contemporary, lifestyle, on-location animal photography

a little behind-the-scenes ~ {Ontario pet-exclusive photographer}

December 17, 2012

for this blog entry i bring you a little taste of things behind-the-scenes here at scruffy dog. a few products, a glimpse at some album spreads, some storyboard print templates, and — of course — the goober.

first up, i thought i’d share with you a piece i put together for my fabulous vets at the Highway 24 Vet Clinic. this piece is 70″ wide, and i loved putting it together. ironically, the puppy and the incredible diving Paige are from the same breeder … and the lovely senior is the unforgettable Cassy at 17 1/2 years old.and speaking of big pieces … here is just one of the many SDP canvases that left the studio lately … cute little Emjay in our favorite train tunnel. this canvas is 40″ wide, which — by scruffy dog standards — is a moderate size. scruffy dog canvases have ranged up to 7′ in length! i also wanted to share with you just a few of storyboard templates i’ve designed for our scruffy clients. this one of little Macy is a 16×16″ framed print. it’s currently at the lab, and is going to look fabulous with an ample 4″, double, white matting and deep, black, satin-finish frame. i can’t wait to see it!and how about this one of the adorable Dallas?this piece is a 16×24″ storyboard print of Cosmo, and — like Macy’s above — is going to look amazing with the wide, white, double-matting and 2″ deep frame.

and Ripken looks absolutely fab in his storyboard, showcasing his many expressions…i’d also like to share a couple of spreads from our SDP Signature albums. this one is of little Mickey.

…and Rico.and while on the subject of Rico, here’s a little before-and-after from Rico’s session on the most perfect of autumn days.i also thought i share a few fun things i do with some images, whether it’s a special message like merrick’s…… or the “pet stats” template i created for a little extra fun on facebook.and here’s a storyboard i created of my boy for sharing on facebook, showing the transformation he has undergone from his former breeding life for a puppymill/barnyard breeder to confident, water-loving superhero dog. the photo of merrick flying over the water was taken by Nancy Villwock from Chicago during her scruffy mentoring session this past summer. i absolutely love it!

of course, merrick’s job description entails more than just mentoring-session model! he’s the SDP greeter and client lap-warmer, he’s a therapist, he’s my court jester, he’s the heartbeat of scruffy dog, and, well, he’s a big helper during scruffy sessions as well! he’s assisted on more than a few sessions with extremely shy and fearful dogs, helping them relax and come out of their shells a bit more with the concept of a photo session and in the face of the big scary cameras.

in the case of the photo below on a session for repeat clients Julie and Dru, the goober wasn’t really needed, but given that they both adore the goober, they were gung-ho on merrick joining us for Max & Sophie’s big session. and it appears that merrick showed young Sophie just a few moves.

another ‘share’ is the DVDs that are included with all scruffy dog packages. these DVDs include your full gallery (for future reference), digital-frame-sized images as well as social-media-sized images for sharing! with scruffy dog packages, we leave you wanting for nothing more; we want you to get it all!i hope you’ve enjoyed this little glimpse behind-the-scenes at scruffy dog.

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5 comments

Jess KampLoved seeing the otherside of SDF! This is very inspiring {like all of your work} but still I love seeing how you do it 🙂ReplyCancel
JulieI just LOVE (insert singing) your pictures of dogs! I LOVE dogs and the way you capture their spirits is too beautiful for words! Thank you!!!!!!ReplyCancel
Jen MetzgerThe storyboards are great! I have my favorites but don’t want to offend anyone. 🙂 I will say I LOVE the top one with the quote, such a fabulous idea to use a favorite quote. I assume these are not canvas but rather photographic prints since you are using a mat and frame?ReplyCancel
- illonayes, Jen, they are prints. i create storyboards only for print or floatmount, reserving canvas for that one stellar piece … to me, canvas is more like artwork.ReplyCancel
LoganI have always had trouble with post-processing my photos (I use Adobe Lightroom)… But you do an amazing job with it 🙂
I love the storyboard of Cosmo (my favorite one)!ReplyCancel

a few odd scruffnuts ~ {Waterloo, Ontario pet photographer}

December 14, 2012

well, okay, the scruffnuts in this blog entry aren’t odd … but rather, this is just an odd assortment of scruffnuts we’ve shared on the scruffy dog facebook page … along with a few shots of resident scruffy merrick. and yes, he is odd.

here’s the goober at his stylin’ best … donning his new Angry Birds hat. (well, honestly, it’s not his but rather my partner’s … but i couldn’t resist). this shot was taken for the ‘hat challenge’ for the 52 Weeks for Dogs group on flickr. i founded the group four years ago and it’s still one of the places to be on flickr.

how gorgeous is this boy of mine? if you’re wanting to learn a little more about this amazing, former puppy-mill boy, you can read more here.he’s quite the character, whether showing off with his favorite ball or doing a little jig in the back yard …other times, he’s just a drama queen …this is Abby … she was one of our fabulous models for one of our scruffy dog One-on-One mentoring sessions this past summer. how gorgeous is she?and this is her younger sister, Georgia.then we have Marty. Marty belongs to repeat client Deb who originally joined the scruffy dog family with her previous girl Zoe. sadly. Zoe passed away last spring. you can see the tribute video i made of Zoe for her mom.

