Behind the Scene "Iris"

Lights, Camera, Action...or maybe for this one...Camera, Action, Lights!

I’ve had this old camera forever. When I sketched out a photo concept of a small dog behind a vintage camera, I knew just which camera to use and went digging through old moving boxes to find this gem.

Moses posing...and sticking his tongue out at me!

My concept was really simple with just two elements – the dog and the camera – lit naturally. 

The hard part of the shoot was getting a dog small enough to fit naturally behind the camera. Attempt 1 had us working with sweet 6-week-old lab puppies. They fit behind the camera but they were too young to sit, much less stand in one place without being held.

This guy was sleeping on the job!

On to plan B – try the shot with another model. Luckily, the owner of a past dog model had just reached out to share pictures of Gabriel - her 12-week-old Boston Terrier puppy.   After seeing her snapshot, I knew we had our model…and it was divine because of the connection of a black and white dog with an old timey camera that had only used black and film.

Gabriel, ready for his close-up.

Needless to say, working with puppies is always fun! Even though Gabriel was only 14 weeks old at the time of the shoot, he was energetic, confident and VERY curious to see what I was up to.

And he liked cheese….

In the end, it all came together. Gabriel posed in return for cheese nibbles and I got the shot. The final image...

Iris, the shutterbug, is ready to capture the moment but seems a bit distracted. Did someone just say "Cheese"? 

Love it? You can get a print or canvas of "Iris" HERE