Dog Photography: Part 1

In my 35 years in publishing I have worked with some very skilled photojournalists. Each one seemed to posses a rare sense of composition and the ability to use the right lens at the right time. Their timing is incredible.

Photojournalism is the art of capturing a subject without any props or setup. It’s not people portraiture. It’s much more action based. A photojournalist must be ready at any given moment for that prize winning photograph.

Most photojournalists don’t rely on post-production and photoshop like commercial photographers. Swapping backgrounds, sharpening images, and using filters to change lighting conditions isn’t in their playbook.

I want to see more photography that depicts how the photographer saw it in real time with limited post-production work. This curiosity steered me to Claudio Piccoli from Italy. He’s one of several top sporting dog photographers that resonate with me on many levels. There are not that many sporting dog photographers anywhere in the world. It’s not something that everyone can do.

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.

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. Ultimately, Piccoli knows his stuff.

That combination may be at odds with others that simply snap photos of their four-legged furry friends, 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 innate behaviors.

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 300 mm telephoto lens is not for the novice. And thinking that today’s cameras do it all without any 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 some more 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, Chao.