Bark Gallery

Casper and his dog mom were given a Bark Gallery gift certificate. This was a fun morning session at a local park. Casper competes in various dog sports and is very obedient. The idea behind this session was of photos of Casper playing and enjoying his day at the park. I took a few traditional portraits of him sitting, and relaxing. Then we turned the switch and pulled out the tennis ball. Casper immediately was ready to play fetch. You could tell that he loves playing ball, and is very well mannered. One thing in Las Vegas that has fascinated me with dogs is that when the weather is hot, they will often go find shade and lay down. Casper would fetch the ball and then go lay in shade, chewing on the ball. 

I love the way that his ears flopped as he chased the ball! This session was a lot of fun as I love action photos of dogs. You get to see some interesting faces as they bounce up and down with focus. Casper had a lot of fun playing and had a blast on his Bark Gallery Session. This was a wall art session, so the end result was large canvas photographs. Casper was a blast to photograph.

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Woofs,

People often come up during my mini sessions and doubt how their dog will do for a quick photo. I hear things like my dog won’t sit like that. My dog isn’t well trained and won’t listen. No one ever gets good photos of them. I always smile and say if you don’t mind give me 5 minutes and give me a chance. The dog somehow listens to me and I get a photograph.

I typically offer fun sessions around holidays where I photograph several hundred dogs in a day. This is when people typically have the most doubts about getting a photograph of their dog. They haven’t seen my photography and most likely have gone to a big box store and the results are entirely different from someone who is new to pet photography or isn’t their profession.

Dogs for me are all emotionally and mentally different. It’s the joy of each session for me. Typically dogs also act differently in new situations, new people, and new locations. During my photography session I am always trying to observe the dog and see what personality they are showing. I approach each dog differently based on their personality meaning whether they are timid or playful. This is my secret to get the dogs attention and capture great images that last a lifetime.

The absolute best dogs for me are curious, active, friendly dogs. Obedience only helps me with off leash action photos in the “wild”. When I have a dog that is paying lots of attention to me the session flows smoothly. Dogs don’t always have to sit for their portrait. The dog above I felt looked better standing in the final image. The image had the leash removed in the final image you see. He eventually calmed down and understood the reward based session and we could safely remove the leash without Photoshop.

Teaching a dog obedience is something that can take quite a bit of time. This is typically not my goal of a photo session. However it doesn’t take the dog long to change their behavior towards me and start to understand how to get a reward. Occasionally I don’t try to change the dogs behaviors at all during the session. This is something I base on my experience and past results. One example of letting “dogs be dogs” was a recent photography client and her two dogs. The one dog wanted to chew on sticks and wasn’t interested in “posing for my camera”. The dog was on special medication and it made her extremely hungry and she would chew on random things. This session was outdoors and there was probably no less than 500 twigs around. This is something that I am not going to be able to change, so I simply grabbed the best twig and used it as a “lure” and she quickly enjoyed the classic game of fetch with the twigs and the session was successful.

One of the factors of my photography that can cause a few hiccups is the thoughts, anxieties, and worries of the PERSON. Dogs are great at knowing something is changing in their owners or in strangers they meet. Some dogs simply pass this off and go on about their days;however, more often than not the dog is nervous as well. This makes things a tad more complicated for me. What I often do is calm the person and explain that I will get images of their family member. The dog realizes things are getting better and calms down so that they can pose like a pro.

My favorite call before a session is that their dog is the “worst dog ever”. My dog won’t sit, listen and I don’t think you can get photos of them. THIS IS THE CALL THAT I ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO GET. I will ask why they believe that, if others have tried and failed, and when they want to set this up. I have not met a single dog that I couldn’t get one image that was up to my standards. The conversation on the phone is typically the same, I explain to them that we may need to change expectations. I will also explain my guidelines for the session. This is often asking a few questions about why the dog wouldn’t do well with photos. I often can figure out the trepidations towards the session and address them before we even meet.

