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A rather late blog post, it’s June already what has happened to April and May? Well they seem to have sped past very quickly. So many apologies for not getting around to posting anything here for a long time.

May Camping Trip

It wasn’t one of our favourite camp sites, but the location was absolutely stunning, and the facilities and the site staff were brilliant. It was just a bit too busy with the “wrong” type of campers, and there was a rather busy road just by the campsite. But we still had a lovely break, and we are already planning our September trip.

In other news

Much work has been happening on the website. A few tweaks here and there in the background to try and optimise the site, and some changes to layout and content.

You can check out all the changes at www.shootingthedog.com

Meanwhile Fidget has been out playing with his friends and generally just being Fidget.

12th Birthday Special Offer

As our 12th business birthday is soon upon us, we have a fabulous special offer for anyone booking a studio photo shoot before the end of July.

And, we are getting close to completing our rebranding from Tom Horsley Photography to Shooting The Dog. Our new shop sign has now been ordered and hopefully will be with us before the end of the month.

Here in the UK it is Mother’s Day tomorrow, everyone is trying to get you to buy some overpriced stuff to show how much you love your Mum.

DON’T DO IT!!

Instead, make them something – a card, or draw a picture. Something special that only comes from you, and not some commercial attempt at extortion. But, even better, spend some quality time with you Mum, ask her about her life, learn about what she has seen and experienced – show an interest in her story, and listen and remember it all.

I lost my Mum some time ago now, and regret not paying more attention to the stories she told me about growing up, surviving the blitz, the things she did at school, and the amazing life she had. So, this year actually appreciate your mothers and learn from all they have been through during their lives, you won’t always get the chance.

… and on that note, here is Fidget’s Mum:

One more quick thing, if you are in the UK,
don’t forget to put your clocks forward tonight!!

I love photographing dogs in all situations, and a lot of the time that is in the studio. The real challenge for me though is capturing the dogs outside, playing and running, and generally just being dogs. Action dog photography is where it is at!

Extra Challenges

The obvious difficulty is just keeping up with a moving dog. But there is far more to challenge the photographer than that. The lighting can change in an instant, and if you are down in the woods getting a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action can be a real problem.

So this means lots of practice is needed. At my local park there are no end of fun loving dogs around to give me the practice I need, and my own dog is always on hand and ready for a game of ball, if he feels like it!

On The BeacH

When we need a change of scenery from the local park, the beach is our next favourite place to have some action photography fun,

In The Water

When you get too hot and bothered running about on the beach there is always time for a quick swim to cool off.

Under The Sea

With the right equipment the action doesn’t have to stay above the waves.

Of course, an action shot doesn’t have to be close-up and personal. One of my favourite action shots of my old dog Ludo is this one taken on Mansands in Brixham. The light is fabulous and it just captures the feeling of the whole place.

Can You Photograph My Dog?

If you would like us to capture your dog having fun in the great outdoors then please call us or send us an email (the details are all the website).

Remember though, if your dog is a couch potato then you might be better off with one of our studio sessions.

Thank You

A quick thank you to Brandy, Bruno, Molly, Alice, and a few unknown dogs who have joined in our fun; and all their tame humans.

Another thank you to my little Fidget, who doesn’t complain much about being a full time model, and to my old dog, Ludo, who was my main inspiration in setting up the business in the first place; and yes, I still miss him.

It’s beginning to get a bit chilly here in Brixham, at least in the back of the shop. As usual we never quite know whether we are going to be busy or not, as people recover from the Christmas festivities. But a quiet time now gives us a chance to plan for the exciting times ahead.

Onward into 2019

Meanwhile, lot’s of wonderful ideas are slowly falling into place to move the pet photography business forward into 2019. Lots more social media coverage, and getting our message out to potential clients.

I already have two confirmed bookings for February, so I hope the trend continues and the rest of the year fills up nicely.

The “Shooting The Dog” Brand

The move over to the “Shooting The Dog” brand is well under way, the first step being this web site. Then there are business cards and flyers, the list seems to be endless.

So I probably got far too excited over my new boxes … but they are rather sexy, in a cardboard box sort of way.

We haven’t done a blog post for a while, so I thought it was time to put something up on here. Also testing the phone app out at the same time.

This week I have been way outside my comfort zone, doing some product photography for a local gin company. It’s been a bit of a learning curve for me, trying to get the look we want without getting reflections in the glass bottles. I am getting there, but still not happy, so the challenge will continue into next week.

Meanwhile, I am trying to drum up more business for the pet photography side of things, trying to get people to spend money on luxury items is not easy in January.

Well things are beginning to slow down now as we get to the last few days before the big event.

The final few framing jobs just need to be finished off (and collected by the customers!), and then we can relax … and go for a pre-Christmas beer.

This year we have been looking at ways to make the mundane, paperworky (that’s my new word of the month) things easier. We have have started using FramR software for pricing the framing work, and Studio Ninja software to streamline the photography side of things. We have some minor things to iron out in both of these to fit the way we work, but we are getting there.

Other than that, unless I come up with a cunning plan or win the lottery, we’ll continue to provide, what we hope is, quality service with everything we do, at a reasonable price (while still be able to eat occasionally!).

Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year, and we look forward to seeing you all again in the New Year.

Oh, and for those of you who have had you pet photographed with us before there might well be a very special offer for a follow-up shoot next year. I’m sure some details will be being published soon.

Well, November has been and gone – very quickly in my mind.

We’ve been doing lots of work on the web site this month, and The Framing Dept continues to be busy as usual.

We had two dog photography sessions last week, one with a wonderful rescue Bulldog, and the other was with two eleven month old Chihuahua x JRT brothers (it was chaos, but in a lovely way!)

Christmas will now soon be with us, so don’t forget our Christmas Gift Voucher offer, it would make the perfect Christmas gift for the pet lover in your life.

So it’s what you have all been waiting for, the much anticipated 2018 Shooting The Dog Christmas video …. go on, take a look, you know you want to….

Don’t miss out!

Over the last few days I have started updating the web site using the new editor – with blocks and funky stuff. 

I’ts going to take a while to get it all done, but so far I am loving it.

Why not take a look around and see what you think: