May in the Sign of the Dog

A person can only actively put their passion into so many hobbies at a time. So when we got a dog about one year ago, suddenly a lot of our passion and thus time and money went into Mila, the now 5,5 years old Weimaraner we adopted. One of the hobbies that was impacted was photography - quite curiously actually, as we’re still out and about seeing places, and especially I also love photographing dogs and always dreamed about having my own model readily at hand instead of having to make use of dogs we sitted. However, owning dog also means training and being responsible, so until now there hasn’t been that much focus on the photographic side of things - even though she even has her own Instagram account (Mila the Grey), that I’m actually keeping much more updated than GegenWind’s at the moment (embarrassing)!

So when a little dog photography challenge started in my Instagram bubble, I decided to join the fun - and it brought back the spark of passion for photography (not that I completely lost the passion, it just wasn’t very ✨ sparkly ✨) and pride in my dog that certainly isn’t a trained model like the dogs at the workshop with Alicja Zmysłowska.

The challenge was initiated by Live with Merl and consisted of 25 prompts to post to in the month of May. Check out the other participant’s photos on Instagram here!

What I took away from the challenge

Pet photography is an interesting genre as you don’t only have to focus on the technical and creative aspects of photography, but at the same time also need to handle the respective pet. Portrait photography is similar, with humans you can communicate with words, though. When photographing pets, you need to fall back to other methods through trick commands (sit, down, hug, etc) or luring the dog to be in the wanted location and position with treats or toys.

Being photographed can be weird for dogs if they’re not used to it. Usually they are asked to stay in a certain location, while the human moves away which can be the first challenge. Photographers often crouch down into the dog’s eye height and face the dog while looking at the camera, maybe even making sounds to get the dog to look in a certain way. This can feel like a lot of pressure for the dog and they might have the urge to come to you (cause you are looking at them and thus clearly communicating) or walk away to avoid the pressure.

Experienced dog models often have a very good (basic) obedience and learned to focus on food or a toy. They will stay as told until they get released and get their reward. You can get a little insight into that process in this video.

We haven’t trained this with Mila, so I did not go into this challenge with a big expectation of posed photos, more snapshots where she is doing her thing and I manage to take a photo that might fit a prompt. However, I learned that I can trust and ask of Mila more than I think - but also that I need to be patient, calm and clear in my communication to make her understand what I wanted of her as this was very new to her. I had to make her understand that me crouching down didn’t mean that I invited her over for cuddles (what it usually means), but that she had to stay until verbally released from her position.

I didn’t necessarily expect her to dash off, but I didn’t trust her enough to stay in the location and position I put her in while there’s movement (me with a camera) around. And yes, it can be difficult for her, but she was much more focused than I expected her to be!

The prompts

Overall, I had eight photo sessions where my goal was to capture at least one specific photo for a prompt, the rest was lucky shots that happened to fit, or where I decided to go with a mobile snapshot instead of waiting for another opportunity and then maybe not being able to do the prompt. All photos are taken in the timespan of the photo challenge, which I am actually proud of.

- I had one session in our urban neighbourhood with interesting architecture.
- I did a trip to a forest that we hadn’t been to yet.
- I had a session in a nearby park.
- I had one session where I took Mila to a fenced in yard for running photos.
- We did a trip to an area in a whole different area of the city.
- We had a session during an evening walk.
- And then I did two studio sessions with her at home.

I didn’t follow the order of the prompts as in in the overview (which wasn’t required in the rules).

In this post, I am going to explain my initial thoughts and plans for each prompt, the difficulties either on a technical level or the dog handling level, and which ones I liked the most.

Action

The prompt action was not one of the first prompts I went for. While I thought that I’d probably get a photo for it, I did not see this prompt as one where I would be proud of the product, or attempt it in a structured way. This is due to me being worried about Mila getting to amped up and running and jumping about. She gets pretty wild and undpredictable in her movement, so if anything this might be a fun photo of her flying ears when we were out walking and she got to run a bit. More like a candid photo.

