The Joys of Dog Photography

Seriously, my hat is off to all the professional dog photographers, and maybe even more so to regular dog owners, who can successfully pose their dogs side by side with their hard-earned dog sports ribbons and achieve an acceptable brag photo.

Such a simple thing, you would think. I see them on Facebook all the time. Two generally well-mannered dogs … easy peasy. Such satisfying results. ❤️ Look. See?

But noooo … these three photos, far from professional quality, took quite a bit of time, effort and patience. And may I say, patience in posing for photos is something Baxter sorely lacks.

Or could it be that like me, a lot of people have dozens of blooper photos for each one that makes it to Facebook or Instagram?

For me, getting a nice picture of ONE of my dogs is challenging enough (black dogs can be notoriously difficult to photograph well, which doesn’t help), but setting two of them side by side and expecting them both to hold a pose is laughable.

Maybe I should just post a shot of the rosettes and leave the dogs out of it?

But what fun would that be? Besides, dog sports are all about the dogs – not the ribbons. The dogs love this game so much. The ribbons are a fun bonus, but it’s not like the dachshunds care about them.

So, after a trial, I have fun hanging or laying out the ribbons, whether there’s one or a handful. I ask the dogs for a pretty Sit/Stay and cross my fingers. 🤞🤞 One must keep a sense of humor when taking pictures of dachshunds.

One will sit still, the other will bolt. One will look up, the other down. Blinking eyes, backwards flipped ears and funny faces. And then one (usually Baxter) will inevitably decide he is totally over the whole thing.

I had already deleted about two dozen hilariously failed attempts at capturing a photo of Rhonda and Baxter together, with their back-to-back matching K9 Nose Work rosettes, when the idea for this blog topic struck me.

So, some of the more outrageous shots (wrestling dogs, a photo of crumpled rosettes with naught but blurry dog TAILS in the shot, etc.), you’ll have to imagine for yourself.

In the end though, the results are worth the effort. Most of the time.

Smile for the camera!!