July 3, 2023
Pro Tips for Great Pet Photos
Hey there!
In this episode, you’ll hear us refer to the show as Starlight Pet Talk—that’s what we called it before we decided to embrace the fur, mess, and mayhem. Don’t worry, you’re in the right place for Muddy Paws and Hairballs—same great content, just with a name that fits! - Amy
Explore pet photography with Mindy Dutka, founder of "Dogs I Meet." Discover insights into dog photography and the vibrant animal rescue community in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, through the Global United Foundation's efforts. Mindy shares tips for capturing perfect shots and creating brand connections. Whether you're a photographer or a pet parent, this episode offers expert advice and heartwarming stories celebrating our furry friends.
Shoutouts in this episode:
Global United Foundation
If you'd like to make a donation to GUF: donorbox.org/globalunited
Get in touch with Mindy to learn more about how she can help you grow your brand:
Website: dogsimeet.com
Email: hello@dogsimeet.com
Phone: 855-772-8929
IG:@dogsimeet
FB: www.facebook.com/dogsimeet
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Thanks for listening to Muddy Paws and Hairballs, your go-to resource for all things pet care. From dog training, behavior, and socialization to cat enrichment, pet adoption, and tackling behavior problems, we provide expert advice and real talk to help you create a happy, healthy life with your pets. Whether you're dealing with dog anxiety, looking for puppy training tips, or exploring enrichment ideas for your cat, we've got you covered. Be sure to check out all our episodes!
Chapters
00:02 - Photographing Dogs for Brand Affinity
11:26 - Spay/Neuter Clinics in Mexico
22:02 - Tips for Better Animal Photography
36:55 - Get to Know Your Equipment for Best Shots
Transcript
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Welcome to the Starlight Pet Talk podcast, where we'll talk about and explore ways to help pet parents and future pet parents learn everything they need to know to have a happy and healthy relationship with their pet.
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So sit up and stay for Starlight Pet Talk rescue, adoption and pet parenting done right.
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Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk.
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I'm your host, amy Castro, and if you're anything like me, you really love products that are pet friendly, but I especially love those products that feature pets in their print ads and their commercials.
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I think over the years and maybe I'm dating myself saying this, but we, you know, we've fallen in love with the Budweiser Clydesdale Spud McKenzie was always a favorite maybe Fall in Love with Bolteriors, that Taco Bell Chihuahua that we all remember, or some of us might remember, and even the Hump Day Camel from Geico.
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You know, we just love animals.
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That's just the bottom line.
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But I think that we probably especially love ads and commercials that feature dogs, because everybody loves dogs, right?
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My guest today is Mindy Dubka, and she's the founder and chief storyteller at Dogs I Meet, which is a dog photography business that connects brands to the power of dogs through story driven photography, evoking trust, connectivity and brand affinity.
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She's also a tireless animal advocate.
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She's worked with animal rescue organizations in Mexico, colombia and Puerto Rico and throughout the United States, and she uses her photography to create awareness and raise funds for animal rescue organizations.
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So got to love a person like that.
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So thank you so much, mindy, for being here and being our guest today.
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Thank you for having me.
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It's a pleasure to be on your podcast.
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Well, thank you.
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Well, i know I thoroughly, in getting to know you, just the tiny bit that we've done so far, just love your photography.
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I mean it just when they say a picture's worth a thousand words.
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You know there's so many stories that I see going on in the photographs that you take.
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How did you get started with photographing pets or dogs specifically?
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I guess I should say So about six years ago I decided that I wanted to create a business, a brand that I was just completely passionate about, and I have been a dog lover, lifelong dog lover.
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I've also loved photography.
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I got my first dog and my first camera at the age of seven.
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Oh wow, i've been without neither since, and it just sort of came together that to me photographing dogs you know they're the most interesting, wonderful beings to me And so it just made sense that I should focus on niche down to dog photography, and then I really just sort of drilled down into what was important to me and like what.
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I wanted my brand to stand for what the pillars were, so that I could grow it and it would all fit under the umbrella of dogs I meet And very storytelling driven.
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My tagline is because every dog has a tail.
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T-a-l-e.
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Right So the play on words and that's you know we all do that.
