The #1 Mistake Ruining Your Pet Photos

Photographing Dogs for Brand Affinity

Announcer 0:02

Welcome to the Starlight Pet Talk podcast , where we'll talk about and explore ways to help pet parents and future pet parents learn everything they need to know to have a happy and healthy relationship with their pet . So sit up and stay for Starlight Pet Talk rescue , adoption and pet parenting done right .

Amy Castro 0:23

Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk . I'm your host , amy Castro , and if you're anything like me , you really love products that are pet friendly , but I especially love those products that feature pets in their print ads and their commercials . I think over the years and maybe I'm dating myself saying this , but we , you know , we've fallen in love with the Budweiser Clydesdale Spud McKenzie was always a favorite maybe Fall in Love with Bolteriors , that Taco Bell Chihuahua that we all remember , or some of us might remember , and even the Hump Day Camel from Geico . You know , we just love animals . That's just the bottom line . But I think that we probably especially love ads and commercials that feature dogs , because everybody loves dogs , right ?

Amy Castro 1:02

My guest today is Mindy Dubka , and she's the founder and chief storyteller at Dogs I Meet , which is a dog photography business that connects brands to the power of dogs through story driven photography , evoking trust , connectivity and brand affinity . She's also a tireless animal advocate . She's worked with animal rescue organizations in Mexico , colombia and Puerto Rico and throughout the United States , and she uses her photography to create awareness and raise funds for animal rescue organizations . So got to love a person like that . So thank you so much , mindy , for being here and being our guest today .

Mindy Dutka 1:40

Thank you for having me . It's a pleasure to be on your podcast .

Amy Castro 1:44

Well , thank you . Well , i know I thoroughly , in getting to know you , just the tiny bit that we've done so far , just love your photography . I mean it just when they say a picture's worth a thousand words . You know there's so many stories that I see going on in the photographs that you take . How did you get started with photographing pets or dogs specifically ?

Mindy Dutka 2:04

I guess I should say So about six years ago I decided that I wanted to create a business , a brand that I was just completely passionate about , and I have been a dog lover , lifelong dog lover . I've also loved photography . I got my first dog and my first camera at the age of seven . Oh wow , i've been without neither since , and it just sort of came together that to me photographing dogs you know they're the most interesting , wonderful beings to me And so it just made sense that I should focus on niche down to dog photography , and then I really just sort of drilled down into what was important to me and like what .

Mindy Dutka 2:56

I wanted my brand to stand for what the pillars were , so that I could grow it and it would all fit under the umbrella of dogs I meet And very storytelling driven . My tagline is because every dog has a tail . T-a-l-e .

Mindy Dutka 3:14

Right So the play on words and that's you know we all do that . I mean , if you've rescued a dog or you play that game like well , can you tell me , like , what happened to you before , what was your story ? And like , you know that dogs have so many stories and then they have the stories that they bring to us , you know . So I really wanted to tell stories through my photos and capture the spirit of dogs , and I think the fact that I'm so connected to dogs it helps a lot when I photograph them .

Amy Castro 3:54

Yeah , definitely So , and I know this wasn't a question that I said hey , i'm going to ask you this , but your comments made me think about the fact that , you know , was it scary , kind of going into what I perceive to be kind of a niche category of photography , there's some people that might be a photographer and they'll it's anything . Anything you want for your commercial product to represent your brand , but focusing specifically on tying dogs to the brands , was that scary at all , or was it a no-brainer ?

Mindy Dutka 4:23

Dogs was a no-brainer for me , figuring out what I did once I said , oh , i'm going to do this , and actually creating it into a business was another story . I say I kind of set myself to school without going to school , but I've studied one-on-one with well-known dog photographers to learn and get better at the you know my photography piece . I'm constantly taking online classes , workshops , variety of things , and then the same thing studying up like the business . There's actually business of dog photography . When I first started six years ago I guess I was , you know , maybe 30% on the way of the curb up .

Mindy Dutka 5:05

There weren't a lot of people Now . Everyone's like , oh , what a cool job . And they seem to be . There's a lot of them , you know , but not everybody is as a lot of people do .

