Two Vizslas, 45 minutes of light left, and a plan that clearly wasn’t going to work...​

One of the funniest and most special photoshoots I can remember was with Dafna, Guy, and their two Vizslas, Chuta and Chase.

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Dafna contacted me about two months before their save the date photoshoot and told me: “Just so you know... we have two Vizslas.” Which basically means: prepare yourself, it’s going to be... energetic.

But hey... I’m a dog photographer. I’ve seen everything before, I can handle any situation.

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The day arrived, Yael and I got to the beach, ready for the session. It was winter, sunset was early, and usually I like having around an hour and a half for a photoshoot, because unlike humans... dogs don’t understand the sentence: “Can we hurry? The light is disappearing?”

And of course... traffic happened. They arrived around 40 minutes late, which left us with maybe 45 minutes before darkness. That's very stressful already!

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The car door opened... and two orange rockets immediately launched onto the beach.

For one innocent second I thought: “Oh nice! If they let them run freely, they probably have amazing training, this will be easy”...

Cute and naive theory, completely disconnected from reality, but cute.

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Very quickly we realized something... these were not two dogs, these were two happy little chaos machines. They knew how to run, and run, and run, and crash, and fall... and then continue running. Sit? Stay? Wait? Pfffff. LOL.

Guy explained to me, “Training?? We live in the countryside. I open the door, they run through the fields, and then, when they finish, I call them and they come back, that’s their life.”

Fair enough.

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So I said: “Ok! No problem!” Very professional, very confident, and VERY much pretending I had a solution.

Me and Yael walked aside and told them... “Just let them run a little, let them release some energy after the long drive and traffic and then we start...” Which was my way of saying: “Help! We have no idea what we’re doing... and the sun is leaving!”

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And then suddenly... we noticed something...

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Yes, they were completely crazy, BUT they were always crazy close to their humans. Every time Dafna or Guy called them... they came running back full of happiness. And that’s when the imaginary movie light bulb appeared above our heads.

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We went back and said: “OK! New plan... Trying to pose your dogs? Absolutely not happening!

From now until sunset, your only job is to pretend you still like each other after all those years of relationship, hug, laugh, dance, smile, look romantic, and while doing all that... both of you, keep calling: Chuta! Chase! Chuta! Chase!

They’ll create the magic around you!”

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And somehow... it worked!!!

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For the next 30 minutes I just kept shooting from every possible angle while Dafna and Guy played along. Or maybe they actually love each other... I don’t know, we should ask them.
 

And the photos? It became one of my favorite sessions ever! 
 

Natural. Real. Full of movement and personality... and yes... of course I stole this trick from myself and used it many more times after that.
 

Today Dafna and Guy are happily married and parents to two adorable kids. With two legs this time, which I hope are a little less into running around in fields and a little more into listening to their parents.
 

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do as a photographer is admit your brilliant plan failed... then quickly invent a new one... and pretend that was your brilliant plan from the beginning.