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I mean, if you've rescued a dog or you play that game like well, can you tell me, like, what happened to you before, what was your story?
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And like, you know that dogs have so many stories and then they have the stories that they bring to us, you know.
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So I really wanted to tell stories through my photos and capture the spirit of dogs, and I think the fact that I'm so connected to dogs it helps a lot when I photograph them.
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Yeah, definitely So, and I know this wasn't a question that I said hey, i'm going to ask you this, but your comments made me think about the fact that, you know, was it scary, kind of going into what I perceive to be kind of a niche category of photography, there's some people that might be a photographer and they'll it's anything.
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Anything you want for your commercial product to represent your brand, but focusing specifically on tying dogs to the brands, was that scary at all, or was it a no-brainer?
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Dogs was a no-brainer for me, figuring out what I did once I said, oh, i'm going to do this, and actually creating it into a business was another story.
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I say I kind of set myself to school without going to school, but I've studied one-on-one with well-known dog photographers to learn and get better at the you know my photography piece.
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I'm constantly taking online classes, workshops, variety of things, and then the same thing studying up like the business.
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There's actually business of dog photography.
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When I first started six years ago I guess I was, you know, maybe 30% on the way of the curb up.
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There weren't a lot of people Now.
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Everyone's like, oh, what a cool job.
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And they seem to be.
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There's a lot of them, you know, but not everybody is as a lot of people do.
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Private commissions, some people, you know, do do commercial work in different ways, but I've, you know, stayed true to my core of the storytelling and then sort of harnessing the power of dogs with brands.
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So I primarily work with pet brands, but it doesn't have to be pet brands And, like you said, the, you know the car companies, beer companies, you know dogs are everywhere and they add so much to everything.
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You have to build trust, you have to create connection and dogs are just kind of like a no brainer opening up that.
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You know that door, that avenue And my background previously I have many chapters of my career.
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A long chapter was I had an event planning company, so I'm very familiar with producing large scale corporate events and nonprofit events And that sort of ties in.
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You know how I'm able to put together shoots and collaborate for profit businesses with nonprofit And it all just kind of fits in to what I'm doing and to make projects to bring creativity to companies that maybe they weren't thinking about, ways that they can collaborate, of being an animal advocate.
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Yes, definitely.
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One of my main goals was to help animals, to help dogs, And I don't know that everybody realized it's how important photography is to dogs that do not have homes.
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Sounds dramatic, but literally I believe a good photograph could be the difference between life and death to a shelter pet.
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I 100% agree with you.
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100% because I hear it every day.
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You know that the look on his face, you know, called out to me or I saw how sad and terrified she was, you know, and the before and after is like look at the transformation from being in the shelter to the adoption photo.
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I mean, yeah, we see it every single day.
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You know, unfortunately we're not professional photographers, but we do the best that we can.
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But we're gonna get to that because hopefully you're gonna give us some tips.
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Good.
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I was gonna say that a lot of places shelters, rescues, animal organizations like you said, you're wearing many hats doing a lot of things and often photography is not even almost on the list, it's an afterthought.
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And a lot of times you'll see a dog in the back of a dimly lit cinder block shelter, terrified, dirty, just coming in.
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And that's so unfair because it plays into the perception the false perception that people have, that dogs that are in shelters or rescues are broken.
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They're not.
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They're there.
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Usually circumstances beyond their control, circumstances that humans put them there.
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So you know they're not broken, they're just unfortunate circumstances And that's why the good photograph of them looking happy and not terrified makes people connect to them that they see that dog in their yard playing with their kids or they see that dog sitting on their couch.
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I often equate it to staging a house.
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When you're selling a house, you know the whole idea is you want people to be able to visualize how they would be if it was their house.
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A good photo when you're trying to get a dog adopted allows people to visualize and feel what it would be like to have that dog as a member of their family, versus this poor, dirty, scared dog.
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They don't know what's wrong with it.
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Why is it there?
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That is a good point.
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That is a really good point.
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We had a recent dog that came into our program named Poppy and it was, you know, the original photo that I received of her.
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And then the difference of I literally took a photograph as I got in the car and had her on the floorboards And it's just the before and after was amazing.
