hears ...

the strobe and he said suggestions and rampage says how does this she adjust the issue of the strobe beep confirmation signal distracting the pet um okay, I think I have answered like those hopefully um one is I think my life can we turn the beep off the drugs I think you can and I was anything but that my strobes at home don't be so I wasn't even actually really paying attention to that so that one what kind of a non issue as far as the dogs being nervous for me whether it's strobes or just they're nervous to be there I mean I think you guys saw it starting the images yes there may be the section of images where that's a case but all you need is that one whether it was squeaker tree that the ears perk up so so the images when you're seeing of mind you know from the studio here where they're perked up it's not that they were like that the whole time so thea other option is like for me everything we did today here was with strobes but at home I definitely doing like half of my work still with window light so you don't have any issues of the lights flashing um maybe some dogs would be less nervous you know without the stroll was firing I'm not sure I guess I haven't really seen that is a big issue I didn't feel like that was an issue today I feel like I got the shots I needed to get so yeah hopefully that answers the question he does things okay question from ko thehe in the chat room from england um he has we have a we have six foot water monitors which are big lizards six foot I'm not really sure what a water monitor is but I have to look that up on the question is they tend to not be built like your typical dog or cat how do you approach figuring out how to light unusual pets that you've not worked with before suppose you just did that you know what I mean? Yeah this was really I photographed a burden years ago with the family so I feel like this was my first bird and definitely my first lizard I think I've photographed a snake at some point you know, I just photographing this way I photograph might you know other animals I thought it was more just about you know, the posing and the interaction with the owner and getting the light correct I mean they're probably some of those things that could buy I knew I was going into like a full blown shoot for some of those animals I might do a little more research and see if there was something I could do, you know well differently or better but um I actually think again in that ten minute timeframe of what we were doing I think the lighting set up we had worked for all the all the scenarios I mean, the one reason I like the lighting scenario that I had set up is it's but the large and soft boxes, it does mimic window light, so it really gives me a little bit of freedom in the area that I'm working and it's very forgiving. So the animals moving around somewhere, the owner's adjusting to be with the animals, but I'm sure they're actually some of the lizards and things there would be some pretty cool ways to shoot those, like fire at home. I probably would've shot the bird and that lizard in some of the black dogs with my ring flash potentially just kind of that detail in the skin and things it would have been interesting, but but I think with what we had, we were able to, I think, accomplished quite a bit future framed is wondering if there are any animals you will not shoot, like snakes or spiders. Poisonous lizards, huh? No, I mean, I've never had a call. I mean, I have nothing offhand, I wouldn't be really excited to photograph a spider, I mean, at one point that was brought up that way that a trance lemay come into this, but I mean, I don't know why not? I don't know there's, not an animal. You I do photograph quite few horses, typically with their owners or high school seniors, but, um I have yet I guess for someone to ask to have a certain animal photograph that I've had to say no to I guess I'm more just interested to see if I could do it like I think I would at least try it once just you know, for the experience I think we have a question an audience yeah actually first when you're doing more of pets than just regular people that'll sit still what kind of focus do you like dude try to do continuous focus because I know like especially when the puppies they're coming at you and running and you're trying to catch the shot or do you try to do like the manual pick your point focus um I actually still doing a lot of of picking my focus and re composing quickly like I just moved pretty pretty fast so that's still yeah that's pretty much arm shooting whether it's like a group or some of that actions happening I mean if I were spending quite a bit of time knowing it was going to be a lot of action and movement I may change that but um I don't know I'll tell you I mean I played around with other friends cameras I know like they will pick certain focal points and I just I guess for so many years even when I was medium format like I was doing it the other way re composing that just feels like way more natural to me and that's just um I feel like I'm pretty quick with that that it works and I was about um do you worry about trying to dress up when you're doing your clients and your chutes no, I don't in fact the way you see me right now this is actually this is this is what I wear this is what I wear to the studio I'm barefoot in the middle of winner