One of the things that I love about dogs is how random they can be at times. The best way I can explain this is “zoomies.” This sometimes happens after giving a dog a bath in which they run around the area to release the tensions or something. Would love to know what exactly is going on in their head at that moment. What I have found in years of meeting dogs in almost every imaginable situation is that they typically have a baseline for behavior. So I see where they are on the “spectrum” and I use their strengths to capture images. If a dog is in front of my lens and he doesn’t like treats, but he is absolutely in love with a ball, I will always use the highest valued reward last.

My friend and animal lover William Huggins wrote a short blog about his rescue dog CJ. I hope you enjoy the story!

RAISING CJ

For nearly 20 years I’ve worked with rescues. I can tell you from experience nothing will love you more than a rescue pet, especially dogs. They just seem to understand what you did for them. Dogs also as much individuals as people or any other intelligent nonhuman animal, and because of that individuality they all bring something different to your life.

Some of them also bring unique challenges.

In early 2017, still grieving the death of the best dog I ever had, I started looking around for a new pup. In Vegas you can legally keep three dogs. My family made the commitment always to maintain three rescues. In my life outside work I’m a long distance hiker and prefer dogs that can cover long distances.

The Internet has many wonderful values, including easy access for linking rescue organizations to individuals like myself who want specific types of dogs. After a few days of searching I found myself in a Vegas city park meeting a female red heeler. Her foster family lived in an apartment with no outdoor access and kept her in the bathroom most of the time. They truly meant well but were not in a position to meet the heeler’s needs: space, exercise, bonding time. 

The heeler had been removed from an abusive situation. Later, when she learned to trust me, I saw the scars on her face and chin. Standing in that park that first day, she wouldn’t even look at me, flinching when I approached. Her tail stayed tucked and she visibly shook. The worst scars are the ones we can’t see.

I knew from the first day that this dog would take a lot of work.

But I took her anyway. Why? I can’t say for sure. As a husband and a father, my life contains enough challenges and complexities. Our first stop was the vet, bringing her shots up to date. On the drive she hid on the floor of the passenger side of my car, unmoving, not even looking at me. At the vet’s she was furtive and flinching. But we got through the checkup and safely went home.

Heelers can be tough to manage. They typically bond to one person. The high-energy breed requires too much work for many. I know someone whose heelers could climb trees. I started her immediately with a walk, to burn off some energy and anxiety, then led her to the backyard to meet our other two dogs. The first meeting went pretty well, she was submissive and docile. Over the following month our Australian shepherd, Snyder, went a few rounds with her while they established their relationship. 

I named her CJ, after my favorite science fiction writer. For the first three days I fed her food laced with probiotics because with rescues you never know what they’ve eaten. Their GI tract is often squirrelly and the stress levels on CJ were off the charts. The first night she slept beside me, tight against my back, and for a few nights after that, until I eased her into our dogs’ sleeping area. After a day or two she never liked being separated from me—and still doesn’t, to this day. 

Getting through the first month was the toughest part of the work. In the car she wailed like a banshee. On our first hike she came up to a pair of dark, volcanic boulders taller than her bordering the trail and refused to walk through them. I coaxed her and she started running away, scared of the large stones. I went and caught her and carried her through that space, talking softly to her the whole way. She grew used to the rigors of the trail. On our second hike she ran between my legs and tripped me, spilling me into a patch of screen. I rose with bloody hands and legs, cut up by the scattered rocks. She had a lot to learn.

On our third hike she tried to jump out the open driver’s side window of my car at 60 mph. After that I leashed her into her seat, where she would sit and wail.

Over the three years since I got her we’ve trained and hiked ourselves into a solid partnership. I got her a Thundershirt and CBD treats. But her anxiety continues. What wrong people do to dogs lingers in their psyches. The swoosh of an outgoing email sends her into frenzied laps around the living room. Like lots of dogs, fireworks lead her under the sheets on any bed close by. She’s madly jealous if I play games with my daughter. But we’ve all adjusted to her special needs. 

When CJ and I sat on the summit of Mt. Charleston, we cemented the culmination of all the work we’ve done. High elevation hiking is one of many reasons I brought her into my life. 

