A lot of people don’t realise is that photographers – even the top shooters –  don’t take a ‘winning’ photo every time they press the shutter. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that the hit rate of the uber-photographers is actually lower than average, because they’re the ones trying the new techniques, taking risks and trying for that AMAZING shot that has a 10% chance of working. What you don’t see on people’s websites (often, although this is now changing with the advent of ‘behind the scenes’ photo shoot mini docos) is the hard work and various less-than-successful attempts to get that perfect image.

The two videos below are a great illustration of the behind-the-scenes effort that goes into making an effort-less looking image. While Joel Sartore is shooting video here and not stills, the principle is entirely the same.

Watch the first video – the polished finished result – then watch the second video to see what he went through to get there

RARE from Joel Sartore on Vimeo.

RARE: Behind the Scenes from Joel Sartore on Vimeo.

My brother lives in Chilliwack, B.C. Canada, and is going to breed his two dogs – anyone in the greater Vancouver area who would like a gorgeous, unusual, well-tempered yet effective guard dog should investigate this breed – they really are amazing. Check out my brother’s website www.canadiancanecorso.com

I had my assistant/second shooter Brence Coghill with me for this shoot and he took a few of the photos of Bella, including the black & whites and the 3-up layout of me playing with her. Enjoy!

His dogs Buddha and Bella are both Cane Corsos – a unique breed of Italian mastiff.  They’re great with people and are hugely loyal – this was apparent during the photo session as both dogs followed my brother around unwaveringly and were happiest when sitting by his side.

I’m still working through all the photos but wanted to share the first lot with you, all of Buddha. He is absolutely gorgeous and a total sweetie, adoring pats on his head and scratches on his back.

The job was for a lovely repeat client for whom I did some pet portraiture for a few years ago, and who has since gone from 2 to 5 pet pugs. We teed up a photo session to get pictures of each dog individually and in groups – no easy feat!

We decided to do the photo session at the client’s house in order to keep things more contained, as trying to corral 5 run-aroundy dogs in a park would have been nigh-impossible.

I decided to use supplemental lighting for this shoot and brought a lighting assistant with me and set up a number of speedlite flashes (2 off camera static ceiling bounces, one roving shoot-through umbrella unit and on on-camera fill). I have to say it worked a treat, and the dogs were not intimidated or bothered by the equipment or flashing lights – phew.

Overall the shoot went really well – much, much patience was required but it paid off – and we captured a huge range of images, including some nice group shots. Here’s just a few samples from the day:

Monty

Gladys

Bronson, Ben and Monty