Does it look like all the images come easy? They don’t But that’s ok, it happens to any of us. What certainly helps me? Preparation and training. And that was exactly what this photo needed.

I had a picture in my head of what I wanted this photo to look, the location and the accessories. The accessories were easy to choose, so I knew what to take with me and I was hoping for some sun because I love intense colors. With the super low sunlight and short days (the photo was made in December so days with about 4h of light), it is not easy to find a location that gets enough light and that looks like how you want it. Some of my favorite locations, which are not too far from home, I regularly visit to have an idea of the circumstances in different seasons. The brook that I described a while ago was a wild river (well, at least too wild to let a dog play/pose) at the beginning of winter. The current that I photographed last winter was all dried up in summer. Some places are easily accessible and nicely open in the winter but completely overgrown in summer.

With Oona, I can’t let her hold something and back up a few meters yet, but Mogwai is not the easiest either. Getting a toy is easy, but holding something unknown? Eeeek! The phone that I wanted to use as a picture is an old and heavy thing. Because -12 isn’t the perfect setting to start training and negotiating, I practiced the holding indoors first (using a clicker and a lot of cookies) to refresh Mo’s memory. Then we went out and to the location and made a series of photos of Mogwai holding the phone. Some exactly as I had imagined them and some delicious bloopers (Mo didn’t expect the resistance of the cable ?)

Although I almost always have an idea of the atmosphere I want to achieve or how I want to work with the location, I always make time to work out a few variations on the spot. Different perspective, a small adaptation to the accessories or environment (for example, with and without a tie, in the woods and on a path, …) When I look through the viewfinder and see “Yes! That’s it! “, I always make a few photos in a row because with dogs you never know, they can just blink or make a silly face or a small movement can create different light. So a small series and variations, because if you go home with 100 same photos, it also gets boring