Sweet Miss Luca Blue! Owned and loved by Kay, owner of Chew Chomp and Chill, this pretty girl is unlike most arctic breeds I've come across. Chilled, non-reactive and not particularly energetic (as in, it was actually difficult to get her from a meandering trot into a run for our action shots) she certainly makes a great model for my teaching sessions!

We shot at one of my favourite north-west Brisbane parks, complete with a cute little creek. After going for a little paddle (ladies only go up to their chests though of course), Luca was ready to model for us. One of the most important aspects of creating great images of dogs is getting interaction from them to create expression. Here we used some noisemakers to get that intrigued head-tilt look from Luca.

Shooting in the long grass helps create layers in the image.

When shooting down, however, the most effective way of getting that eye contact is to bribe with treats! Looking up can be more difficult for them but the promise of a tasty snack usually does the trick.

Below illustrates exactly where Courtney, Luca and Kay were positioned - and the resulting image (one of my shots, but the same setup). Placing the dog on different ground types (i.e. grass, pebbles, concrete) creates different looks when the background is blurred as a result of shooting with a shallow depth of field.

We had a little sunshine throughout the session, but it was reasonably cloudy most of the time. Lucky there was a bit of colour in the sky right at the end so we took advantage of it by shooting up! Deliberately underexposing the shots helped to retain some detail and colour in the sky which can be brought out through editing - BEFORE on the left and AFTER on the right.

Why hello there Luca! I love the expressive looks this girl gives!

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