I stood on a mountaintop with Shep some 12 years ago, looked at my best friend and said, “It’s just you and me, bud.”
He seemed to understand, looked out onto the Bow Valley below us and lifted his chin a little with pride.
Yup.
I didn’t know then the path my life would take, that the journey to becoming an adventure dog photographer was getting started.
But I will never forget that moment. It is etched in my brain and it comes to life when I look at the pictures of that day.
The journey of an adventure dog photographer
Life takes its funny twists and turns. It was only months after I said “it’s just you and me” that we met the man who would become the third piece of our puzzle. As he grew from friend to boyfriend to fiancé and husband, he unwittingly became part of my journey to become an adventure dog photographer.
Here’s how it all happened:
Step 1: Get a dog
Shep changed my life in so many ways. He gave me the confidence to walk alone, he taught me patience and he got me off the ballfield and into the mountains.
That last one is key. I was convinced my social life revolved around the world of slopitch in Calgary. Man, was I wrong.
Shep, then a young Maremma sheepdog, was getting cheated out of his best life ever because I was packing a gear bag off to the ballfield. When I finally figured it out – traded in my Ford Mustang even – he couldn’t wait for the weekend to jump into the Escape and head for the Rockies.
Step 2: Have a soul-sucking career
The fog might never have lifted off the path to becoming an adventure dog photographer if I hadn’t been laid off from my sports-writing career. I loved being a sports writer. I loved my shifts hanging out with the boys in the “toy department” at the Calgary Sun. We did incredible work, especially during the Flames’ 2004 Stanley Cup run.
When I got laid off in 2006, I turned to marketing and communications. I started at a nonprofit, became a media relations specialist at a college then made insane amounts of money as a website copywriter for a telecommunications company.
None of it felt authentic.
I had a bit of a breakdown in the middle of it all and my therapist suggested I find outlets for my creativity that filled my soul.
On one of our trips to the mountains, I looked at Shep and thought, “How am I in the most beautiful place in the world with the most beautiful dog in the world without a proper camera?”
My Christmas bonus that year turned into my first digital single-lens reflex camera, a Nikon D40 with a couple of kits lenses.
Step 3: Take a lot of bad pictures
I look back at a lot of the photos I took of my beautiful Maremma sheepdog and realize that they are crap.
(Laugh at me, because they are such crap.)
Look, shooting sports is easy. Once you get your exposure settings down and figure out how to focus quickly – manually, because these were the good ol’ days of film) – all you have to do is wait for the action to cross your lens. Hockey, rugby, soccer, baseball or whichever sport floats your boat, find your spot and wait.
OK, it might not be that easy but my point is that you need a keen eye for beauty, perspective and color when you’re out and about in nature.
I spent a lot of time taking photos of wildflowers, mountain peaks and waterfalls. None of them spectacular until I started to develop a deeper appreciation for where I was, what I was doing and how to do it.
Then when I figured out my focal point should be my dog? Look out, bishes. The adventure dog photographer is emerging!
Step 4: Realize you don’t know it all
Even my early photos of Bella are crap. Once I joined a Facebook group for dog photographers and posted a few photos, I learned I had no idea what I was doing.
I was one of the turkeys trying to soar like an eagle.
So I’ve studied. I’ve spent a boatload of money on tutorials, mentorship, always learning and trying to be better.
I also quickly learned that I knew SFA – ah … sweet fuck all – about running a business. If it wasn’t for Nicole Begley and the Hair of the Dog Academy, I wouldn’t be the adventure dog photographer I am today.
Step 5: Spend a boatload of money on gear
Oh, wait. You think I’m talking about camera bodies and lenses, right?
Well, yeah. I have spent a boatload of money on camera bodies and lenses – and I’m getting ready to drop several thousand on more this year. I love to work with off-camera flash and I’m forever on a quest to find the right modifier that’s lightweight and functional.
And when you’re an adventure dog photographer, you also need to think about clothes (I swear by Duluth’s Flexpedition pants), hiking boots, winter gloves and so on.
Step 6: Find the most epic locations in your area
This part does not suck.
Because I’m always looking for the coolest places to do a session, Bella and I frequently hit the trails around Spokane and North Idaho. We’ve found epic epic epic viewpoints at some of the simplest places, like Mirabeau Point Park, Dishman Hills and Saltese Flats. And this time last year, when I was prepping for Paws of the Panhandle, we hiked Evans Landing near Sagle, Idaho.
On my way back home, I pinged my friend Cat and said, “Dude, your book session … Evans Landing … sunrise … it will be amazing.”
It was.
Step 7: Be prepared to get dirty, wet and cold
Sometimes it’s just dirty.
Other times it’s dirty and wet.
In the middle of February, it’s all three.
No matter which or all, it’s so much stinkin’ fun. I will happily belly flop onto the ground, crawl over fallen trees, scale rocks and jump into the Spokane River or Lake Pend Oreille in freezing temperatures.