The Shot That Almost Got Deleted
Let me tell you about this picture of Bond, who at the time I photographed him was one of the Hearing Dogs’ puppies. He’s now a fully-fledged hearing assistance dog.
The thing about certain shots is that you fall in love with an image for various reasons. Sometimes because you worked hard. Sometimes because you think it might win an award. Sometimes simply because it’s cute. Well, this shot technically is an outtake. The dog blinked. That’s it. That’s all it was. At the moment I hit the button, the flash went off, the dog blinked – but I never deleted the shot.
BIPP Portrait and Wedding Awards
That’s fine, except that the Hearing Dogs didn’t like the shot either. But here’s the thing about an image like this: if you put a slightly different context around it and call it something like, I don’t know, Sleepy Puppy, it might just win an award. Which is precisely what it did. It went on to win me the title of Pet Photographer of the Year. It’s a simple shot. There’s nothing magical about it, but the moment is quite sweet. The technicality was all there – focus nailed, depth of field nailed, all of that. But in the end, the beauty of the shot is simply in the fact that the dog looks like it’s dozing off and going to sleep. The Hearing Dogs rejected it, it won an award, and so when my client eventually moved on from the Hearing Dogs, I gave her a leaving gift – the big, beautiful frame I’d won as a prize for Pet Photographer of the Year. She has it on her wall now. And the lesson from all of this? Never delete your pictures. Keep them. You never know which one might just turn out to be an award-winning image.