Janine Bebbington Photography

Okay, so there's nothing like a bit of shameless self-promotion! I have been practising photographing dogs for about a year now. I feel very drawn to snapping dogs. A few years ago I started following a world renowned dog photographer. He is Andy Biggar and I just loved his work. I liked his photographs because they looked like old masters' paintings of dogs. Now by that, I don't mean that he uses any of those terrible overblown Photoshop effects, I just mean he makes use of light which makes the dogs 'pop' out of the shot - his shots are technically brilliant but look simple. Great photos however don;t just need great like - they also need good composition and of course then need to rely on the one thing which is really difficult to control - yep, you got it - the dog!

Now then, to practise, I asked my local animal rescue centre, Animal Care in Lancaster, if I could go up there and snap some of their dogs. I read somewhere that dogs with bosting photos on the rescue centre website stand more chance of being adopted. I suppose that it stands to reason really (apparently the same is true with dating websites!). So, since the New Year, I have been up there with my friend Anne and snapped two dogs every week. We've enjoyed ourselves - we like the challenge of working out the dog and understanding what makes them tick - once we know what motivates them, we stand a much greater chance of getting really good pictures.

Over the year, I've learned loads. Every week is different, because every dog is different - not just in size or breed, but also in temperament. My top tip for a good photograph would be to find the level of the dog. If this means crawling about the ground, so be it! Action photos are quite terrifying really - especially when you look down your lens and see the dog hurtling towards you at twenty five miles an hour. Last week a dog actually bashed into my camera and my camera bashed into my face and I lost both my contact lenses - spent the rest of the session snapping fairly impaired visually!

So, I have been snapping Animal Care dogs. But I also have a very good subject to practise on - my charming Welsh Springer Spaniel, Prudence. Prudence is a different kettle of fish because she is used to being a photographer's dog so she does pretty much as she is asked! She does get a bit bored though after a while, so that's another thing I have learned with my dog photography practice - you have to use the dog's energy to get the best shots: There is no point in starting the session by asking the dog to sit still - of course you get all of the high energy, active shots out of the way first. I am planning on offering dog photography sessions around Lancaster and Morecambe. Please do have a look at my website at www.janinebebbington.com or give us a like on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jbdogphotography