Step 4: Bring the adventure home from your dog portrait session

<Knock knock>

It’s meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I’m standing on your doorstep, my arms full of treasures to decorate your home. The prints of your dog portrait session are ready.

We’re bringing your adventure home.

It’s time to hang your Statements and enjoy the Anthologies from the story we created during your dog portrait session.

This is the fourth part of a four-part series, filling you in on the process of creating a unique portrait of you and your dogs in Spokane and North Idaho.

Here’s how it all works:

Step 1: How to get a unique portrait of your dogs in Spokane and North Idaho
Step 2: How to make the most of your dog photography session
Step 3: How to turn your dog photos into amazing home decor
Step 4: Bring the adventure home from your dog portrait session

What to do with your prints

At each step along the way, we’ve been chatting about the images from your dog portrait session. If I’ve done my job right, we’ve had several conversations about your home and where and how to hang your prints.

Once we’re at this step, you’ve picked your favorite images and we’ve decided on whether to go with one big Statement piece or a few smaller ones that tell the whole story of your adventure.

You’ve picked between vibrant, modern metal prints and classic, beautiful canvas gallery wraps.

I’ll never pretend to be an interior designer, so I’m going to refer to an expert on how to hang those beauties.

I found Sally Soricelli through a photography podcast that’s on my playlist. She gives amazing interior design tips on her website, Nestorations.com.

Here are a few quick hits from her suggestions on how to hang your art, measuring from the center of your Statement piece.

Large prints from your dog portrait session should hang:

• 60 inches above the floor
• 6 inches above a sofa or large piece of furniture

A large print should be two-thirds the width of a large piece of furniture. And if you’re hanging multiple prints, you should treat your wall art design as one large piece.

With Anthologies, place your Storybook album or Storyblock in prominent places such as side tables or nook shelves.

You’re going to want friends and family to flip through those pages and prints to learn all about your adventure life with your dog.

Equally as important as hanging your art, though, is caring for your art.

Make the adventure last

The prints from your dog portrait session should last forever.

I have had your prints created at the very best professional labs in the United States. So with the proper care and handling, they are sure to last a lifetime and then some.

Here are some simple tips to make sure that happens:

• Hang them away from direct sunlight — colors can fade!
• Don’t use harsh chemicals to wipe away dust accumulations.
• For canvas gallery wraps, use a soft, dry or slightly damp cloth to wipe away dirt.
• For metal prints, use a clean, lint-free cloth. You can use a nonammonia glass cleaner, water or isopropyl alcohol without harming the print surface.

And then there are our old friends, the digital files. When you purchase Statement pieces or Anthologies, you receive digital copies of the images we used to create your art. Your files are accompanied by a print release allowing you to print those suckers up to 8×10 as many times as you want.

You will receive a link to your gallery on my Pixieset account. That link will stay live for 90 days. You should download your images before that expiration date and, for the love of all the goddesses, back them up.

I have all images saved to at least two external hard drives. Even those are insecure so I also have a cloud storage method. It’s a good idea for you, too, and most of us have Google Drive, Dropbox or Amazon Prime accounts.

Book your dog portrait session

Now that you’ve gotten through all four steps of the process, let’s chat about it.

Shoot me a text at (509) 720-8784 or an email at angela@bigwhitedogphotography.com.

Or just fill out this easy-peasy form and head straight into my inbox. Then we can get started on that conversation to start planning your dog portrait session.

All around the circle

It’s been fun writing about the process and since I’m always learning how to give you the best Big White Dog experience, I’ve seen ways already to rejig and refine.

I’ve also learned a ton from my colleagues in the pet photography industry, who’ve shared their processes in the worldwide blog circle. It’s fascinating to see how similar our approaches are in running a dog portrait session and to see the nuanced differences.

Let’s head down under to my friend Ina from Ina J Photography, talking about your pet portrait as art and how to care for them.

At the end of her blog post, click the link to the next one and do that on every post until you find yourself back in Spokane, turning your adventure dog portrait session into brilliant, bold art.

That’s when you know you’re home.

Right where you belong.