Mindy Dutka 5:20

Private commissions , some people , you know , do do commercial work in different ways , but I've , you know , stayed true to my core of the storytelling and then sort of harnessing the power of dogs with brands . So I primarily work with pet brands , but it doesn't have to be pet brands And , like you said , the , you know the car companies , beer companies , you know dogs are everywhere and they add so much to everything . You have to build trust , you have to create connection and dogs are just kind of like a no brainer opening up that . You know that door , that avenue And my background previously I have many chapters of my career . A long chapter was I had an event planning company , so I'm very familiar with producing large scale corporate events and nonprofit events And that sort of ties in . You know how I'm able to put together shoots and collaborate for profit businesses with nonprofit And it all just kind of fits in to what I'm doing and to make projects to bring creativity to companies that maybe they weren't thinking about , ways that they can collaborate , of being an animal advocate . Yes , definitely .

Mindy Dutka 6:49

One of my main goals was to help animals , to help dogs , And I don't know that everybody realized it's how important photography is to dogs that do not have homes . Sounds dramatic , but literally I believe a good photograph could be the difference between life and death to a shelter pet .

Amy Castro 7:10

I 100% agree with you . 100% because I hear it every day . You know that the look on his face , you know , called out to me or I saw how sad and terrified she was , you know , and the before and after is like look at the transformation from being in the shelter to the adoption photo . I mean , yeah , we see it every single day . You know , unfortunately we're not professional photographers , but we do the best that we can . But we're gonna get to that because hopefully you're gonna give us some tips .

Mindy Dutka 7:38

Good . I was gonna say that a lot of places shelters , rescues , animal organizations like you said , you're wearing many hats doing a lot of things and often photography is not even almost on the list , it's an afterthought . And a lot of times you'll see a dog in the back of a dimly lit cinder block shelter , terrified , dirty , just coming in . And that's so unfair because it plays into the perception the false perception that people have , that dogs that are in shelters or rescues are broken . They're not . They're there . Usually circumstances beyond their control , circumstances that humans put them there . So you know they're not broken , they're just unfortunate circumstances And that's why the good photograph of them looking happy and not terrified makes people connect to them that they see that dog in their yard playing with their kids or they see that dog sitting on their couch .

Mindy Dutka 8:42

I often equate it to staging a house . When you're selling a house , you know the whole idea is you want people to be able to visualize how they would be if it was their house . A good photo when you're trying to get a dog adopted allows people to visualize and feel what it would be like to have that dog as a member of their family , versus this poor , dirty , scared dog . They don't know what's wrong with it . Why is it there ?

Amy Castro 9:12

That is a good point . That is a really good point . We had a recent dog that came into our program named Poppy and it was , you know , the original photo that I received of her . And then the difference of I literally took a photograph as I got in the car and had her on the floorboards And it's just the before and after was amazing . But that's such an important point is that a lot of times those of us in rescue and well in rescue , for example we'll show that really sad , pitiful photo And on one hand it might pull at the heartstrings to a certain degree for people to donate because they feel bad and they wanna fix that broken animal , as you said , but on the other hand , they don't necessarily wanna adopt that broken , sad , scared looking animal . So that's such a good point is to take that animal and put it in a position where people can picture themselves with that animal .

Amy Castro 10:03

Like we've got a dog named Ernie right now that I'm trying . He's adorable and he's so photogenic , but he just has not been moving , so to speak . So even as I came back from my vacation , i just happened to have him . We were watching TV in the bedroom , spending quality time together , because he doesn't get a lot of one-on-one attention And my suitcase was there . So I thought , okay , i'm gonna put the suitcase up on the bed and have him put his paws on the suitcase and take his picture and say , ernie's packed and ready to go , you just need to come and get him , kind of thing , and just kind of using a little bit of humor , a little bit of non-traditional approaches to taking some of those photos .

Amy Castro 10:38

And it usually gets us a pretty good reaction when we do things like that . Or even we've done some things where because people sometimes have a hard time understanding the size of a dog , despite the fact that you put , this dog weighs 30 pounds or this one weighs 20 , they look at a picture and they're like it looks huge . And so sometimes we put it next to a shoe , put it next to a cat , give it some scope and some scales so that people can see . Yeah , when I say that dog's tiny and he sits in a shoe , he really sits in a shoe . I'm not kidding . I know that's not really what you're talking about , but people don't believe the words , they believe what they see , and I think that's why it's so important to have those great photos . So , before we get to the tips getting into that , tell us a little bit about , though , some of the work that you've done that you feel like you're most proud of when it comes to helping helping rescue animals with your photography .

Spay/Neuter Clinics in Mexico

Mindy Dutka 11:26

I've done a lot of different things . I recently I've been working on a project in Playa del Carmen , mexico . I've been working with animal rescues in Playa del Carmen since I started photographing And one of the important things that I strongly believe in is ispayneuter , especially in an area Actually , mexico has one of the largest population of stray dogs and cats in Latin America . In Playa del Carmen alone , there are 40,000 stray dogs . Wow , but the story So they've taken it upon themselves when I say they it's a very vibrant animal rescue community . I have often referenced , i've been to a lot of different places and done work , like in Columbia , puerto Rico , which is the United States , but a lot and right here , you know . So you see a lot , of , a lot of things .