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But that's such an important point is that a lot of times those of us in rescue and well in rescue, for example we'll show that really sad, pitiful photo And on one hand it might pull at the heartstrings to a certain degree for people to donate because they feel bad and they wanna fix that broken animal, as you said, but on the other hand, they don't necessarily wanna adopt that broken, sad, scared looking animal.
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So that's such a good point is to take that animal and put it in a position where people can picture themselves with that animal.
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Like we've got a dog named Ernie right now that I'm trying.
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He's adorable and he's so photogenic, but he just has not been moving, so to speak.
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So even as I came back from my vacation, i just happened to have him.
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We were watching TV in the bedroom, spending quality time together, because he doesn't get a lot of one-on-one attention And my suitcase was there.
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So I thought, okay, i'm gonna put the suitcase up on the bed and have him put his paws on the suitcase and take his picture and say, ernie's packed and ready to go, you just need to come and get him, kind of thing, and just kind of using a little bit of humor, a little bit of non-traditional approaches to taking some of those photos.
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And it usually gets us a pretty good reaction when we do things like that.
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Or even we've done some things where because people sometimes have a hard time understanding the size of a dog, despite the fact that you put, this dog weighs 30 pounds or this one weighs 20, they look at a picture and they're like it looks huge.
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And so sometimes we put it next to a shoe, put it next to a cat, give it some scope and some scales so that people can see.
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Yeah, when I say that dog's tiny and he sits in a shoe, he really sits in a shoe.
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I'm not kidding.
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I know that's not really what you're talking about, but people don't believe the words, they believe what they see, and I think that's why it's so important to have those great photos.
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So, before we get to the tips getting into that, tell us a little bit about, though, some of the work that you've done that you feel like you're most proud of when it comes to helping helping rescue animals with your photography.
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I've done a lot of different things.
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I recently I've been working on a project in Playa del Carmen, mexico.
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I've been working with animal rescues in Playa del Carmen since I started photographing And one of the important things that I strongly believe in is ispayneuter, especially in an area Actually, mexico has one of the largest population of stray dogs and cats in Latin America.
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In Playa del Carmen alone, there are 40,000 stray dogs.
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Wow, but the story So they've taken it upon themselves when I say they it's a very vibrant animal rescue community.
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I have often referenced, i've been to a lot of different places and done work, like in Columbia, puerto Rico, which is the United States, but a lot and right here, you know.
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So you see a lot, of, a lot of things.
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Yeah.
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But so I call it sort of like the tale of two cities and everywhere, because there is these terrible atrocities and terrible things that happen to dogs and terrible things that people do.
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But then there's the rescue community that you know are the heroes, you know the everyday, the things that people are doing every day, And they're not necessarily even trained to do it, They just dedicate themselves to, you know, helping and doing whatever they can to rescuing dogs and cats.
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And Playa del Carmen does have an extremely vibrant rescue community.
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I've met several Americans who have retired there, who don't do much retiring because they then dedicate their life to.
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Yes, Yep, And I am on the board of a foundation called the Global United Foundation.
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So a lot of these projects that I do, we work together.
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So there's a 501 C3 nonprofit that people can donate to And then we fund these projects that we're working on.
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But so in Mexico in particular, there's one organized animal shelter called SOSL ARCA.
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But it's a community behind you.
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There's a lot of volunteers, There's a lot that goes into it And they want to do a long term solution to this stray neuter problem.
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So their goal is for five years to put on monthly, free to the community free monthly spay neuter clinics Oh wow, But they're not free.
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So that's where you know we need to raise money for it.
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Right.
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So they did it.
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We Global, we started helping them in 2023.
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But in 2022, they did, i believe eight, i think seven or eight of these And they had already spay, neutered, like 3,500.
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Oh, wow.
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So now they've done every month in 2023, they're up to 6,500 animals They have spayed and neutered.
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Wow.
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And in five years they're going to make a substantial difference and they are going to change the landscape, And that is the only way to do that.
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And I want to point out that the story I was just in Mexico.
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I was there for their May clinic And I was there to photograph the clinic, to meet people, to interview them and to tell their story And truly their story is not oh my God, it's not a TNR situation.
