The serenity of this portrait gives the impression that all was completely chillax during the portrait session, when in reality the fur was flying, as they say. Polar, the big one, is a wild Labrador trapped in a Standard Poodle's body. But look at them! It's just perfect.
People always ask me, "How did you get that dog to sit still?" My answer is "I didn't." Dogs have this crazy rhythm that you have to tap into. It's a cadence, a beat, just the way each person walks a little faster or slower, or kind of straight or bouncy. You have to tune into the dog's wavelength. So what is shown is not necessarily what was, except for perhaps a brief planetary alignment. (I go through that dance with every one of my subjects.)
This is one of the things I find most fascinating about portraiture, the idea that a work of art exists in a space often quite removed from the circumstances of its creation!
For instance, many of the people in my Impromptus series live and work in the Briarcliff/Sage Hill area over near my studio. (Close proximity has been one of the reasons I have photographed them. It is bricolage; you use what is at hand, and try to find the magical and mysterious in the commonplace.) What is odd is to see these people again and realize how unlike their portraits they appear. I have literally driven past many of them and done a double take, as if I know a person, but can't quite remember from where.
Anyhow (if you're still with me), we spent a tremendous amount of time planning and executing this image, and I think it really shows. :-) Hey Man, Nice Shot!