Every time I pick up my camera I have a preconceived vision of what I want to capture. I have judged camera competitions and seen millions of images over my career. I have a photographic memory of images that I feel are appealing to me. When you have a plethora of images in your mind, it paves the way for future successes. One of the items in outdoor images that helps is knowing the weather, clouds, wind, and light changes. This makes things a bit more challenging to capture the best image possible. You can then also factor an animal that maybe doesn't listen the best.

Studio portraits are completely controlled except for the subject in the frame. This makes things infinitely easier for photography. You have to learn how to shape light and what that will look like in the final image. Lighting also has a “sweet spot” where things look the best.

The worst weather makes for the best photographs. This is consistent in my photography. I will always remember the session that didn’t happen, but I took dogs out that day anyway. The weather was looking terrible; nice large clouds sitting on top of Red Rock canyon. Snow/ Rain was in the forecast and the client called me and said the weather looks pretty bad out there. I want to reschedule, no problem. It’s best to not let a bad day go to waste! I grabbed a friend and we took some dogs out. It was cold and drizzling. I went into Red Rock Canyon in a different spot than I normally hit up. The snow started and the rocks had a nice wet look to them with snow falling. This was a rare day that made for a large collection of images that I still cherish to this day.

Animals are unique in that we don’t communicate with them in the same manner as humans. It’s fairly simple to tell a person turn this way, sit here, don’t pee on the bush, stop eating all the snacks. Animals are “animals” they want to enjoy their time. Dogs typically are somewhat well behaved, but often dogs haven’t been given commands in distracting environments. This can be a challenge if you don’t have ways to help communicate. One of the things that I commonly do is work on the attention of various animals. This is something that I always look for in my animal images. I typically let the animal wonder what I am doing and focus their attention on me.

One of the best things about meeting new animals is the challenge of capturing an image that represents the animal in the best light. I have never stressed out an animal for a photograph, to me it’s not worth it. When I have met dogs numerous times they usually remember me from a fun standpoint and are excited about the session. This is the first thing that is my concern. I have photographed numerous dogs with severe aggression issues and insecurities towards new people. This makes for a challenge and a different approach. The owners are normally very upfront about their animals “quirks” or aggressions. The session that comes to mind is a lady with an aggressive dog. She called and said my dog is funny, and I said funny how? Does he tell jokes? Well, he doesn’t always like new people and can be a bit protective. She loved my photography work and wanted photos of her family members. I told her we would take precautions and make sure everyone was safe and that I didn't get injured. Well, I walked in the door and the dog was handling the situation. It wasn’t long before the dog showed me his “funny side”. He nipped me in the back of the leg. The owner was extremely nervous and I felt the dog was feeding off her energy. I asked her if I could have a moment with “Kujo”. She told me he loves to play ball and treats. I took him outside in the backyard as I questioned my life choices in being a pet photographer. I started to calm him and distract him from using the ball. He was enjoying his time with me in the backyard and understood I was a “friend” and I wouldn’t hurt him. He built trust with me and didn’t attempt to bite me for the rest of the session. To this day the lady has a beautiful image of her dog on the wall that I took. That’s something I am proud of as I know that image means the world to that family.

The most common statement about my photography is “how do you get them to stay there?” Well, patience, luck, and animal knowledge. Dogs are often on a leash which makes them easier to get into a location. Then a little photoshop action and the leash is gone and the image stands on its own.

I am always hoping to find new opportunities to learn and capture new scenes. This is typically chasing light and trying to find the light. I typically watch sunsets every day and find out what makes them pop with color.

I started photography while I was working in a gallery in Las Vegas. The images that I would stare at for hours on end would eventually inspire me to pick up a camera and give it a whirl. This was a fun learning experience for me, I went to the local electronics store and picked up a Sony DSC-W50 camera. This would be a terrible point and shoot camera. I still own it. I still have some of my first images taken with this endeavor. Take a look at the donkey photo below. This would’ve been the first “animal” image I posted on the internet.