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These are people like you and I, like they're pet loving people.
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They love their dogs, they love their cats.
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Unfortunately, their circumstances you know that a lot of them struggle to feed themselves and their children.
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They live in small houses, so they do the best they can And so it's community helping community, those that these rescue groups you know are putting on these clinics and the people they wait for hours online.
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They dedicate is practically an entire day.
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It's about an eight, nine hour thing to wait online to get registered, to wait for your spay neuter clinic I'm going to show you pictures in a little bit, but okay and then they stay with the dogs after until the dogs come out of anesthesia And they are so grateful to have these clinics.
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So you know, and these are people that want to do right by their dogs and cats They just, you know, it's expensive, it's even expensive, it's expensive in Mexico to get your dog neutered.
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So sure it's good for them.
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They know it helps the community.
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They know culturally the dogs live outside because their shelters are so small.
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So they do wind up very often, wandering the streets during the day and populating, populating, populating.
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So yeah they want to care for the dog they have.
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But you know, i was just looking at it One dog who then has puppies, and those puppies have puppies in six years.
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That one dog can reproduce to 67,000 times once the multiplication comes in.
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Yes, that how you wind up with the 40,000 straight dogs, you know.
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So I'm not even necessarily talking about the dogs that are coming to the clinic have homes, but it's very important because if you don't get to the core of the problem and the issue, you can't change it.
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So I am very proud that you know, through Global United, through all of our efforts, that we've been supporting these clinics And we hope to be able to continue to raise money and continue to support it because I think it's an amazing, you know, initiative.
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I'm just going to quickly share my screen.
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I know that most people can't see it, but okay.
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So basically, whoever is listening to this just through the audio, they won't see them.
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You can check it out on YouTube as well And we can put links.
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If there's links where some of these photos live, we can put those in the show notes.
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The human animal bond is strong.
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The people love their dogs.
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These are just pictures of the people waiting.
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They've come in, they've registered and they're waiting to get their dogs and cats to be neutered.
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But just you know, and they're not staged photos.
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You know me capturing what is happening and people aren't seeing it.
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But you can feel the connection, you can see the connection.
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The expressions on the people's face and the expressions on the animals face show deep, deep love.
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And I think you know I think that's a good point for people to really let sink in, especially for those.
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I know we've got people that are listening, that are in rescue, and we've got a lot of people that are listening that follow rescue, and I think sometimes we can get very judgy about financial related things.
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You know, somebody says I want to give up my animal because I can't afford to do this, or my animal is pregnant because I couldn't afford to do that.
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And I'm not Pollyanna, i'm not stupid.
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I realize there are people that have the means and choose not to, and maybe they haven't made the brightest decisions.
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But you know, in reality there are people that maybe they don't have the means And, like you said, we're doing the best that we can And you know to be able to support that as much as we possibly can is important, because it's not about the person, it's about well, it is about the person, you know it's obviously we like to help people, but it's about what's best for the animal And so being able to put our judgment aside, whatever that might be, and focus on helping, do what is best for the animal, is important, and I think that's what everybody wants to do, nobody would have a pet you know and keep it and sit in line for eight hours or nine hours to get it spayed or neutered, if they didn't care about their pet.
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By the line, exactly.
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And you know, and that's the story I wanted to be told you know, because I don't think that's how people think, right, they just don't know, and so I wanted to to show them what I know to be true.
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And here.
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You'll see in these pictures This is their so-called, i guess, like a pack you.
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It's very clever the way that they they set these clinics up, oh yeah, and So now the people are sitting with their animals and again And this is the same girl earlier that was hugging the two dogs There's some more of her animals here, but you can see the dogs are asleep.
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They're still under anesthesia, but you can just see the love and the care and the compassion and and a spay neuter clinic like this Does so many things.
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You know.
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It helps the community, it supports the people that love their animals.
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The key factor there is education.
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They get education about things that they didn't know about.
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It teaches children Compassion.
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Here's what you can see.
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Here's two little kids With their mom.
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Those kids are there for eight hours behavior.
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Everybody behaved at this clinic.
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Everybody, you know, followed instructions.
