I’ve recently been told that I’m listed as one of the top UK dog photography blogs with the Feedspot service.
As a professional photographer, an essential element of the portrait experience I offer my clients is one where both they and the dogs enjoy their time with me. After all, dogs are unique and their individual characteristics are important to capture.
Years of experience, working with 100s of customers, have helped me create an overall experience that includes the pre-shoot planning, photo-shoot itself, viewing/ordering session and ultimately the beautiful finished artwork for their walls. The images I create that the clients will enjoy for so many years to come are an incredibly important part of that session.
When a client decides on booking a specialist dog photographer, what they want to know is will their dog enjoy the experience; plus can the photographer capture the images they see in the photographer’s portfolio with their dog.
Previous client testimonials will certainly help build trust in the photographer’s ability to create beautiful photographs. As will qualifications confirming that they have met the requirements to call themselves a professional dog photographer.
One additional element that I can include, which helps owners select a photographer, is that of UK and international competitions, such as the Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year. I love the challenge of pitching images up against my colleagues from around the world and seeing what the judges might think. To be presented with the trophy for your winning image in such a competition helps reward the effort put into creating your art and client imagery.
Since going full time with my professional pet photography business in 2012, I have been fortunate to be the overall winner in several competitions. I have also been in the finalists and special mention in other prestigious competitions in the world.
My first category winner was in the Dog Photography listing in the Xperience Photographer of the Year competition. This fun combination of a horse and dog session certainly brought a smile to the judges faces when they saw this.
In the same year, I received a Silver Award from the WPPI in the USA for this location session image of a young German Short-haired Pointer.
The Societies (SWPP), which covers different photographic genres, runs an image of the month competition. Of the selected pictures in that month’s contest, a small number will be granted gold awards. Those then pass into the Photographer of the Year Award for possible selection as a finalist. I was fortunate to win several Gold awards during my time with this association. These translated to shortlisted entries in the annual awards too.
Another successful image, from one of my client photo sessions, is this one of an unlikely pairing between a Chihuahua and a St. Bernard. Winner of Me and My Dog in the Xperience Awards. An opportunity to show people, puppies and dogs as one. Situations like this one are why I enjoy photographing dogs so much. Creating fantastic pictures that clients love and at the same time, catch the judges eye too.
I want to share the images that have found success in the Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year contest. With awards from both the Oldies and Portrait category, over two years. I even had the opportunity to spend the day at the Kennel Club’s headquarters in Mayfair, London for their awards ceremony. As the world’s biggest dog photography contest, I was up against thousands of images from around the globe. So to have finalist images twice is a real honour.
Whether it’s assistance, rescue or a pedigree, capturing the dog’s personality and creating beautiful images that will mean fabulous memories for my clients is all I can ask for as a specialist dog photographer.
The amazing thing about the online world available to us, it means we are free to enter competitions literally anywhere. The International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards is organised by two photographers in Australia and judged by a small team of well-known photographers.
Whilst I haven’t been fortunate to place in the main awards, I was pleased to have this image of a working Springer Spaniel be shortlisted for the action category of the awards.
I look forward to working on my award-winning images with my dog photography customers this year and in the future.
Please book a session and have me help you create the most amazing artwork for your home.
