Yesterday was my dog's birthday. And of course we took the requisite Birthday picture. Not an easy task given a dog who spots a camera, iPhone, iPad or any other recording device and immediately turns away.
The above is the best I got after half an hour of cookies and cajoling and finally hog-tying her back legs so she was kinda stuck.
Most dogs don't like having their pictures taken and there are many theories on why that is.
Some say they see a camera as an object that isn't edible or shaped like a ball so they have no interest in what you might be doing with it.
Some believe the lens reminds them of an eye and dogs don't make eye contact with somebody they don't know.
I think I'm in the group who believes they know you haven't made a deal with their agent.
But some people have mastered the art of the dog photo. William Wegman became a master of it and others like Seth Casteel continue to raise the bar with series like his underwater dogs...
In my world either me or the dog would drown before we got within a mile of a picture like that.
A while ago, New York Photographer Elias Weiss Friedman embarked on a project to capture the nature of dogs on the streets of New York. And over time he discovered a lot of tricks to make dogs pose for him.
This earned him the nickname "The Dogist", a lucrative book deal and the interest of filmmaker E.J. McLeavey-Fisher.
If you've got a dog, Friedman's work will inspire you. And if you don't have a pooch in your life, it might make you want to get one.
Enjoy Your Sunday.
The Dogist from E.J. McLeavey-Fisher on Vimeo.
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