Research

Andy Sheng

Andy sheng is a studio based photographer who focuses on animal photography. I love Andy’s quote: “A successful dog photo captures the natural beauty and personality of the dog”. Andy offered some great advise on shooting puppies – because they are less active and likely to sleep through a photoshoot it allows you to use low iso with no flash and a slow shutter speed although he does recommend that you use a tripod to avoid camera shake. As well as technical advise Andy also suggested ways that help the dogs throughout the shoot for example saying a command such as ‘sit’ is a great mental exercise to get the dog thinking. It is not just a perfect portrait image or a head shot that Andy focusses on he says every dog has something unique about them maybe a whirl in their coat or a marking that stands out, he recommends to take close ups as this is a more abstract way of photographing them.

William Wegman

William is an art photographer who was born in 1943 in Massachussets and now currently lives in New York. He is well known for his artistic paintings which, are shown in galleries and exhibited around the world, in countries such as, New York, Paris and London. William is best known for his series of photos that are of his own dogs dressed up in humans clothes known as ‘Stationery Figures’. He composed this of eleven glass mosaic panels of his own portraits. The dogs are dressed in human like clothes and positioned huddled together as if waiting for a train. William explains that he dressed them in bold bright colours and nothing to fashionable and wanted the colours to show off their skin textures, facial expressions and patterns.

Kaylee Greer

Kaylee Greer is a pet photographer based in Boston and is known for her great saturated pictures and bright colourful backgrounds. Her work is published in many major famous industry editorial titles. Kaylee does things a lot different to Andy Sheng she believes in no backdrops no artificial lights and is the complete opposite hence why I wanted to explore her work further. Kaylee prefers to focus on natural lighting and natural settings and will take her clients on an adventure to find the perfect location rather than a studio setting. Kaylee also worked on an article based around whether flash light was safe to use for dogs, please see link in my references. Kaylee commonly uses flash light in her photoshoots as it fills in harsher shadows and can bring out details you might not otherwise be able to capture (puptrait 2019).

Neil Leifer

Neil Leifer began photography in the 1960’s and is best known for his sports photography especially capturing boxing matches. He has written 16 books, 9 of which have been based around sports photography. Neil has photographed at 16 Olympic games and four fifa world cups. He is now a full time film maker, producer and director. His photos inspired me and captured my interest because of the expressions and emotions that he portrays through them. Although a different scenario, dogs can also express a lot of their emotions through their posture and actions and this is something I want to try and capture in assignment number two – collecting.

Greer, K (N.D) http://dogbreathphoto.com/vk0rfwbnru0g9elj33h60vzn98zgvh (Date accessed: 28/06/2019)

Leifer, N (ND) Neil Leifer Fine Art Photography http://neilleifer.com/portfolio/ (Date Accessed: 04.07.2019)

Puptrait (2019) Does Flash Hurt Dogs Eyes? https://puptrait.com/dog-photographer/does-flash-hurt-dogs-eyes/ (Date accessed: 28/6/2019)

Sheng, A (2011) How to shoot creative canine photographs: composition and dog behavior. https://www.dpreview.com/articles/7011163510/how-to-shoot-creative-canine-photographs-composition-and-dog-behavior (Date accessed: 28.6.2019)

Wegman, W (2018) Exhibitions https://williamwegman.com/exhibitions. (Date accessed: 28.06.2019)