This week's 52 week photography challenge is about "telling stories." For those who may be new to my blog, I am participating in a 52 week pet photography challenge and each week we have a new topic. We are using David Duchemin's book The Visual Toolbox: 60 Lessons for Stronger Photographs. We are to go out each week and take photographs based upon the week's lesson. However this week I am using images I took in August because they are my best examples of telling stories.

I am paraphrasing but Duchemin says in his book: Stories can be powerful in a photograph and learning to tell or imply a great story is as important in photography as it is in literature.

When I saw the lesson for this week "Telling Stories" I immediately thought of my time in Cannon Beach and I immediately thought of one specific image. This one. I don't think it needs words to tell its story.

I love how in the first image Hailey is looking at her dad and in the second image, Emmas is looking at him. I hope he feels loved when he sees these images. I see it.

To give a little back story on this, Emmas is the dog store owner I contacted when I was setting up BARKography sessions in Cannon Beach. I knew she had a black lab named Hailey that she said was difficult to photograph because she was black. Over the months prior to my trip, I was in contact with Emmas regularly as she was doing some marketing for me on her end and as I got to know her, I learned how special Hailey is to her.

We met for our photo session and after doing lots of action shots (because Hailey loves chasing sticks on the beach), I asked Emmas if there were any certain photos she wanted that we'd not done. She kind of looked at my sideways and said, there is one photo I have in my mind that I've always wanted but I don't know how we'd do it. She said she wanted a photo of her and her husband walking down the beach with Hailey between them. She didn't know how to keep Hailey between them though. Hailey is rarely leashed up so it didn't occur to her to put her leash on. I suggested it and after removing the leash in photoshop, these two photos are the results. When Emmas saw these she said to me: "Thank you for making my dream come true." 

So these images are telling stories. As a dog photographer, I want my images to tell stories. I want people to feel emotion when they see my images. That is what I strive to accomplish every time I'm behind the lens.

This is a blog circle and next up is I Got The Shot Photography, Northeast PA Pet Photographer. Be sure to click the link at the end of each post and you'll end up right back here.