Well, it turned out just the opposite! I at least wanted to make a structured attempt and not just count on a random snapshot, so I grabbed Mila to go to a fenced in dog area. My plan was to have Mila sita, walk away, get down and ready and then release her and hype her to run towards me. This is not something we have practiced before, so there were multiple things that I expected to not work out as Mila wouldn’t know what I expected of her. But look at her! She did amazingly!

She didn’t stay put right away and I needed to remind her a couple of times to first move when I called her. When I called her, she did not let herself get distracted by interesting smells in the tall grass around her, but ran and jumped at full speed on the path - exactly as I needed her to do. We managed to do two runs before someone else entered the yard, turning the session into a round of the dogs playing.

In terms of camera settings, I changed my servo AF (auto focus) settings to track and react faster - this is a tip I learned from Alicja and wasn’t aware of before the workshop. I can’t remember whether I set it to the fastest setting, but probably not.

I used static and spot focus. What I should test out in a future similar session how continuous focus and pet detection work with a scenario like that. Additionally (this one is silly), I should have used high-speed continous shooting instead of just regular low-speed continious shooting as drive mode.

Leading lines

We use lines and framing naturally in our photography, so I wasn’t worried or had to make any particular plans for this prompt. As it turned out, this shot was from our very first session that we had right after I saw the list of prompts. I mainly wanted to capture Mila in movement and with her nose down (this seems to be the easiest way of “posing” her for photos, I learned that day), so I had put out a line of treats and placed myself at the end of it before releasing Mila to find them. She first searched along the building in the background, but luckily I had instinctively made the treat line long enough for her to continue. I afterwards chose this shot for this prompt, as not only the building in the back and the cracks in the tiles show up as leading lines, but her nose and intense gaze act as extension of that visual movement.

Like in most of the other photos, Mila had a thin long line clipped on the harness which I removed during editing. Even with that one on I felt very daring letting her roam freely in the middle of the city.

Front on portrait

There’s no bigger thoughts here. This photo is also from one of the first photo session. Sitting is the easiest to do for Mila and what she thinks she is supposed to do when waiting. However, mostly she doesn’t look very elegent and will even slouch a lot because she is so focused on either get the treat I am holding or being allowed to run around again. Springloaded, that girl.

Reflection

Reflection was a prompt I was immediatly excited about. We don’t have much calm water around undless it has rained a lot and puddles have formed, so I pretty early decided to go for reflections in windows or mirrors. Luckily, there is a lot of glass-focused architecture in Copenhagen - or that’s what I found out when looking for a suited location.

My initial idea for the photo had been Mila basically looking at our her own mirror picture, however I learned that I had no idea how to make her do that. She does not react to her own image in a mirror, so for her it would be like asking her to stare at a wall for no reason. Here come the treats again (so lucky Mila is so incredibly food focused)! I am pretty happy with the shot cause I can tel you it is surprisingsly difficult to get a sharp photo of a moving dog with its mouth closed and without foam while keeping the reflection in mind as well.

In the rain

Never would I have thought that this prompt is going to be the most difficult prompt. Not just for me, but seemingly for everyone participating, because it so appeared that May 2025 was very dry. So the first day there was some rain, I just wanted to make use of the situation and get some kinda of shots no matter what.

Mila is not really a fan of the rain, so I already had set my mind on not trying too much or asking things of her, as I saw us both being frustrated. That was probably not the best attitude to have to a difficult photo prompt, but let’s be honest - I’m probably also not the most fun or ambitious person while out in the rain, so I cannot really fault Mila for being the same.

Funnily enough, on one of the last days of the challenge, we were forced to to head out for a longer trip (the one to the other side of the city) while it was pouring the whole time and I got some cute rain photos there, but it was too late and the rain prompt was already posted to Instagram.

