I like the background of the first image, Jim. The light on the yellow flowers adds good color and depth to the image. When I look for outdoor backgrounds, I look for a background the is getting some light and a background that will look good "out of focus" (OOF); in my opinion, branches and sticks do not look great OOF; I do like OOF leaves and flowers.

I live near a park and a lake; I have scouted many different locations in this park area to use depending on sun angles.

I like your idea of old factories and such. I would also like to find some rustic settings with old fences, old doors, etc.

Jim,
I cannot wait to see your example. I am not sure if I can picture (pun) what type of background that might work. Sort of like the very interesting backgrounds one would look for when shooting a senior? Maybe we can make that a challenge for us control issue shooters.

John,
I agree -- anything with texture should work. I spent yesterday on a Rescue mission so I didn't get a chance to check out any locations but between Mothers Day shoots, I'll try to do that this weekend.

I hesitate to suggest particular settings but things like a junkyard for Rotties and Pits or a hair salon for Poodles would be cool as long as people had some sort of sense of humor about it . But neutral ones will probably work best. The Winter Park chapel would be cool for Parson Russell Terriers!!

More later,

Jim

I find this subject really fun since now I am thinking of not only the same lines you are like the rough tough place for the hardy dogs and foo foo places for the not so hardy. But now I am thinking of even more ideas. Thanks for getting the ball rolling. Dee Dee and I have had some fun challenges in the past. Hopefully this could start some really creative thinking.

The vast majority if the pets I photograph are done within the clients home in controlled lighting. I do very little work out in natural places...though I greatly prefer it. Living in Manhattan, the green space is pretty well defined and fairly easy to map out locations that you like to shoot in. The trick with shooting out in the park is that it really does limit WHEN I feel comfortable shooting the pets. From a time usage perspective, I find that very limiting. While I can certainly go 'find a shade spot' which is what I would otherwise wind up doing, I prefer the warm syrupy colors of peak lighting (LOL, I guess most of us do).

Cheers
James

James,
big cities pose their own special problems which is not just where to shoot but what you have to deal with in terms of people, noise, chaos, all the stuff that makes for distractions for the dog and for the photographer.

Having said that, some of my best "pet portraits" came when we went to the Garden a few years ago to cover Westminster for the magazine. A friend of ours had the #1 Rottie male and #1 female and we traveled around the city with them and the dogs capturing them at key tourist points: in the park next to one of the horse-drawn carriages, in front of FAO Schwartz, in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, at Rockefeller Plaza watching the skaters, and, of course, at the Garden itself.

Capturing a bit of the location was important to capturing the essence of the dogs and the added benefit was that lots of people got to meet some really cool dogs: the female, Dyna, is Rowdy's sister and is the winningest Rottie bitch of all time; the boy, Elvis, is one of the most wonderful Rottie boys I've ever spent time with. And that interaction with people created some lovely images as well.

I think we tend to create our own limitations. Sometimes, it takes the vision of a visitor to show us that those "limitations" are actually great opportunities.

The more I shoot dogs in "standard" locations including my own studio, the more I want to find locations that create a unique image that is relevant to the dog itself. And that may be in its own home. The studio only gives me a way to control the background. I can take those lights with me anywhere and create "studio lighting conditions." It's the "anywheres" I'm trying to collect so I have lots of options to offer clients both for pet portraits as well as advertising shots.

Jim

There is someone around here (DC area) that does packages with the dogs at various monuments in DC. Neat idea, but I don't care for the city very much.

I spent some time over the weekend looking for unique locations to shoot specific dogs and found myself at the abandoned Naval Base near where I live. The empty buildings and general trashiness of the place is in direct visual contradiction to the world of Disney, Universal Studios and Sea World.

I found some interesting areas that would make cool backdrops. I had Rowdy in the car with me but decided it was too dangerous to have him walk around with all the glass and other dangerous stuff on the ground. I'd have to clear the path to these locations if I ever wanted to use them.

Here is an overall shot of the facility itself.



And the "bombed out" interior of one of the buildings.



What I found most interesting visually however was some of the very creative graffiti. Like this.



And this.


And these two:




Obviously this type of location isn't for every dog or every portrait but with my ABs and a Vagabond, I could do some very cool lighting effects both inside and through the windows that would make for some "outside the box" dog portraits.

I like what I found. I'm going to keep scouting for more locations.

Jim

I need to do some like that. I think those sorts of locations need very dramatic processing to bring out the "mood" that they can elicit