Dog Photography: Part 1

When I think Dog Photography I’m not interested in portraits, and certainly not snapshots. I seek out skilled photojournalists for their ability to sense composition, lighting and emotion in the life of a dog. I want the image to tell a story.

I want to see dog photography depicting dogs in the midst of doing something; running, jumping, hunting, trailing scents, herding, the action stuff. This curiosity steered me to Claudio Piccoli from Italy.

He’s one of several top sporting dog photographers that resonates with me on many levels. There are not that many true working dog photographers anywhere in the world. It’s not something that everyone can do without years of learning. It’s a niche and a lot of hard work.

Sporting dog photography in particular goes beyond being a photographer. There are skills required that aren’t taught in school.

But there are some similarity with portraiture in that dog photography is all about the eyes and focus of the dog.

Piccoli readily admits to using editing software, but his composition makes up for any digital color correcting he does. It’s his ability to compose and crop that makes his work superior.

To my eyes he is one of the best. He reminds me of a news photojournalist in his ability to capture a dog’s behavior at a very critical time. His work can be found at https://www.claudiopiccoli.com. See for yourself.

Here’s a screen grab from Piccoli’s YouTube channel.

His energy and ability to acknowledge that dogs “live in the moment” serve him well as a photographer. In this image he is working with dogs in the North Sea of Europe.

He’s not only a detailed-oriented photographer, Piccoli shows a love of his subjects, which happen to be dogs. His work clearly depicts a real connection with dogs that goes beyond just being a good photographer.

That combination may be at odds with others that simply snap cute photos, but to me and apparently Piccoli, dogs are the most difficult creatures to photograph, and it takes more than an expensive camera to capture a dog’s natural behaviors. Especially working dogs, trained to do specific tasks.

More difficult than the cars I photograph for clients because dogs are always in movement, even while sitting.

Piccoli is a Nikon Ambassador for Italy and a Nikon School Master. His work seems to involve very high-shutter speeds, using Nikon D4 and D5 systems and Nikkor telephotos lenses.

All of Piccoli’s work revolves around dogs in sporting events, many fetching Frisbees, others just running toward his gaze. His unique sense of timing to capture dogs in action is stellar, and while it may look easy, I assure you it is not.

Panning a dog at speed using a 400 mm telephoto lens is not for the novice. And thinking that today’s cameras do it all without any creator input is the wrong kind of thinking. Even using auto-focus mode is not going to produce the kind of clarity seen in Piccoli’s work. It takes years of experience to pull off his images. Fortunately, for those interested in dog photography, Piccoli offers online master classes in dog photography to shorten your journey.

I hope to be able to bring you examples of Piccoli’s work to give you an idea of what a true master of the art is all about. For the moment, I’m attempting to get permission to showcase some of these images to honor his copyrights.

In the meantime I will be continuing to explore Dog Photography with this series.

Come back and see something new, thanks