I quickly realized that my point and shoot camera wouldn’t suffice for my desires and needs. The photographer I worked for at the time used Nikon cameras. He said I like them because they are good. Well sounds like a good enough reason for me. The entry-level Nikon DSLR was just in my reach. I purchased a Nikon D50. This would’ve been a decent starting camera in its day (2006/2007) for a photographer. I used that camera constantly. I would purposely go out to photograph landscapes wherever I thought looked pretty and learned how to photograph. I love nature and the outdoors and often I would point the lens towards animals. You can see one of my early bird images from the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas below.

I started photographing everything. I would make routine drives to Lake Mead, and Red Rock canyon. I was hooked on capturing images of landscapes and wildlife. Traveling the southwest I started going to iconic locations and trying to capture my take on the beauty. I was constantly working to get better at image taking, I was learning how to see images and what looked good. I never had formal training or took a traditional photography class. I joined Flickr, The community would give feedback on images and I used that to learn what was good and bad. I was taking photos, editing photos, or reading about photography every day.

The butterfly image above is the turning point for me. I had taken 1000 photos that weekend maybe more. There is one image that stood out from the rest. Beginners luck possibly, not quite sure but this was everything I wanted at the time. This image has separation from the foreground and background. The colors are gorgeous and everything came together for this image. I would eventually enter a photography competition with this image, the first one for me my image won. This image is framed beautifully and hangs in my house to this day.

I started wanting to learn more about animal behaviors and how to get the “shot” more time in nature and in the field learning how to get close to animals and get images. I was traveling as much as I possibly could to photograph landscapes and animals in the southwest. I was photographing wild birds, big horn sheep, bears, elk, deer, wild horses and every other creature I could possibly find within the southwest. My favorite animal at the time to photograph was hummingbirds. My journey was going well and I was getting more exposure and recognition to my images. Some of my images had been used on National Geographic and showcased as the image of the day.

Here I am photographing burrowing owls in the desert of Las Vegas. I was learning more every day and starting to sell my images at art shows and online galleries. I was able to travel more and spend more time chasing the shot. I was loving every minute seeing a wild animal and getting a photograph in their natural environment. I would often practice at zoos and sanctuaries to hone my skills further in controlled situations.

I would learn studio portrait lighting to further round out my skills and give me something to do on rainy days. This was a lot of fun and landed me my first international published photograph. The image was fun and whimsical and shared a story.

I would start photographing more domestic animals. Dogs are one of my favorite animals and so I would focus a lot of energy on photographing dogs. I started to think of how many dogs I have photographed as I wrote this that number has to be over 10,000 by now.

Photographing animals has always been enjoyable to me as a way to document creatures that I have come across in my day to day life. Domestic animals are a wonderful way to show the unique qualities of our personal pets for memories!

I won Best Photographer in Las Vegas in 2017. I have been challenging and photographing more every year in 2019 I had taken over 62,000 images. 2020 is off to a decent start with over 32,000 images in the catalog as I write this.

I have been involved with animals my whole life. One of the ways that I often try to give back is by helping animals whenever possible! One of the things that unfortunately happens from time to time is animals get out and are found by wonderful people. Often people are unsure of what to do. I will give a lot of information based on dogs as those are the animals that I have the most experiences with.

The first thing I do is access the situation and the surroundings. You want to protect yourself and not cause further harm to the animal. I look for people who may be near that would be the owner of the pet. If no one is around I start to look at how the animal (dog) is acting. Is the animal injured? Is the animal showing signs of distress (limping, leg lifted, or blood)? If they seem to be just loose I proceed to try and get low and call them to me. One of the first things I do is get low and make myself less of a threat. I would say come, and make noises. If the animal start to come my way I let them come closer to me. Once they are closer I pay very close attention to how the dog is acting towards me. Is the dog barking at me? Is the dog showing signs of being friendly? If so I will continue. If the dog shows aggression, growling, hair raised. I start to back away. This is an unknown animal and you need to be cautious for your own safety. If they are showing aggression please back up and start to get to a safe location. One thing I do at this point is decide if calling animal control officers would help and I watch the animal from a distance.

