Photographing a free stood dog

Getting photographs of dog standing in the ring can be easy when the breed being shown is a stacked dog, for example the Welsh Springer Spaniel. A stacked breed, is a dog which has its feet placed in the correct position and then has its head a tail held, to show the judge that dogs conformation. However, some breeds are known to be free stood, which means the to moved into position naturally, even dogs which are normally stacked can also be free stood.

An example of a breed which is normally free stood is the Brittany and the breed that I photographed a few days ago and have based this post about. The Brittany that I photographed is known as Highclare Lincoln Imp At Lyndfil (Lincoln). To photograph Lincoln in a show stance, we went a found a patch of grass with a simple background, so that the focus of the photograph would be the dog. As Lincoln was only 7 months old, so we had to make sure we gave him breaks every couple of minutes so that he didn't get too bored. We tried him facing both ways and then looked at the final photographs to see which direction looked best. Bellow is my favourite photograph of this shot.

To get this photograph, I lay down on the grass at a distance, using a 70-200mm lens to get the dog in focus, with a blurred background behind. Getting down low meant the I was not too high so that the dog didn't look out of proportion and created a some foreground, which also produces a good depth of field. When editing this photograph, I had to crop it so that his owner was removed and I had to use the spot healing toll to remove the lead of the dog, which distracted your eye from the dog.

So when photographing a free standing dog, make sure you have a lot of treats and give the dog plenty of breaks so that it does not get bored. Also if you are at a show, that has an outside area which has a plain background, try and use that for your photographs, so that the dog will standout. Remember to get the best photograph you might need to get down on the ground, which could end up in you getting dirty, so don't wear your best clothes.