- This is my Milton (or Moo as I like to call him).
This is really a bit of a feel-good-Friday post and not linked to any recent events, but I was going through my photos and noticed how many dog portraits I have taken recently. So I wanted to share some of my reflections, and in any case, who doesn’t like looking at photos of dogs right?
My favourite aspect of photographing dogs is that most of the time they don’t pose (although we all know dogs that do). There is something very off-putting about the self-awareness most people have when you turn the camera on them, and you can see from their expressions that they were thinking about how their nose/teeth/hair is looking while you were taking the photo. With dogs this is rarely a problem, and because of this, their entire personality shines through in their eyes. This is also why, in a way, I prefer photographing older dogs to puppies – puppies are super cute but they don’t quite have that same character in their eyes yet.
There is however the issue of them moving around a lot. Or rather, being completely still and adorable until the moment you get the perfect settings on your camera, you focus in on the eyes and then….they’ve either run away or they have their nose right in the lens. I still haven’t quite figured out how a semi-fool-proof way to get the eyes in focus when the dog is not lying down, so I adopt the general attitude of taking a thousand photos and one or to will always turn out good.
(For some reason I can’t get the caption to work for the first photo – it is of Bobby who is our old, senile and blind sausage dog.)
lightness of being 
I LOVE the photos of the sausage dogs…you are providing inspiration for me to start taking photos again!
Thank you so much, so glad you like them and you should defimnitely start taking photos again. I find that I always take my camera with me wherever I go. In this way i can take photos of my friends dogs, the food we’re cooking etc etc. The only truely terrible photo is the one not taken – the rest can all be improved upon and made good.
So cute!!!! I love these photos! And you are so right, their personalities do shine through.. 🙂
Aww! Love ALL Dog pictures! Especially the dachshunds!!
Thanks so much Sarah, so glad you liked them. I thought people might really enjoy some cuties on a Friday.
I love the blue stripes behind the second one – very cool background! Each dog has so much soul, and coming from a Yorkie owner, wonderful job capturing it!
Hello!
Started randomly following your blog and I love the dogs! I’ve also got a little miniature daxi and she’s such a beauty! Nothing better than coming home to a wagging, fluffly tail and sparkling little eyes!
Awesome, I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Unfortunately I don’t live with my dog. When I moved out of home and moved to varsity then Johannesburg he stayed with my folks. And I can’t have a dog here because I’m never home. You are very lucky.
love the photo of Rocky, you should print and frame it….xx
I plan to, to give to his owner.
Such loves! You did a great job of capturing there sweet personalities.
Ack! Make that «their» sweet personalities!
Adorable 🙂 Dogs are my favorite subjects to photograph as well 🙂
I love photographing my dogs/cat! I could probably get carried away by taking one every day, but don’t want to appear the crazy dog lady!
Nah, nothing wrong with it I think. I sometimes get the impression my friends think I’m mad always running about with my camera