We first met Brodie last summer for an outdoor farm session. He and his human, Carlie, came to the farm on a humid summer evening. Thunderstorms rumbled in the distance and did I mention it was humid?
Needless to say, as with a lot of summer sessions, there was nary an image with Brodie’s mouth CLOSED. Don’t get me wrong – I think dogs look happy in photos with their mouths open. Brodie, however, has this tendency to open his mouth WIDE and right into the lens! Plus his human really wanted some closed mouth shots.
So, we thought perhaps a barn session would be better. Even though he would still be excited, we figured the smaller confined space might help. It didn’t take long for us to realize we could possibly be in for another open-mouth session! Here is how we started…
Again, we think Brodie is just adorable with that open mouth but we knew it was important to Carlie to get that big mouth closed! We tried several maneuvers. One that usually works is to give the dog a treat and use that nano-second after they swallow, while their mouth is still closed, to click the shutter. Nope. Not this dog. Not this mouth.
So we backed off. It was obvious that he was a bit anxious and stimulated. We had Carlie go to the car and get his dog bed. We set it down in front of our lights and proceeded to ignore him. Eventually, when he realized we were done asking anything of him, he plopped down on that bed and had a quiet, close-mouthed, look around.
From here we transitioned to some sofa shots. Though I was doubtful as to how he would react, Brodie was stellar. We got some lovely, soulful shots of this very gorgeous dog. The lesson in this session is that sometimes LESS is more. And of course, with pets, patience always wins.
Thanks Brodie- it was great to see you again!
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