If I thought my Dogscapes came up on a time crunch, I was absolutely not ready for Up Ups! The due date fell during my family vacation, and I was busy shooting an agility trial the preceding weekend. With thousands of photos to cull, edit, and upload before my trip, I needed to have my submission done and ready well ahead of time! Of course, my model was only available the Friday evening before the trial. No space in my schedule for a reshoot- it was now or never!
Elevating dogs is one of my go-to strategies for young puppies, smaller dogs, or dogs who have limited training with stays. Putting them up on a bench, log, or rock helps them hang out where I want them, makes them the focal point of the image, and also makes posing with handlers easier! All this to say, I felt confident in my ability to get the shot. After some rocky weeks, we were back in my comfort zone.
The tricky part this time was finding the right location. There was a lot more flexibility to this round- you can take an “Up Ups” photo just about anywhere! Since the background needed to be less of a focal point, it became more about finding a spot that wouldn’t be eye-catching, and would instead make the dog the star of the show. I needed a neutral location, and I needed some soft, even lighting.
My volunteers for this challenge live about 2 hours away, so I needed to find an area that was roughly in between us. I did some hunting on Google Maps and found a spot that looked perfect. And as luck would have it, we ended up with a mostly overcast sky that definitely gave me the soft light I needed! There was a hint or two of sun as we worked, and it was a little more direct than I would have preferred, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Now the trickiest part- which Up Ups is the best to submit? With such a neutral prompt and backdrop, the little details will become the focal point for judging and need to be just right.
This image of Spencer just oozes personality, and I love how you can see his tail wagging! But the brief moment of sunlight is a little too harsh, and the eye contact isn’t exactly right. I’m sure the judges would also have some opinions about the empty space on the right side- he’s facing into it slightly, but not enough to even out the composition.
This photo of Sandwich has beautiful eye contact, and the subject is definitely more centered, but we still have empty space on the right where the bench ends! Her spit bubble is just too big for me to remove, and her chest is missing a lot of detail in that rich black coat.
This one is tricky- I think the tongue poking out is just adorable, but a priority for this challenge was to focus on body language. The judges made it clear that they didn’t want to see any stress signals, which lip licking can sometimes be. I think it’s clear from the rest of his body language and alert ears that he felt just fine up high… but probably better not to chance it.
View a before/after of this image here
So here we are! This image definitely checks the boxes- the dog is up on something, looking directly at the viewer, has all legs visible, and looks perfectly comfortable on top of her rock. I was careful during shooting to align Sandwich’s head with the break in the trees behind her to create a natural frame, and spent extra time during editing to eliminate any color fringing around her legs. This one isn’t without its flaws either and I don't think it has the ‘wow’ factor needed to place, but time was up!
So I got on a plane to Texas, enjoyed a few too many drinks by the pool, and eagerly awaited our feedback. The judges thought it was “quite sweet,” complimenting the dog’s posing and expression, as well as the framing of the dog’s head. Once again, the composition as shot is the main thing I need to work on- they recommended changing the position of the dog so her whole body was angled the opposite direction and framed by the rest of the light space. That’s not something I can fix with editing, so I’ll need to decide whether I want to rework another image for my final portfolio or stick with this one. Decisions, decisions! Onto the next!