Behind the Scene - BISCUIT

The concept - a dog licking a bakery window with complete abandon.

After sketching out the image, my first step was to think about what kind of dog would be best for this photo. I wanted a dog that was short, stout and comical and landed on a Boston Terrier. I hit the jackpot when I found a local Boston Terrier breeder who had not one, but five Bostons. She was more than happy to bring ALL of them to the shoot.

The shoot was comprised of two different scenes. The first was the bakery scene. We transformed a sunny hallway, with a nice glass door, into a bakery complete with sweet treats bought locally.

The second shot involved the “talent” who only had one job. Lick the glass.

Amy was in charge of getting the dog to do its job. Our plan was for Amy to spread a small piece of cheese on the glass door, pick up the dog and have it lick away while I clicked away on my Canon. We did this many, many times with the first dog, the second dog, the third dog and so on, but one of the dogs REALLY loved cheese. His name was Charley and he was the most enthusiastic about getting every bit of cheese off the glass.

In the end, I got what I needed and Amy got quite a workout handling all of those Bostons (did I mention she is allergic to most dogs we shoot?). She was rewarded with the first pick from the “bakery”… and a dose of Benadryl.

In post-production, I meshed the two scenes together using Photoshop and designed the old-school bakery lettering for the window. 

“Say Cheese!” cries the photographer. But, for this shoot, it was more like “Lick cheese!”.