Deb and i shared numerous emails about the loss, about moving on, about honoring Zoe’s memory by finding room in her heart for another. Deb fostered this special boy Marty, and i have to admit, from the moment she wrote me about her new foster and sent me a photo, i kinda figured Marty was going to be her dog.

but like most happy endings, the start wasn’t great. Marty was found on the side of the road in winter. it appeared he had been strangled and left for dead, and this has affected his head control and ability to control his limbs. it is even suspected that his eye sight may also be compromised. but of course, Marty has no idea he’s a special needs boy!

and this is Diesel. since my first scruffy was probably a good part wheaten, i’ll probably always have a soft spot for the wheaten breed …

and Diesel is a wonderful example of his breed … in fact, he exceeded anything i would have expected from a wheaten, being a terrier breed. he is such a poser and a consummate model, whether it’s showing off his ‘high five’ …

… or just posing nobly on the beach. thanks for being such a spectacular model, Diesel. and for those of you who are very astute and detail-oriented, you might notice that Diesel’s coat appears a little shorter in his beach photos. well, that’s because we had to cut Diesel’s session short due to those very dark clouds you see. we lost light so quickly during Diesel’s session that we had to regroup at a later date for the rest of his session.this is the very high-octane Beretta. you may remember her from previous blog entries. this was her third session with us…

and here we have the many expressions of Brody. i adore this little scruffnut, but in spite of my pleading, he has already been promised to someone else if anything were to happen to his mom. 😉

here we have the handsome Ben, adopted from the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society.

and finally, one of my favorite scruffnuts, Riley Scooter, belonging to Shannon of Release the Hounds in Guelph. yup, Riley, that would be considered a ‘miss’.

i hope you enjoyed this variety-pack of scruffnuts … just a few of the fabulous faces from our fantastic summer and fall. if you want to see these images ‘hot off the press’ and keep up with the up-to-the-minute goings-on around here at scruffy dog headquarters, consider following the SDP facebook page. there’s always a lot going on!

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2 comments

tracy rothTo be honest I was a fan and considered getting my cat pics done with you. That changed last year when I was told you don’t find cats easy to photograph and instead of the calendar being 6 dogs, 6 cats it wasn’t. So I’m afraid I got her pictures elsewhere.

RESPONSE FROM SDP: Thanks for visiting the SDP blog, Tracy, in spite of no longer being a fan. It’s unfortunate that the shelter is passing on this gross misinformation regarding my ability or desire to photograph cats, but it is most definitely false and/or taken completely out of context. For the shelter’s calendar, where I must fit in 12 of these free sessions into a week so that there is time for editing, prepping and calendar design, I am able to allow only 15 mins per session. With most cats, 15 mins isn’t enough time to warm them up to the big cameras much less a stranger in their home … they hide under beds, behind couches, etc. and require more time to warm up to the concept of a session. I actually feel more than skilled when it comes to photographing cats, and admittedly, I spend more time with the calendar cats than the 15 mins I’m supposed to if it’s a difficult cat, because I want them included in the calendar.
But for actual client sessions, I’ve always taken however much time is required and have always produced more than enough images and variety in images to create the premium SDP albums and a wide variety of prints for those SDP clients.
Please know that the pets in the calendar are not determined by me, but rather by the number of votes received in their facebook contest. I have absolutely no control (and never have) over which pets or which kinds of pets make it into the calendar. This year it was four cats, a rabbit and a guinea pig and six dogs. I only shoot what the shelter gives me and I don’t control the voting or know how they go about calculating the votes.
Even when we have the initial meeting with the calendar ‘models’, I make sure they know that cats can be difficult when shooting them in such a narrow window of 15 mins because they aren’t typically easily bribed like dogs, and that if their cat hides under the bed the entire time, I may have to move on. However, I have actually never given up on a single calendar pet. In fact, in the first year’s calendar I spent over an hour at a calendar pet’s owner’s house coaxing their cat from under the bed just so that they could be included in the calendar.
Please check your source on this misinformation, Tracy, and thank you again for visiting.ReplyCancel
Holly Garner-JacksonVariety is the spice of life and illona your work is hot!ReplyCancel

a little behind the scenes editing ~ {Ontario professional pet photographer}

December 11, 2012

since a number of the followers on the scruffy dog facebook page are photographers, i shared the following editing tip last week there … and thought some might like to see it here on the blog.

of course, when it comes to photo-editing (especially with Photoshop) there are always at least a half dozen different ways to do just about everything. choosing the right approach for individual jobs/images comes from experience, from recognizing which approach will be the most time-efficient and garner the best results in each individual case.

being a pet-exclusive photographer, i don’t have to deal with blemishes, pimples, dark circles under the eyes (well, i may have to deal with the latter in real life, but not in the images i take!). what pet photographers have to deal with is dandruff, dirt, sometimes the traces of surgery or shaved patches on legs, eye-staining, drool. but mostly we deal with eye goobers. of course, dealing with these eye goobers at the scene is much quicker and easier … and i’ve certainly pulled my share of goobers from my clients eyes!

still, sometimes you don’t see these goobers until you’re already shooting, so there are usually a few images requiring goober-removal. Cosmo’s image — ordered as a framed print by his owner — was one such case.

of course, handling these goobers in post can be done through cloning … but sometimes there is a faster way. observe …

and there you have it. if i could have recorded this as a video, you’d see that the above took no more than 20 seconds. cloning would have definitely taken longer. but again, this efficiency comes with experience … and this pet-exclusive photographer has a lot of experience with eye goobers.

happy editing!

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3 comments

Johnathan WangelinNice tip. Thanks!ReplyCancel
Holly Garner-JacksonSo very cool! Thanks for the demo! I really have to play around with light room more!ReplyCancel
scruffy dog photographywell, you DO have to play with Lightroom more, Holly. i agree! … but this was done in Photoshop. 🙂ReplyCancel