Taking Photos of Dog Beds

Our Spring this year is being filled with taking a whole new portfolio of photographs for our new website. Every day we are taking a new set of photos. Once we have our range of dog beds made we take them all over from the workshop and into the studio. This is when the fun really starts.

We often take our website photos with the German Wirehaired Pointers so well-known at Tuffies HQ. Gollum, Gaia and young Pontus are usually able to strike a vogue like pose on command but believe me they sometimes have off days and diva tantrums that would make Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss proud. Pontus below recently proved this when we took photos of him on our Luxury Fleece Cover As he got on he gave us that look that says, “no thanks, not today” and immediately started going around and round in circles and kicked his legs in the air. We then decided to take photos of the Durasoft Nest Dog Beds next, these are by far the most time consuming as we have a vast selection of different colour combinations. Once those were done we invited long serving super model Gaia in for her shoot. Gaia strutted in as if to say “don’t worry guys I got this” super keen and always ready to please. Gaia hopped into the dog bed and straight away lay down looked at luise as if to say “I’m ready for my close up” at which point Luise got ready for the shot, checked the lens was in place the lights and the correct height and by the time the shot was taken we got this. Thanks Gaia!

And so we try again. We often get customers taking their dogs in to participate in our photo sessions. The dogs have their beloved Tuffie dog bed at home and are always snuggled up and unwilling to move, we get great photos from customers saying how much they love their dog beds and they would love to come and model.

Sometimes this changes by the time they get to the studio. They come in and the big lights overlooking the dog bed can look most intimidating. I often think that some dogs liken this to a vet visit! But we carry on regardless. It can take some time for your dog to relax on the dog bed but usually after fifteen minutes or so, they start to realise nothing bad is going to happen. You can see they rest their heads on the dog bed and their eyes begin to look heavy. This is our moment. Luise poised with the camera in front of the dog bed holding steady for the last quarter of an hour gets ready to take that all-important shot. In the time it took to check the settings on the camera were correct, we quickly shoot and end up with this. How a dog can go from almost asleep one second to upside down and legs in the air the next is beyond me but it does make for some fun photos.

I have never really truly understood that famous quote, never work with children or animals until today. But hey ho we will try again tomorrow. Another day another dog bed.