Amy Castro 12:18

Yeah .

Mindy Dutka 12:20

But so I call it sort of like the tale of two cities and everywhere , because there is these terrible atrocities and terrible things that happen to dogs and terrible things that people do . But then there's the rescue community that you know are the heroes , you know the everyday , the things that people are doing every day , And they're not necessarily even trained to do it , They just dedicate themselves to , you know , helping and doing whatever they can to rescuing dogs and cats . And Playa del Carmen does have an extremely vibrant rescue community . I've met several Americans who have retired there , who don't do much retiring because they then dedicate their life to . Yes , Yep , And I am on the board of a foundation called the Global United Foundation . So a lot of these projects that I do , we work together . So there's a 501 C3 nonprofit that people can donate to And then we fund these projects that we're working on .

Mindy Dutka 13:24

But so in Mexico in particular , there's one organized animal shelter called SOSL ARCA . But it's a community behind you . There's a lot of volunteers , There's a lot that goes into it And they want to do a long term solution to this stray neuter problem . So their goal is for five years to put on monthly , free to the community free monthly spay neuter clinics Oh wow , But they're not free . So that's where you know we need to raise money for it .

Amy Castro 13:57

Right .

Mindy Dutka 13:58

So they did it . We Global , we started helping them in 2023 . But in 2022 , they did , i believe eight , i think seven or eight of these And they had already spay , neutered , like 3,500 .

Amy Castro 14:14

Oh , wow .

Mindy Dutka 14:16

So now they've done every month in 2023 , they're up to 6,500 animals They have spayed and neutered .

Announcer 14:23

Wow .

Mindy Dutka 14:23

And in five years they're going to make a substantial difference and they are going to change the landscape , And that is the only way to do that .

Mindy Dutka 14:31

And I want to point out that the story I was just in Mexico . I was there for their May clinic And I was there to photograph the clinic , to meet people , to interview them and to tell their story And truly their story is not oh my God , it's not a TNR situation . These are people like you and I , like they're pet loving people . They love their dogs , they love their cats . Unfortunately , their circumstances you know that a lot of them struggle to feed themselves and their children . They live in small houses , so they do the best they can And so it's community helping community , those that these rescue groups you know are putting on these clinics and the people they wait for hours online .

Mindy Dutka 15:23

They dedicate is practically an entire day . It's about an eight , nine hour thing to wait online to get registered , to wait for your spay neuter clinic I'm going to show you pictures in a little bit , but okay and then they stay with the dogs after until the dogs come out of anesthesia And they are so grateful to have these clinics . So you know , and these are people that want to do right by their dogs and cats They just , you know , it's expensive , it's even expensive , it's expensive in Mexico to get your dog neutered .

Announcer 15:56

So sure it's good for them .

Mindy Dutka 15:57

They know it helps the community . They know culturally the dogs live outside because their shelters are so small . So they do wind up very often , wandering the streets during the day and populating , populating , populating .

Mindy Dutka 16:13

So yeah they want to care for the dog they have . But you know , i was just looking at it One dog who then has puppies , and those puppies have puppies in six years . That one dog can reproduce to 67,000 times once the multiplication comes in . Yes , that how you wind up with the 40,000 straight dogs , you know . So I'm not even necessarily talking about the dogs that are coming to the clinic have homes , but it's very important because if you don't get to the core of the problem and the issue , you can't change it . So I am very proud that you know , through Global United , through all of our efforts , that we've been supporting these clinics And we hope to be able to continue to raise money and continue to support it because I think it's an amazing , you know , initiative . I'm just going to quickly share my screen . I know that most people can't see it , but okay . So basically , whoever is listening to this just through the audio , they won't see them .

Amy Castro 17:20

You can check it out on YouTube as well And we can put links . If there's links where some of these photos live , we can put those in the show notes .

Mindy Dutka 17:27

The human animal bond is strong . The people love their dogs . These are just pictures of the people waiting . They've come in , they've registered and they're waiting to get their dogs and cats to be neutered . But just you know , and they're not staged photos . You know me capturing what is happening and people aren't seeing it . But you can feel the connection , you can see the connection . The expressions on the people's face and the expressions on the animals face show deep , deep love .