Look at her cute little face and the streaks of the rain drops! This would have been a good rain photo.

In nature

This shot is from the time Mila and I went to the forest and I took a random snapshot of her while I had leashed her to a tree. I wanted to walk away without having to keep an eye on her.

Upon turning around and walking back, I saw how she stared me down and I just had to take a photo. I didn’t have any prompt in mind, but I later found it to fit “In nature” quite well as Mila is literally sitting in a bush and surrounded by tall trees. I kinda like how the nature is taller and bigger than her.

Urban

Urban was my wildcard prompt. We live in a capital, surrounded by brick and concrete and glass - it would be no problem finding an urban setting. I did consider to take some photos of Mila in front of graffitti, but never really got around to it. From my first photo session in the bigger neighbourhood, I had plenty of photos of Mila in brick or concrete surroundings, so when I was running out of prompt posts, I used the wildcard.

The photo is not showcasing Mila the best, as she looks a bit tense from balancing on the bench planks, but I liked the bokeh and it was more different than the other urban possibilities on my hard drive, so I went with it.

Flowers

This photo looks like a cop out. Maybe it even was one. The easy choice, just to get past the prompt.

As it turned out, pushing this prompt to later in May was a bad choice. At that time, there weren’t any flowers left in our go to parks and pastures as spring flowers had stopped blooming and summer flowers hadn’t come in yet (there everywhere now!). So I was a bit at a loss how to challenge myself creatively when I didn’t have a lot to work with. (We could have gone to a plant shop or botanical garden, but not all prompts are equally exciting and this one clearly did not have me pumped up.)

When I headed out to a golden hour shoot in our go to park and I saw these small flowers, I decided to just use them. In my head, I had hoped to be able to get some close up shot of her nose hovering over a flower or similar, but alas - I didn’t know how to direct her, and I think it also was getting late, so I just tossed some treats into the flowers, crouched down and kept pressing the shutter. The photo does not make me proud in terms of creativity and commitment, but it makes me giggle and I like how it is a bit unexpected.

Landscape

Denmark does not really have that much cool landscape. At least not if you don’t live right inside the dunes og beside a cliff. It’s like I could just go for a little hike, place my dog anywhere and have the amazing landscape of Glencoe in the background. That’s why I thought drone. Does not make the landscape more epic, but at least shows off some landscape.

No, this is not a drone shot. During the last days of the challenge, we took a trip to Kalvebod Fælled (we had already been there once before in 2017!) and encountered - unplanned - a watch tower. So please behold, the epicness of a Danish landscape and the weather of rain and a tiny dot that iś a dog in an organe rain jacket!

Photo series

That is not a photo series. That is a single photo. Did you misread the prompt?

No, I did not, and yes, you are correct.

That is a photo I took on May 16, exactly one year after we saw Mila for the very first time and took her home. I had always planned to make an Instagram post on her ‘gotcha anniversary’ and share a small series of photos. Funnily enough, it was first after I posted them that I realized that this could totally be my post for the prompt “photo series”.

Check out the post and how it all started here.

Framed by nature

I liiiike a good framed photo, so this prompt definitely had me pumped with excitement to take on the challenge. This one also was more challenging on a dog handling level as I required her to move in a certain way in relation to an object.

Initially, I had thought to just use trees and alleys in the backgorund as a way of framing the subject and directing the gate in a more unobtrusive way, similar to the alternative pick below. Then I saw this tree with multiple trunks pretty low to the ground which could be used as a more ultimate, direct frame in which Mila has to place herself.

I had to use some creative directing by getting her on the backside of the tree and distract her by scattering treats. While she was distracted, I dashed back around the tree, trying to get myself and the camera ready. As soon as she noticed I was not directly beside her anymore, I kept her engaged with me while staying inside the frame of the trunks by using body language and calmly placing treats directly on the trunk fork. It wasn’t perfect and the focus isn’t neat, but I got a photo of her looking at the camera with a closed mouth (not licking the bark) which is all I needed for a better prompt post than the alternative pick.

