During my urban dog photography workshop in Copenhagen, one of our models was a stunning Ibizan Hound named Dingo, and when I say stunning... I mean one of those dogs that basically looks like he was designed specifically for photographers, beautiful body structure, elegant, impressive, knows exactly how to stand and show himself! Almost perfect. Almost.

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One of the things I always teach in my workshops is how important it is to understand dog body language, a good photo is not only about location, light, camera settings or editing... the dog needs to look like the best version of himself!

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A dog with naturally standing ears? I want those ears up. A dog with a beautiful high tail? I want that tail showing, every breed has something that makes it special, and our job is to capture that. Which is always very easy to explain as an instructor... until the dog looks at you and decides: “Ok, prove it.”

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During the first few locations, we managed to get Dingo interested. A few weird sounds, some tricks, and we got those beautiful ears up... but after a while? Dingo decided he was done. Sounds? Nope. Treats? Nope. A group of photographers making every strange noise possible in the middle of Copenhagen? Also nope.

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And then we arrived at one of my favorite spots from the workshop. The perfect location, the perfect dog, everything was ready... except the most important thing. The dog didn’t agree with my very professional plan.

All the students photographed him first, everyone tried, everyone did their best... but Dingo was already mentally somewhere else. Everyone pretty much accepted that this was it, no more ears today.

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But of course... I’m stubborn. I really wanted this frame, so I told myself: “Ok, just be ready. Keep your finger on the shutter. Eventually he will give you that tiny moment... even half a second is enough.” I just didn’t know one small detail... that half a second was never actually coming.

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And then I realized something... after spending the whole workshop explaining how important expression and body language are, I was now standing there with my camera, in front of all my students, trying to photograph a dog who refused to give me exactly the thing I was teaching about.

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A little stressful? Maybe... was failing my own lesson in front of everyone an option? Absolutely not!

So me and his owner tried everything. Every sound, every trick, every possible way to get just one tiny moment. One second. One photo. Nothing worked... and then!

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Out of nowhere... a tiny dachshund puppy who was also there as one of our models decided that following the rules was boring, escaped for a little zoomies adventure and started running around the location.

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And suddenly... Dingo looked!!! Ears up!! Full attention!

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And that’s when the imaginary movie light bulb appeared above my head. WAIT!!!! I know!! We put Dingo back in position and I asked the puppy’s owner to hold him in front of Dingo... the idea was simple: maybe he will look interested... what actually happened was even better.

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Dingo didn’t just look interested... he started walking forward with the most focused, powerful expression, on a very important mission to investigate this tiny little troublemaker.

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And from my angle? Click! That was the moment! The photo I wanted. The photo that I still use today when I explain why you always need to be ready, because sometimes the moment you are waiting for appears for less than a second.

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Sometimes the hero of the story is not the photographer, not the model, and not the perfect plan...

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Sometimes it’s just a tiny sausage puppy who had absolutely no idea he was saving the day.