I shared a lovely photo session recently with two happy dogs in the San Diego Embarcadero Marina Park! Brizzie & Dixie are two beautiful pups who were more than happy to strike a few poses for the camera, and I absolutely loved photographing them. Honestly, it was the perfect afternoon: gorgeous dogs (who are so well-behaved that they can run around off-leash), and a fantastic setting! If you can believe it, I’ve actually never photographed a session at the San Diego Embarcadero (just south of Seaport Village)… so visiting there for the first time with these dogs was an absolute thrill!

This is Brizzie (short for Brisbane) the chocolate labradoodle! She’s a total mama’s girl & had a great time running around with us.

And this is Dixie the golden retriever! She greeted me like this – seriously, this was one of the first frames out of my camera. What a goofball, haha!

And what a pretty setting! It was a perfect, cloudless afternoon & we couldn’t resist admiring the marina for a bit.

Kay, thanks again for introducing me to your gorgeous dogs! I can’t wait to show you the rest of our photos! :)

Owners of black dogs seem to all have the same problem in common: it’s extra-difficult to take a good photo of their pup! I can’t tell you how often I’m asked, “My dog is black, is that a problem for you?” or “All I see is a black blob when I take pictures of my dog, how do you get your photos to turn out?” And most recently, Biscuit & Apollo’s mom came to me with the same concerns. So I thought I’d gear their Sneak Peek blog post toward this problem, and hopefully answer a few questions along the way! :)

Black dogs, honestly, are no different than dogs of any other color. (Animal shelters have been trying to tell us this for years, too!) The problem most people have is with the light-absorbing quality of their fur. And unfortunately, most people test this phenomenon in pretty awful conditions, without knowing it: trying to take a picture of your black dog, somewhere inside your house, using your phone or pocket camera, is a perfect storm for blurry photos! I won’t get too technical, but the reason for this difficulty is because a camera thrives off of light (photograph translates literally to “light picture”). When you’re indoors without the powerful light of the sun, and photographing a subject that doesn’t reflect much light, with a camera that can’t adapt to these conditions, it’s no wonder people get bad results! But I explained to Biscuit & Apollo’s mom that there are two things we can do in our session to prevent any problems: A) go outside, and B) schedule our session for the best light of the day! So we headed out to her neighborhood park about an hour before sunset, and we didn’t have a single problem creating great (non-blurry) portraits of her dogs! :)

Take a look: this is Apollo, the handsome lab mix. His fur is 90% black, with a few white patches on his chest, neck & paws (and a few random hairs on his face too). But as you can see, with plenty of soft light, Apollo’s good looks shine through!

Just for fun: black dogs can be captured in action, too! No blur required. ;)

And here’s Apollo’s older sister, Biscuit! (She’s a Korean Jindo mix!) Doesn’t she have a lovely smile? Her fur isn’t all black either, but the same rules apply.

They are so cute, right?! Such happy dogs!

Barbara, thanks for a super-fun photo session!  I’ll be in touch with the rest of your photos very soon! :)

If you’re interested in more pet photography tips, check out my featured Top 10 Tips post on the FACE Foundation blog! Thanks for reading!