Dog Show Photography - DPChallenge Forums

05/13/2007 10:25:48 AM · #1

If anyone is available to be the official photographer for a two-day (Sunday-Monday) specialty show in early October in Morgantown, PA, please PM me and I'll put you in touch with the club. I don't have details on what they put in their contract but they're nice folks to work with.

Thanks!

macleodn

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro for Canon

05/13/2007 11:43:12 AM · #2

What club is it? I live in Charlottetown PEI, Canada and I go to Dog Shows all the time. I didn't know there were other dog people on here. I may know someone that would be interested. He usually makes regular trips to the states. I'll send him an email.

05/13/2007 12:02:12 PM · #3

Irish Wolfhound Association of the Delaware Valley (that's a mouthful, isn't it?)

downtherabbithole

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

05/13/2007 12:16:06 PM · #4

pm'ed

macleodn

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro for Canon

05/13/2007 12:17:49 PM · #5

Wow, It is an Irish Wolfhound show at that! We have IWs and have had them for about 15 years. I looked into the show and the show photographer that I know is booked to go to another show. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

05/13/2007 12:29:31 PM · #6

Originally posted by gi_joe05:

pm'ed

pm'd you back ;-)

downtherabbithole

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

05/13/2007 12:30:10 PM · #7

orbitz can not find morgantown pa, would it be in west virgina by chance?

05/13/2007 12:33:12 PM · #8

Nope, it's in PA. I've been there many times. Zip code is 19543.

downtherabbithole

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

05/13/2007 01:31:27 PM · #9

Originally posted by MaryO:

Nope, it's in PA. I've been there many times. Zip code is 19543.

ahh thanks that helped. I'm hoping to do this job, it has been a recent dream of mine to shoot a dog show. I love doing pets, it's my favorit kind of client.

MikeJ

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

05/13/2007 01:58:08 PM · #10

There are probably more dog show people on here than you know. I've been doing dog shows for a long time... although not the winning dog type photography... that's a lot of work for very little return for a single individual. I've mostly done the other areas that don't get the same level of coverage that conformation does... agility, herding, obediance, carting, ring sport, tracking and taking pictures while the dogs are actually in the ring being shown, stacked and judged. I leave the posed winner's dog shots to the companies that have a group of guys and gals and don't mind running all over the place to the different rings (and it seems they are always at opposite ends of a large fairground too) to get the posed winner's shots. Most of those that have been doing that for awhile know what they are doing and know a lot of about the different breeds and how they are suppose to stack. I've always concentrated on a few breeds, mostly in the working/herding groups.

For those that volunteer for something like this... if you haven't done a dog show or not much more than take pictures AT a show and not as one of the offical photographers that is shooting for a club or the hosting club, it's not as easy as it sounds. And it's very much like doing a wedding... you have once chance to get the shot and then everyone scatters to who knows where. And scewing up and not getting the posed winner's shots is a hanging offense to a lot of owners, breeders and handlers. And paticularly the popular and good handlers all know each other too. So keep that in mind. ;D

Mike

macleodn

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro for Canon

05/13/2007 02:41:39 PM · #11

I didn't realize how many people this site covered. I guess I never thought about there being Dog Show people that have time to take pictures. I live in the maritimes of Canada so there are not as many shows. During the summer there is one every weekend but there are a lot more in the states.

I agree with MikeJ. If you don't know a thing about dogs or dog shows it can be really hard. You have to get the information from every person that you take pictures for and send pictures all over the states. I'm not sure what kind of entry they get but I still think you will be looking at quite a few pictures. It is quite an art if I do say so myself.

Nicholas

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

05/13/2007 06:38:33 PM · #12

This particular show is a specialty, meaning there is only one breed of dog and rarely more than one thing happening at a time. Sunday morning will be puppy sweeps and obedience at about the same time, but the rings aren't far from each other and in Wolfhounds people doing obedience are used to not being taken seriously so they don't mind waiting for a photograph ;-))) After that they start the regular conformation judging, but there's only one ring from that point on. You get a copy of the catalog so you can look up exhibitor's addresses based on the dog's number, and there are few to no professional handlers in this breed. As dog shows go, these are pretty low pressure. You won't make a fortune but hopefully a small profit from prints. Cheer for the underdogs; they ALWAYS buy pictures!

Entry should be 200 or so dogs, but the number of pictures is much smaller. I could figure it out if I stopped to count all the classes but it's not too bad.

Just remember to make the dog look good!

edit - can't type ;-p

Message edited by author 2007-05-13 20:21:16.

MikeJ

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

05/13/2007 10:27:52 PM · #13

Originally posted by MaryO:

Just remember to make the dog look good!

I agree with this... this is really not the time to have your camera "tell it like it is". If you can't make it lie in camera, you better be good in Photoshop.

LOL!

Mike

05/14/2007 07:38:09 PM · #14

Bump for the Monday night crowd.