| Workshop | Mastering Photographing Dogs With Their Owners Workshop | Date: | February 22, 2027 | Ability | Beginner To Intermediate | Location | Paul Wilkinson Photography Studio, 6 High St, Haddenham, Bucks HP17 8ER | Timing | Full Day |
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You have the perfect light. The composition is spot on. The owner is looking exactly where you want them to look.
And the dog has wandered off. Welcome to dog photography!
Dogs are unpredictable, endlessly entertaining and completely incapable of caring about your carefully planned photograph. And that is exactly what makes photographing them so much fun.
I’ve spent many years photographing dogs of every shape, size and personality, both for families and through my work with Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. Along the way, I’ve learned that great dog photography isn’t really about getting a dog to behave perfectly. It’s about understanding them, keeping them relaxed and being ready when all the right ingredients suddenly come together.
This is a hands-on day of photographing dogs and their owners, working both in the studio and outdoors. We’ll look at everything from lighting and camera settings to movement, behaviour and, most importantly, capturing the relationship between a dog and the person who loves them.
What We’ll Cover
We’ll work with different dogs and owners throughout the day, giving you the chance to try different approaches, solve problems as they happen and create a varied set of images.
- Lighting dogs beautifully in the studio, and how this differs from lighting their humans
- Working outdoors with natural light
- Camera settings for studio and location photography
- Photographing dogs in motion and freezing action
- Getting a dog’s attention and coaxing them into roughly doing what you had in mind
- Recognising when a dog is relaxed, distracted or becoming stressed
- Working with owners to keep the session flowing
- Creating portraits that capture the bond between dogs and their people
And because dogs rarely follow the plan, we’ll also spend plenty of time dealing with the unexpected. That’s often where the best photographs come from.
Plenty of Time to Photograph
We keep numbers small, with just five photographers, because that’s the only way everyone gets proper time with the dogs, owners, lights and Paul.
This is very much a practical workshop rather than a day spent sitting at a desk. You’ll be photographing, experimenting, asking questions and getting feedback as we go.
Everyone who attends will also be invited to our private Mastering Portrait Photography Facebook Group, where we share technical notes, behind-the-scenes content, tips and early booking access for future workshops.
Come prepared to photograph plenty of dogs, learn a huge amount and accept that, occasionally, the dog will have a better idea for the photograph than you do.
Details
Some Lovely Feedback From Our Mastering Dog Photography Workshops
Fantastic day with Paul, Sarah and the team. Paul explained the basics really well and then allowed us practice and make mistakes before helping us rectify things! Thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend to others.Thank you Paul for such a brilliant workshop I learnt so much about lightning and also how to capture movement. The whole day was really lovely. Thank you Sarah also for such a delicious lunch! 😋
Paul & Sarah were very helpful & knowledgeable. The course was a very friendly & fun & easy going from Paul, the models and the other delegates. I would throughly recommend anyone who wants to photograph dogs well to attend.
We are all familiar with the adage ‘those that can, do; those that cannot, teach.’ Paul is proof that those phrases are not mutually exclusive. He does both with aplomb. I found Paul so engaging we could have managed without the dogs!
Meeting Paul and his team was everything I hoped it would be, a fun and entertaining day with expert knowledge and tuition. I ended the day a better photographer and enjoyed the whole experience.
It was very informative and great to see how Paul works. It was nice to have a chat with other people wanting to learn dog photography or currently photographing dogs. Paul made sure that all questions were answered and everyone got to have a go which was great as I learn through hands on experience.
Additional Information
Pricing
£350.00
The price for the workshop includes all tuition and lunch.
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