Once the dog has come closer to me, I extend a closed hand to the dog. The reason a close hand is so that a finger isn’t lost if they decide to bite. Take things slow and let the dog or animal get used to you being near. Typically if they are close to me I check for a collar or tags. I then use a slip lead and put on the dog. This is typically what veterinarians use as the dog (animal) can’t back out of a lead as it tightens as they pull. If you don’t already have one your veterinarian would most likely give you one for free. If they are under the lead I just relax and see how the dog reacts. Once the lead is on, I think try to take a further look at tags, read phone numbers etc. This is also a time to see if the dog needs attention. Is it hot out and they are panting heavily? Is the animal needing veterinary care I immediately take the dog to the vet.

Now that you have control of the dog if he is just relaxing with you. I take out my phone and snap a photo. I do this at the location of picking the dog up so I know the area and the exact location. My iPhone takes GPS information with each image. I then start to further look around the area. Is someone yelling for a dog? What’s in the close proximity to where the dog was found? Is there a big gate that is open? I take the dog and look for anything out of ordinary. If people are nearby I ask if they recognize the animal or have seen them before. If they don’t have the information that can assist in getting the animal home faster.

If the animal doesn’t have any tags or visible marks, the next thing that I do is start to find a nearby location that can assist with scanning for a microchip. This is a small item that has a series of numbers on them. It’s embedded in the animal and is scanned by a scanner and takes a few seconds. The hope is that they have a number and usually they will tell you how to contact the owner. Typically what happens is they contact the owner and ask them to contact you. This is the BEST case scenario. You have returned the animal to the owner and your good deed for the week is done!

Microchip Scanner Locations

Veterinarian Offices

Petco/ Petsmart with Vet Offices in them

Animal Control

If this is not done things become a bit more labor-intensive depending on how far you would like to take them. The easiest approach is to call animal control in your area and see if they can assist you in taking the animal. If you are reading this information locally to Las Vegas by ordinance you are supposed to take this animal to our county shelter. This is the Animal Foundation located at 655 Mohave. You can then drop the animal off and they will take the animal and ask where you found the animal and recall the image you took for a closer address to the roads. Once there they have to legally keep the animal for 72 hours to assist owners in reuniting. This has the highest probability of the animal getting back to their home.

If the animal that you found is one that you would like to add to your home. Talk with your local animal control office and find out what you need to do. The first thing would be proper tags and identification (microchipping). If you are located in Clark County at the writing of this blog, you would need to hold that dog for up to 30 days personally before taking ownership and posting on lost dog sites and trying to reunite. If you take the animal down to the Animal Foundation they will often give you the A number for the animal and you can request that if the owners don’t come forward that you would like to adopt.

Some key points:

Always make sure you are safe and the animal is safe

Check for a microchip or identifying tags

Take Photos of the location you found the animal.

Don’t allow your new animal to interact with your personal pets. They could have diseases or be aggressive towards animals. Proceed with caution.

If you don’t feel comfortable call animal control and ask for help and keep your distance but assist in watching the animal till help arrives. Try to warn drivers of the animal.

I hope this information can help you in the case that you have found a pet. If you have found that you have lost your animal, check with local animal control immediately. Post on social media that you are looking for your animal and post current photos. Microchipping is by far the best device for getting your pets returned safely.

Things are a bit hectic in the world right now. I write this as we are quarantining at home to stop the spread of Covid19. However birthdays and celebrations have to continue and every year since “Doodles” was adopted her family holds a birthday celebration for her with her siblings, Mia, Benny, and Fitz. This year rather than having it outdoors the weather wasn’t nice enough so Doodles had her party indoors!

Doodles is a rescue dog and is sporting her summer cut as she typically has very nice curly hair! The birthday bones and treats were provided by a local company called “The Mutt Stop” This family-owned small business in the valley makes wonderful dog treats and birthday cakes to help your pets celebrate! They also donate a large portion of their proceeds back to animal rescues in the Las Vegas valley and help with animal welfare.

If you are looking to celebrate your pet’s special day or would like to order a bag of treats you can find them here… www.themuttstop.com.

Check out the quick video and some of the photos below!

I hope everyone is staying safe!