Alternative pick:

In water

I have to admit, I had great plans. Independetly of the photo challenge, I found and decided to try out a swimming pool for dogs. Mila loves water and enjoys swimming, so I saw no real need for introductory coaching. Surely, my dog would just accept the slippery tiles of the swimming tool like any sandy beach and I would be snapping incredible under water shots of her with our Insta360 camera. My shots would stick out from the crowd and everyone would be envious of my creativity.

As you can see, it turned out differently. A swimming pool is indeed a great deal different for a dog’s brain and it required two coaching sessions with my full concentration and attention for Mila to take laps in the pool confidently - no time for playing action photographer. These are the cirumstances of being an animal photographer, and while not getting any shots, it was still great fun and educational to go to the pool!

At the end of May, we travelled to Germany, and it turned out there was a little stream nearby where we stayed. It was on the day we headed back. It was warm. It had been a busy and exciting weekend for Mila. I led her down to the stream and took off the leash, already imagining her run off onto the street or into the equestrian gathering nearby. Or just be so excited about fucking water that she would run along the stream.

But she did nothing of the sort. She just … dingled about. She carefully scampered across the rocks in the river bed, indexing all the branches in the near radius and stuck her whole face into the water. This photo is only taken with my mobile phone (cause obviously I did not bring my proper camera for that specific walk), but it might still be one of my favourites cause she seemed so content and happy and relax to explore this little stream while staying nearby.

Blue hour

From an artistic point of view, this photo is my favourite. Mila is more naked here (no collar, no harness), it shows off our neighbourhood and the atmosphere in the photo is magical.

I had help from Jonathan for this shot, who persuaded me to bring my camera on a regular evening walk.

Let’s get this challenge over with!

Well, not what he said directly, but that was the vibe. XD

Jonathan was standing left of the lamp and directed Mila’s pose. As you can see, I photoshopped him out. Thank you, Jonathan!

Tiny in a big world

This photo was taken during the same blue hour walk. Initially, I had planned to take this photo with a drone as well - what a better way to show a small dog in a big world. After seeing this photo, though, I decided this was it.

Mila is not good with the pack breaking up and her not being close to us. For her to be that far away and there being water inbetween us is not a common sight and makes her feel small and distanced to me. I like how she’s looking over the water, searching for me, trying to nagivate this big human world with concrete buildings and fast vehicles and glass shards and rules. (This one would also have been great for the prompt “urban”.)

Jonathan is hiding behind the pillar. I removed the leash in Photoshop. Remember the safety of your dog!

Candid

How do you understand the prompt candid?

I asked in the group for everyone participating in the challenge.

Everything that is not posed.

Mmh. Should I follow up with the question, what the definition of “posed” is? Mila only knows two commands, that are relevant for photography (“sit” and “down”), so does she only pose when executing those? Is everything else candid?

One of my first thoughts when reading “candid” was paparazzi photography or unobstrusive, sneaky photos we take of wedding guests when they’re distracted and laughing about something. So I decided to try and recreate that feeling of sneakiness - which works amazingly when you got dramatic afternoon sun in your living room and a 135mm lens that you can push between two items on your coffee table for just enough blurriness in the forground. The subject itself is not ground breaking, but look how cutely she is working on her licking mat!

Eyes

This is just a random portrait I managed to take of Mila during our first photo walk which shows her eyes beautifully.

Favourite colour

This prompt made me giggle a little. I don’t have a crazy passion for a single colour and initially I would have gone for black for Mila’s gear. I wouldn’t have expected me to have an opinioun about colours that suit dogs ever.

However, then we had to buy a rain coat for Mila and had to decide on a colour. We went for orange for high visibility in rainy and foggy weather circumstances and noticed how well it suited her. Jep, I suddenly had an opinion on what suits a dog. Don’t ask how to determine that, she just looks very cute, okay.

