Shooting landscapes was an early photographic love for both of us, even when photographing our canine friends these days, there's a real storytelling value in incorporating elements of landscape photography into our work.

The 4th challenge in our Embark course is called 'Dogscapes'. As it's the 4th challenge, we're ramping up the 'challenge' part! We asked our challengers to create a Dogscape, ensuring that the image had features of a landscape while still ensuring the dog was the hero of the image.

We had a fantastic set of submissions that left us feeling like we’d travelled far and wide. If only travel was that easy in real life!

Here, in no particular order are our top 10 Dogscapes.

- Charlotte & Craig 🐶 📸 ✨

Abi Bradbury | Abi B Photography

Beautiful light and pose. The dog is very clearly interacting with the environment and overall the image has a very clear sense of place and some lovely storytelling.

Barbara Thrall | Barb Thrall Photography

The warm advancing colours of this shepherd's fur really command attention against the cool tones of the landscape it inhabits. It’s a nicely balanced image, with the dog on the right and the darker mountain on the left. The lovely low angle draws us in and there are plenty of little details and wonderful textures to explore.

Claire Penno | Flagstaff Photography

This is impeccably edited and has so much detail and texture. The colours, despite their muted nature, absolutely sing out. Beautiful posing, excellent expression and a clear sense of place.

Jackie Searies | Photos By Jackie.S

The cooler tones of this work really well with the twilight pinks in the sky, and of course the blue/grey dog. The birds work really well and the headland is just enough of a feature. They take this from a lovely image of a dog on a beach, to a really fantastic Dogscape.

Joni Niskanen

A wonderfully composed image that is whimsical and contemplative. The framing elements of the old jetty highlight the dog looking out over the water. Which, in turn, is highlighted by the framing elements of foliage that make the viewer feel like they are part of the story.

Kaori Stewart | Kaori Stewart Photography

A fantastic sense of place has been captured here. The dogs pose is quite striking and makes it the clear hero of the shot. The composition is well thought out and helps guide the viewer from the dog and through the landscape.

Laurie Vermiere

This is quite an atmospheric Dogscape. The misty mountains, the fresh greens of the trees, also reflected in the water and the interesting textures of the rocks. The dog is well placed in the frame and stands out against those green colours.

Liz Dranow | TimePunk Pet Photography

Great sense of place, gorgeous pose and expression, with the light falling nicely on the dog and topped off with a really lovely colour harmony.

Polona Železnikar

The way the light is falling on the landscape behind the dog highlights it beautifully. The dog in the water has such an engaging expression that really adds to the emotional impact of this Dogscape.

Tania Mackie | Tania Mackie Photography

There’s really fantastic clarity and sharpness in this image and a calm serenity in the emotion of it. Lots of details and information provided within the frame, but they remain supporting elements for the dog, who is the clear hero of this Dogscape.

Are you ready to transform your pet photography in just 6 months?

The Unleashed Challenges are a series of 3 interactive challenge based courses, Embark, Emerge and Empower. Each one with 12 challenges running over 6 months. 

Much more than just a challenge, Then Unleashed challenges are an invaluable educational resource that will help you build up a go-to list of shots to help create variety in your work. Designed for anyone to be able to complete whether you just want to photograph your own dog or you are a professional pet photographer.

If you'd like to know more, head over here to register your interest.