I grew up in Iowa, while back visiting family I decided to have some fun photographing dogs during the day. I figured that it would be a great way to have some relaxed fun with pet portraits. I have several people who love my work from Iowa and wanted photos of their dogs. It was pretty ironic to go and photograph a large labrador named "Bear" as my "Bear" was home in Las Vegas.
Bear was a wonderfully goofy labrador. We went around to a nature trail and did several photos. This Bark Gallery session there was 2 other dogs and several people who were watching the session. I was wanting a lot of green grass and the sky in a portrait. We did the majority of the photography session in the meadow and further into the reserve. Which was full of large oak trees and not quite what I was hoping for in this portrait. I kept looking for a unique location for a close-up photo.
I will often pre-visualize my pet photographs and what I would like to see as a final product. The large grass and a few yellow flowers were exactly what I was thinking. This was about 6 ft from the country road, and on the other side, the mower had the grass extremely low. This photo was essentially taken in the "ditch", but what a pretty ditch. The final photograph has been edited slightly to remove the distracting elements. I also removed the leash from the image as safety was a concern being so close to a major roadway.
Behind the Scenes- Bark Gallery Session Rick Vierkandt
The final image was just the emotion I was looking to evoke in the portrait. This looks like a fun summer afternoon playing with your dog in a large field. It will be our little secret this happened to be a ditch in Iowa. :)
Bark Gallery is available for travel to other locations. This particular session happened to work out as I was in Iowa for vacation. If you would have questions about travel please contact me and we can discuss the details.
Bark Gallery- Rick Vierkandt