photography and art
Didn’t see the variety in cats that we saw during Day One, but interesting never the less. Met a variety of owners though…
Here are some highlights from the day. In order of appearance: Pixiebob, shorthair Oriental, longhair Oriental, Bombay, and a Balinese.
On location with Animal Planet photographing cats. Here are some of the day’s outtakes. In order of appearance: Abyssinian, Birman, Korat, Siamese, and Sphynx
A few weeks ago I posted some behind-the-scenes images from my poster campaign shoot with the cast of TANKED, and a great crew comprising creative director and Animal Planet staff member Linas Virbickas; Ken Proto, my assistant; and Natasha Chamberlin, stylist. I thought I’d share the poster being used to advertise the show. I’ve seen the trailer for the first episode, set to premiere this Friday at 9 p.m., and it is very entertaining.
The final day of shooting. We came close to our goal of photographing all the breeds in five days: 140 out of 165. Among my favorites are the following images that capture the dogs’ personalities. Just by looking at their expressive eyes, you can tell how they felt about be photographed and treated like celebrities. I thought I would share a few of the outtakes.
Day 3: What I learned today…
One: I’ve learned to love the simplicity and character of a dog’s profile.
Two: Owners of prize-winning show dogs can be very obsessive. I don’t blame them really. Especially given how much time and money (tens of thousands of dollars in some cases) they have invested.
Three: How can dogs see with all that hair in their eyes? Quite easily, I’m told. The hair is mature’s strategic dust buster.
Four: Dogs that look alike aren’t necessarily from the same breed. Some of these dogs look so similar I’m starting to loose track of what I’ve shot and what I haven’t.
Five: It was comical how many times we overheard owners and handlers use the word “bitch”, which was incorporated into every sentence. Some examples: “How’s your bitch doing today?” “That’s a might fine bitch you have there.” “Which bitch are you showing today?” And my favorite, “Look, we’re teasing him with the bitch!”
Here are few of my favorites from today’s shoot. 100 down, 64 more to go.
Day 2 of the Dog Breed shoot with Animal Planet. Another 30+ breeds photographed, dog hair all over the ground and, as always, a lot of interesting people. Here are some of the breeds we met, pictured below: an Alaskan Malamute, a Lowchen and a Cairn Terrier (the same breed as “Toto” of The Wizard of Oz fame), a Greyhound, a German Shorthaird Pointer, a Havanese (primped in between shots) and finally a seal-colored Italian Greyhound and a Brittany.
Day 1: 10.5 hours of shooting. Met some very interesting dog breeds (31 out of 164), some even more interesting people and given a margarita as a thank you. All in all a very successful first day. Here are some interesting dogs photographed. In order as shown below: An Ibizan Hound, a Puli named Ziggy (you can see why), a Chinese Crested, and a Doberman that looks like Batman.
This coming week I’m on assignment for Animal Planet photographing all 164 dog breeds. On location in Salem, Virginia we have five days to photograph dogs like a Basenji, a Harrier, a Kuvasz and a Samoyed. Seems very daunting, but we’re up to task. The goal is to show the personalities of each dog. Animal Planet is using the images on line and for an upcoming app where people can go an see the characteristics of each dog. Below are some examples of shots I’ve recently taken for Animal Planet. I hope to post images each evening from the day’s shoot – stay tuned…
Last week I spent some time in Las Vegas shooting the poster campaign for Animal Planet’s new reality series called “Tanked!”. We shot on location at Acrylic Aquariums where the show is based. I haven’t seen any of the pilots (show is due to air on August 19th), but seeing how the three lead characters interact I am sure this is going to be a great (and very funny) series. If you like the Pawn Shop series on the History Channel you will love Tanked! Here are some outtakes showing the set up of the shoot. I’ll show the finished shot(s) in a few weeks.
First test shot of my assistant Ken "in" in the tank
