Embark Challenge 1 “Colouriffic” Working Dog Edition

If you haven’t heard by now, I am in the process of working through a dog photography course. Most of my photography career has had a major focus on horses, and now I am finding myself shooting more working dogs.

So, I wanted to challenge myself, and not just shoot for the brief but have every submission have a working dog theme. The first section of the Embark course did just that.

The first challenge was “Colouriffic” and instructed us to take an image of a dog in front of a bold coloured background, sounds easy right? Well not when you live in the middle of nowhere…

Many example photos were taken in front of colourful walls found in urban areas, well we don’t have access to that. Coming into autumn I thought we might get some nice orange backdrops, but of course, most of the trees are evergreen!

My first thought was to do another blue hour shot. Being flat country, we get the best blue hour photos. I actually wanted to resubmit an image I had took for the free Unleased challenge “Four on the Floor’. This was an image of my border collie, Tex. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to receive feedback on this image, so I thought about submitting it for this challenge. Then, I remembered that all imaged for the Embark course had to be taken before May 1st, and this one just missed the date. Instead of recreating it, I wanted to challenge myself and so something different.

Tex at blue hour for the “Four on the Floor” challenge

So, I was racking my brain until I looked out the window and saw the big, red shearing shed right near our house… of course!

The landing of the shed, where we load the wool bales onto trucks made a nice dramatic low angle for me to shoot our 12 month old Kelpie, Pud, at. She stood like a gem on the landing without Jaykeb to even hold her! My original idea was to get her laying down looking over the landing at me below, but this position shaded her face too much.

The shot I was originally going for

Pud was more comfortable standing, but I thought it didn’t make for as much of an interesting pose.

Looking back, I think I should have submitted this one, I think you are drawn to her eyes better

The image I decided on was a standing pose, with her face directed more into the sun which gave a nice even lighting on her face. I really liked her pose, looking away from the camera I thought looked like a stoic working dog.

My final submission for the challenge.

I anxiously awaited my feedback, I think this was the first time in all my schooling life that I submitted an assessment well before the due date! But I knew if I didn’t, I would overthink it right up until the deadline.

Craig and Charlotte’s feedback was great and very useful. They liked the richness of the red in the background and thought the corrugate gave a great rural vibe. They said it is hard to tell because there isn’t anything to reference it to but the image needs a little bit of straightening. Also, even though the light is harsh, it does a good job of evenly lighting her face. However, because of this harsher lighting, the back leg is actually brighter than her face so takes the viewers eyes straight to that leg instead.

The image after applying Craig & Charlotte’s feedback

What do you think?

The next challenge is “Get Down” and I am looking forward to shooting something for it this weekend!