So after buying a screaming orange rain jacket, I noticed how warm her grey was, and in contrast to many other Weimaraners, her eyes were more yellowy-orange insted of blueish-green. So now everything she owns that is not black is orange. And when I bought a new jacket for dog walks, I picked a colour that fits. And then I saw this prompt and knew immediatly that this needs to be about orange!

Thank you to Jonathan for taking this shot, it is exactly what I had in mind!

Dramatic

The photo was taken during blue hour time which makes the colours grumsy and flat. That’s why I edited it in black and white and actually added even more grain. Better. But which prompt do I post that under? Blue hour? Doesn’t really fit if there are no colours, right? Leading lines would would be very fitting. Maybe silhouette? Then Mila had to be darker.

I ended up with dramatic in the end. Because of the location. Because of the grain. It felt fitting and made me think of Peaky Blinders.

Show your adventurous side

Going on an adventure is different for every dog and its respective radius of experience. I could have used a photo of Mila running about the forest og on the beach, but I decided trying to capture a real adventure: our roadtrip to Germany for a long weekend. I had in mind to take a photo from the multiple hours drive down as that would feel more adventurous than just being in a different location.

This was the first long drive with our new car and the recently implemented divider and tail gate, so I felt like this was a good shot representing our adventure - especially as Jonathan was sitting on the ground beside me preparing Mila’s dinner that she was eagerly awaiting.

Golden hour

I love golden hour. Apart from weddings, I just rarely plan to go out during golden hour. That is a mistake, I definetely should do that more.

For this shot, I rushed to the park with Mila, always keeping an eye on the watch, fearing I might miss it. Maybe that’s why I don’t usually plan for golden hour - it is too much stress.

I hadn’t made any plans really for the photo which might be obvious. I love the (rim)light and the bokeh of the grass in the front and the lens flare. But now I am a bit meh about Mila’s pose and position. Could I have done better than just have her lie down? For other prompts, I really tried to work with Mila and and ‘shape’ to fit in the photo in a certain way. For this prompt I was too much in love with the light and too worried about the light to disappear.

Dog on a log

This prompt made me remember “safety before photos”. In the forest, I made Mila jump up a few trunks, but they were either quite big and slippery (like the one in this photo) or a lot of them on a stack with cracks and holes inbetween. She looks tense and uncomfortable in all the photos, so I reminded myself that it wasn’t worth injuring her or making her fearful just for the photos. While obviously physical fitness is important and this is a good thing to train, it should happen on the dog’s premise.

I have photos of Mila sitting on this tree trunk (which still has the whole ass root attached!), but she did not look happy, so I shared this one instead.

Silhouette

This photo is taken in our photo studio. I thought about a style of pregancy photos we have taken before:

I was a bit in doubt about how dark I wanted to make her silhouette, but with her floppy ears I thought it would be nice with a little bit of detail inside of the dark silhouette. If she had ears like a German Shepherd, a black only silhouette would probably have looked ace.

Side on portrait

Just a snapshot from our adventure to the forest when we had a break and Mila was looking over the lake at the families of birds shouting at each other and shooing each other away from their respective nests.

Artificial light

I was pretty sure I wanted to take the photo for this prompt in the studio as well. We have a few of Mila in the studio now, but they’re all quite similar to each other and pretty … sterile. By that I mean she’s stting (more or less pretty) in front of a simple background with a simple, straight forward light.

I took inspiration from a favorite dog photographer of mine - Wieselblitz - and went to buy some very thin fabric on the day of the shoot. I didn’t have exact plans how to use it, but I thought about draping it in front of the camera or around Mila and it was quite fun to play around with. Mila wasn’t quite sure about the fabric, but I think if we repeated that a couple of times, she would get pretty cool with it.

The light is provided by two Godox LC500R 🛈 , handheld RGB tube lights.