Amy Castro 17:59

And I think you know I think that's a good point for people to really let sink in , especially for those . I know we've got people that are listening , that are in rescue , and we've got a lot of people that are listening that follow rescue , and I think sometimes we can get very judgy about financial related things . You know , somebody says I want to give up my animal because I can't afford to do this , or my animal is pregnant because I couldn't afford to do that . And I'm not Pollyanna , i'm not stupid . I realize there are people that have the means and choose not to , and maybe they haven't made the brightest decisions . But you know , in reality there are people that maybe they don't have the means And , like you said , we're doing the best that we can And you know to be able to support that as much as we possibly can is important , because it's not about the person , it's about well , it is about the person , you know it's obviously we like to help people , but it's about what's best for the animal And so being able to put our judgment aside , whatever that might be , and focus on helping , do what is best for the animal , is important , and I think that's what everybody wants to do , nobody would have a pet you know and keep it and sit in line for eight hours or nine hours to get it spayed or neutered , if they didn't care about their pet .

Amy Castro 19:08

By the line , exactly .

Mindy Dutka 19:10

And you know , and that's the story I wanted to be told you know , because I don't think that's how people think , right , they just don't know , and so I wanted to to show them what I know to be true .

Announcer 19:26

And here .

Mindy Dutka 19:26

You'll see in these pictures This is their so-called , i guess , like a pack you . It's very clever the way that they they set these clinics up , oh yeah , and So now the people are sitting with their animals and again And this is the same girl earlier that was hugging the two dogs There's some more of her animals here , but you can see the dogs are asleep . They're still under anesthesia , but you can just see the love and the care and the compassion and and a spay neuter clinic like this Does so many things . You know . It helps the community , it supports the people that love their animals . The key factor there is education . They get education about things that they didn't know about . It teaches children Compassion . Here's what you can see . Here's two little kids With their mom . Those kids are there for eight hours behavior . Everybody behaved at this clinic . Everybody , you know , followed instructions . Everybody entertained themselves and it was hot you know , But , nobody complained .

Mindy Dutka 20:34

Everybody was just grateful that they were able to come to this .

Amy Castro 20:39

And just let me just time out for one second for those who aren't . You know , again , we're gonna put a link up where you can see some of the see some of the photos or at least watch the video Of this segment . But what we're basically seeing right here are bait . Are the owners , the families of these animals With these animals post-op , you know , basically being their post-op nurses , checking on them , stimulating them , you know , just making sure that they're okay and every single animal has a person that's sitting with them , caring for them . I mean , it's like having one-on-one nursing care afterwards For these , for these animals .

Amy Castro 21:13

In looking at these , these photographs and looking at your other photos , obviously they are awesome And , like I mentioned , you know we do the best that we can . Luckily We've got some volunteers who are really great at kind of capturing the essence of the animals and their And their story . But kind of going back to the original comment that you made about the photos and the dark cell kind of pictures , you know a jailhouse photos , for lack of a better term in defense of shelter folks . Sometimes it's a struggle because they take a picture of an animal on intake purely for identification purposes . It goes into a software system and then that's what gets put out to the Websites that advertise the animals . So on one hand it's not their fault . On the other hand , if they have the staffing or the volunteers to take the time to replace those photos with something better , it can make such a huge difference

Tips for Better Animal Photography

Amy Castro 22:02

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Amy Castro 22:02

Are there any tips that you can give ? because I know for me I've done everything from the spontaneous photo on the suitcase or sitting on a nice red chair that I have in my Living room that's for some reason makes a great backdrop . But we also have a Little photo studio thing that we set up that has a backdrop that has sides for smaller animals . Not everybody can do all of that . Sometimes it might just be on the spot on the scene . Are there any tips that you can give us that would improve From from what you see , kind of the common mistakes that people make , to making those as best as possible , given maybe limited circumstances or equipment , props etc .

Mindy Dutka 22:43

Absolutely . And I mean now iPhones . You know everybody has an iPhone and they take really good pictures . So a few things and , like you said , some of these you may or may not be able to do , but just knowing about them and Knowing the importance of photography , you may be able to build it more into your program and , as a step , that there's a step somewhere , that it's not the intake photo that goes out right like right , someone knows that there's another photo coming soon and and that's the one that's going out .

Mindy Dutka 23:15

So a couple of things . One just from a logistics point of view , and I it's not always possible if , if a photograph can be taken of a dog outside in more of Open setting , of course you're gonna have that dog on a leash , someone who knows what they're doing . And now it doesn't even have to be because they have like magic erase on Google and all kinds of stuff . You can almost oh yeah .

