Colorado Kennel Club 2020 Annual Dog Show
Took a dang week but I finally got the prints ordered – I got all the way through the Shutterfly ordering system, couldn’t find my credit card, and then the order sat there for a week until just now. (This is why “you forgot your cart” lifecycle e-mails work.)
If you like photographic newsletters, you’re going to want to sign up for Craig Mod’s latest pop-up newsletter, which is about walking around Tokyo.
Have I mentioned that I love dogs?
(This, by the way, is what Edgar would look like if we grew his fluff out to its natural length.)
These were taken at a dog show in Denver – I think the Colorado Kennel club – which I visited the weekend I went to pick up Edgar from his previous owner.
I take photographs of dogs in a lot of contexts but there’s something about dog shows in particular that just makes for wonderful images. The dogs come in sets. They’re all at maximum poof, which is something you don’t otherwise get to see much, since it’s so labor intensive to care for show coats.
The energy is good, too. It’s work, it’s business, so it’s got some trade show energy, but people are there because they love dogs.
I’d really like to go to another one. I like these images but today I think I could do a lot better. My photographic capabilities, confidence, and gear have improved substantially since I took these shots.
I know dogs are kind of cliche as a subject in the age of social media but I really like them. They combine portrait and action skills, I don’t feel any anxiety about directing them, and people have a really strong positive reaction to them. I mentioned Daniel Hurn’s On Being a Photographer a few months ago. One of the main ideas in that book is that photographing well is mostly a function of being obsessed with things. The obsession drives research, the research creates an understanding of the subject, and understanding of the subject creates interesting pictures.
I read that and thought, “Oh. So I should photograph dogs.”
Dogs are, I think, an especially good example of the “photograph what you know” principle. Because one of the things an obsession with dogs creates is an understanding of dog behavior, and an interest in dog training. Being able to give dogs better instructions, and getting to know particular dogs well, makes it easier and more interesting to take pictures of them.
We haven’t done it in a few months but taking photographs of Edgar is a game for him. He likes listening to me, and he’s great at wait & recall. So being told to stand in particular places and then run like crazy while I pay very careful attention to him is approximately his idea of heaven.
If you said to me, “This engineering thing is over, you have to become a working photographer tomorrow” I would immediately put up a shingle as a dog portrait photographer.