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Everybody entertained themselves and it was hot you know, But, nobody complained.
00:20:34.703 --> 00:20:38.835
Everybody was just grateful that they were able to come to this.
00:20:39.196 --> 00:20:41.969
And just let me just time out for one second for those who aren't.
00:20:41.969 --> 00:20:49.998
You know, again, we're gonna put a link up where you can see some of the see some of the photos or at least watch the video Of this segment.
00:20:49.998 --> 00:20:53.146
But what we're basically seeing right here are bait.
00:20:53.146 --> 00:21:08.174
Are the owners, the families of these animals With these animals post-op, you know, basically being their post-op nurses, checking on them, stimulating them, you know, just making sure that they're okay and every single animal has a person that's sitting with them, caring for them.
00:21:08.174 --> 00:21:12.917
I mean, it's like having one-on-one nursing care afterwards For these, for these animals.
00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:21.573
In looking at these, these photographs and looking at your other photos, obviously they are awesome And, like I mentioned, you know we do the best that we can.
00:21:21.573 --> 00:21:28.338
Luckily We've got some volunteers who are really great at kind of capturing the essence of the animals and their And their story.
00:21:28.338 --> 00:21:38.384
But kind of going back to the original comment that you made about the photos and the dark cell kind of pictures, you know a jailhouse photos, for lack of a better term in defense of shelter folks.
00:21:38.384 --> 00:21:44.295
Sometimes it's a struggle because they take a picture of an animal on intake purely for identification purposes.
00:21:44.295 --> 00:21:51.164
It goes into a software system and then that's what gets put out to the Websites that advertise the animals.
00:21:51.164 --> 00:21:53.432
So on one hand it's not their fault.
00:21:53.432 --> 00:22:02.364
On the other hand, if they have the staffing or the volunteers to take the time to replace those photos with something better, it can make such a huge difference.
00:22:02.955 --> 00:22:04.540
Are there any tips that you can give?
00:22:04.540 --> 00:22:16.308
because I know for me I've done everything from the spontaneous photo on the suitcase or sitting on a nice red chair that I have in my Living room that's for some reason makes a great backdrop.
00:22:16.308 --> 00:22:24.327
But we also have a Little photo studio thing that we set up that has a backdrop that has sides for smaller animals.
00:22:24.327 --> 00:22:26.460
Not everybody can do all of that.
00:22:26.460 --> 00:22:29.307
Sometimes it might just be on the spot on the scene.
00:22:29.307 --> 00:22:42.382
Are there any tips that you can give us that would improve From from what you see, kind of the common mistakes that people make, to making those as best as possible, given maybe limited circumstances or equipment, props etc.
00:22:43.836 --> 00:22:44.439
Absolutely.
00:22:44.439 --> 00:22:45.961
And I mean now iPhones.
00:22:45.961 --> 00:22:50.068
You know everybody has an iPhone and they take really good pictures.
00:22:50.068 --> 00:23:14.847
So a few things and, like you said, some of these you may or may not be able to do, but just knowing about them and Knowing the importance of photography, you may be able to build it more into your program and, as a step, that there's a step somewhere, that it's not the intake photo that goes out right like right, someone knows that there's another photo coming soon and and that's the one that's going out.
00:23:15.336 --> 00:23:16.821
So a couple of things.
00:23:16.821 --> 00:23:31.199
One just from a logistics point of view, and I it's not always possible if, if a photograph can be taken of a dog outside in more of Open setting, of course you're gonna have that dog on a leash, someone who knows what they're doing.
00:23:31.199 --> 00:23:36.353
And now it doesn't even have to be because they have like magic erase on Google and all kinds of stuff.
00:23:36.353 --> 00:23:37.214
You can almost oh yeah.
00:23:38.057 --> 00:23:41.046
I use the leash and the person, and if you don't, you don't you know.
00:23:41.046 --> 00:23:49.838
But outside photos are better because light is much better and I don't recommend Photographing in harsh sunlight.
00:23:49.838 --> 00:23:51.142
People tend to think it's good.
00:23:51.142 --> 00:23:53.287
It's actually not, it's too harsh.
