"How did you even take that photo?"

I love showing people this photo for two reasons. The first reason is easy: the dogs are mine! Telling people you have five dogs is always a treat - I promise our house isn't as chaotic as you may think! The second reason is the reactions alone, people always amazed on how I got five dogs together for one photo. I figured my first blog post would be a great time to talk about it!

A little preface before I get into the details - I took this photo of our family pets in my final year at Gwinnett Technical College. I had so many dogs coming in and out of the studio that I was very quickly dubbed the "dog lady": who knew what I would be bringing in the next week! I wanted to take advantage of using a studio space and make a photo we could display in our home - I had taken a picture of four of them before, what was one more?

From left to right: Kozmo, Abigail, Cowboy, Loki, and Piper. Kozmo was only around 9 months old in that photo: he was great that day!

"I could never get my dogs to sit like that, AND they're looking at the camera...it must have taken you ages to get it right!"

Another big surprise: we were done shooting in 10 minutes. I had three helpers in the stuidio that day - one of my wonderful friends from college and my parents who were the assigned dog wranglers. While Charlotte and I set up my lights, my parents were given the task to tire the pups out at the dog park before heading over. We finished hanging the last light right when they pulled up to the door. We had a three light set up ready to go, one on each side and the third hanging overhead.

I did a few test shots - Kozmo was happy to lay down in the middle of the room to let me take some photos to make sure my lighting was right and we were good to go. I had an idea in mind - Cowboy in the middle since he was the tallest, and then we scooted the other dogs around them. I had one parent on each end with a handful of treats to keep them together, and then it was all about getting them to look at me and my camera and I knew just the right word for it.

"Squirrel!"

All five looked at me, I snapped the photo, and they exploded into a fit of barking. The studio wasn't soundproof, so surrounding classes overheard them all and quickly knew who was behind it. It didn't matter, I got the the photo I wanted and the crew was rewarded with lots of treats. My college ended up using the photo as the headlining image for the portfolio show for my class that year and I loved being able to showcase my fur family!

This isn't the only time I've gotten all five in a photo, but it sure is the prettiest. Enjoy a few other shots of the crew below!