shooting in fact the only day where those boots was the first day accepted hardly walk afterwards so yesterday were the flat boots and then today was my times and barefoot um you know what I mean I know there's different schools of thought on that for me I know some people say you get all dressed up and get fancy and by certain clothes because you're taylor into a hiring clientele I don't have that philosophy mine is actually the opposite of that would feel really like unnatural to me and it's kind of like I'm putting myself out there like as artist of like I'm just this is who I am kind of I don't have to be whatever for anybody else and this is what I'm most comfortable and to create art this is our most comfortable I'm not comfortable climbing up on couches and chairs and ladders and high heels you know so on laying on the floor and slobbering dogs you know, like but I'm in my jeans, I mean, my tank top um and I have never felt like that's been an issue with clients at all, like, sometimes I actually think it's a little bit like, oh, you know, they may come in all dressed up in whatever, and they just see I'm comfortable and I'm casual and relaxed and the one thing we didn't talk a lot about, but your clients will and even your kids and your pets well mimic that like, if I'm comfortable and I'm relaxed, you will see that in the images with, um and that interaction versus if I'm a little bit more uncomfortable and I'm not relaxed, I'm not being myself or I'm trying to put on a facade and not be who I really am people are smart, I think they pick up on that, you know, maybe if they can't even, like pinpoint it like it just changes something about experience, so I would just say, yeah, be comfortable and and yourself that calm, assertive energy right inside joke. Okay, liz young has a question. Does vicki photoshopped the stains under most white dog's eyes? And I was just wondering, you know, there's a lot of breeds do you photoshopped? It depends how bad it is definitely be the same school thought is with people that it wouldn't be something I would mess with before the clients see the images that's how they see their dogs all the time so once they would order their images if it was something we were concerned about thought the client might have an opinion we couldjust I just asked him like because we know that's a pretty quick fix like that would be very easy to fix and photo shop so I would just say no do you want us to do a little bit of retouching underneath there or we would just do it? I mean, if it's really simple and it just looks like a few specks that air off color I would just look at that as like I enhancement that we do on a prince that people order and clean it up but again not on the knot before they order just on the order of images smiley pet is wondering how you keep track of which image numbers goes with each subject and cj from houston is wondering how you keep track of the names of the pet owner and the pet once you're finished well yeah, well not what I think I was calling a couple people by the wrong name today so I don't do very good with names anyone who knows me at all I've been known teo really messed that up, but that is actually a great question because that's where the envelopes that we print out ahead of time have the client's name and the pet's name I actually missed that we should have recreated that today here's the people coming in here is their pets I had the folders and people brought the dog food but that would have helped me because actress makes me feel comfortable like what's their name in the problem today was I would have asked somebody that I'm like a mike like I'm going to be online hey, was there a name you know is it is it is it chet is it you know? So I just kind of rolled with it was like, hey, you turn this way but as faras separating them and knowing what you're editing and it's done the one thing first sake of of what we were doing today knowing that I'm I'm just really these air all creative live images I'm not necessarily is concerned about the owners and pets I just shot him continuously on the same card but that's where I was explaining I have the folders with the clients informations we've got their name and then I would actually put in a new card for each session and someone will be downloading those while I was shooting so it's not that if you thirty sessions you need thirty cards but maybe six cars or seven cars that just kind of keep recycling that way you don't mess up which client? Which pet? And, like judd said, we edit these enlightenment when we make a new catalog breach client anyway. So there, just in our system, like everybody else, it would be dog days of summer list smith on dh. Then in parentheses, we put the pet name, you know, chester, and then inside there you'd have your light room catalog. You'd have your j page. You'd have everything there that you know, that all goes to that client so it's, pretty much done at that point because they have their envelope that matches the database and success. Where so if they would call again for a session, I literally pull up their name, and I'll see, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, chester the dog. So I know for the two years later, when they come in for a session, I know their names, it's not because I remember him, because it's all documented right there.