00:23:53.287 --> 00:24:05.470
So you might want to look for more of a covered Shade if there is harsh sunlight or try to photograph purposely early in the morning or closer to sunset for nice lighting.
00:24:05.470 --> 00:24:06.538
That that is one thing.
00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:18.128
Now the other thing is just, i know you they don't always have the time, but again, if there's a volunteer or somebody, you need to spend a little bit of time with that dog, because the dog is super stressed.
00:24:18.515 --> 00:24:22.615
Normally I spend time with the dog to condition him to get used to me.
00:24:22.615 --> 00:24:27.534
I sit with him for a little while, i click the camera, i give him a treat.
00:24:27.534 --> 00:24:34.434
I, you know, wait until I've got some kind of trust and some kind of connection with that dog.
00:24:34.434 --> 00:24:44.188
I understand you don't always have that time, but you know you want as best you can To spend a little bit of time relaxing the dog if possible.
00:24:44.188 --> 00:24:50.494
If there's a setting where there's a little bit of an outdoor playtime and you know you can decompress him a little bit.
00:24:50.494 --> 00:24:57.669
That's very important, because what you don't want is a dog Scared and shaking with their ears down.
00:24:57.669 --> 00:25:00.617
That's not the photo that you want, right?
00:25:00.617 --> 00:25:09.766
the other thing, which is pretty easy and makes a huge difference You want to get down on the animals level, on the dog.
00:25:09.766 --> 00:25:19.847
So There's a saying in dog photography, you know, like there's nothing too low, like I'm on the ground on my belly half the time, like on a beach.
00:25:21.316 --> 00:25:21.637
Okay.
00:25:22.997 --> 00:25:25.436
It's a very different Percept.
00:25:25.436 --> 00:25:32.055
The the photo looks different because usually you're above the dog and you take a picture down in the business.
00:25:32.055 --> 00:25:33.560
We call those owner shots.
00:25:33.560 --> 00:25:40.567
Okay it's not the same viewpoint, as being on the same level as the dog.
00:25:41.596 --> 00:25:48.788
So you know you get a different perspective when you photograph a dog from their eye level.
00:25:48.788 --> 00:25:52.728
The other thing is your focus should be on the dog's eye.
00:25:52.728 --> 00:25:58.670
That's the most important thing, to make sure that the eyes are in focus.
00:25:58.670 --> 00:26:00.954
But so that's where your your focus point.
00:26:00.954 --> 00:26:02.499
Is this here?
00:26:02.499 --> 00:26:11.230
Nobody else can see it, but is is The inside squeaker that a lot of dogs Quickly.
00:26:11.230 --> 00:26:15.442
But yeah, i keep this, but it's not to be overused.
00:26:15.442 --> 00:26:20.454
People often do it very wrong And not all dogs.
00:26:20.454 --> 00:26:21.336
You got to know the dog.
00:26:21.336 --> 00:26:30.630
Some dogs don't like the sound, some dogs will approach at it, but Most dogs will be curious and will perk up and perk their ears up.
00:26:30.630 --> 00:26:49.471
So when you're ready, when you know you are ready to hit that shutter button, phone button, whatever You're using and I usually it's in my hand, not seen and when I'm ready to snap one and, yeah, almost always you will get a dog turn What was that?
00:26:50.232 --> 00:26:56.932
and you want to be ready to hit that button and that's one way to get that very alert expression.
00:26:56.932 --> 00:26:59.713
So, but No, no, no.
00:27:00.431 --> 00:27:05.750
Yeah, well, that's that's such a good point, because it's well two good points rolled in there, i think.
00:27:05.750 --> 00:27:17.439
Number one is that people have a tendency and, by the way, i want to just a sidebar this to say that Everything that we're talking about here can pretty much apply to Photographing your own pets too.
00:27:17.439 --> 00:27:20.955
You know, it's like sometimes they're kind of suspicious, like why are you making me?
00:27:20.955 --> 00:27:26.285
say, even Ernie, when I was trying to get that picture of him on the suitcase It first he was kind of like why are you putting me up here?
00:27:26.285 --> 00:27:27.372
I don't want to be up here, i mean it.
00:27:27.634 --> 00:27:29.990
You have to have the patience to kind of get them comfortable.
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