Mindy Dutka 23:38

I use the leash and the person , and if you don't , you don't you know . But outside photos are better because light is much better and I don't recommend Photographing in harsh sunlight . People tend to think it's good . It's actually not , it's too harsh . So you might want to look for more of a covered Shade if there is harsh sunlight or try to photograph purposely early in the morning or closer to sunset for nice lighting . That that is one thing .

Mindy Dutka 24:06

Now the other thing is just , i know you they don't always have the time , but again , if there's a volunteer or somebody , you need to spend a little bit of time with that dog , because the dog is super stressed .

Mindy Dutka 24:18

Normally I spend time with the dog to condition him to get used to me . I sit with him for a little while , i click the camera , i give him a treat . I , you know , wait until I've got some kind of trust and some kind of connection with that dog . I understand you don't always have that time , but you know you want as best you can To spend a little bit of time relaxing the dog if possible . If there's a setting where there's a little bit of an outdoor playtime and you know you can decompress him a little bit . That's very important , because what you don't want is a dog Scared and shaking with their ears down . That's not the photo that you want , right ? the other thing , which is pretty easy and makes a huge difference You want to get down on the animals level , on the dog . So There's a saying in dog photography , you know , like there's nothing too low , like I'm on the ground on my belly half the time , like on a beach .

Announcer 25:21

Okay .

Mindy Dutka 25:22

It's a very different Percept . The the photo looks different because usually you're above the dog and you take a picture down in the business . We call those owner shots . Okay it's not the same viewpoint , as being on the same level as the dog .

Mindy Dutka 25:41

So you know you get a different perspective when you photograph a dog from their eye level . The other thing is your focus should be on the dog's eye . That's the most important thing , to make sure that the eyes are in focus . But so that's where your your focus point . Is this here ? Nobody else can see it , but is is The inside squeaker that a lot of dogs Quickly . But yeah , i keep this , but it's not to be overused . People often do it very wrong And not all dogs . You got to know the dog . Some dogs don't like the sound , some dogs will approach at it , but Most dogs will be curious and will perk up and perk their ears up . So when you're ready , when you know you are ready to hit that shutter button , phone button , whatever You're using and I usually it's in my hand , not seen and when I'm ready to snap one and , yeah , almost always you will get a dog turn What was that ?

Mindy Dutka 26:50

and you want to be ready to hit that button and that's one way to get that very alert expression . So , but No , no , no .

Amy Castro 27:00

Yeah , well , that's that's such a good point , because it's well two good points rolled in there , i think . Number one is that people have a tendency and , by the way , i want to just a sidebar this to say that Everything that we're talking about here can pretty much apply to Photographing your own pets too . You know , it's like sometimes they're kind of suspicious , like why are you making me ? say , even Ernie , when I was trying to get that picture of him on the suitcase It first he was kind of like why are you putting me up here ? I don't want to be up here , i mean it .

Amy Castro 27:27

You have to have the patience to kind of get them comfortable . But when it comes to those , the things that we use to make noise whether it's an actual , an actual object like the squeaker out of a squeak toy , if you over use it before you're ready to take that shot , they've been there , done that and they're over it . So it's so important to save those noise makers until you are primed and ready . I would assume it helps to have an assistant during this process , or do you do everything by yourself ?

Mindy Dutka 27:56

it absolutely does help to have an assistant and , in a sense , with a with a rescue dog , you , that dog is almost always gonna be on a leash , so you need someone holding the leash . I don't always shoot with an assistant I quite a lot of shoots on my own , but there usually is Somebody that's handling the dog And you know , i have little tips and trips , tricks of where I want them to stand and how I want them to hold the leash , because I know what I can see the finished product that I'm gonna erase Right , i'm gonna get rid of the person . I'm gonna get rid of the leash in an easy way . Like you don't want a leash draped on their body because that's really hard , so you want them to be sort of holding the leash straight up and standing off to the side and it may .

Mindy Dutka 28:46

To remove a lot of my photos . Look like you know the dogs just sitting up there , great , you know on top , just so well behaved . Many , many times there's somebody you know , because safety first , you never do of course .

Mindy Dutka 29:00

That's not , you know , safety . So some dogs can have really good recall and could be off leash , but most times , more times than not , and sometimes even when dogs can be off leash , i will leash them because I can't get the same control , that Of having them stand in a spot . So for rescue dog pictures you definitely need two people . You need somebody handling the dog and you need you know the person taking the picture . You know , so I don't shoot with an assistant as a photographer , but usually there's somebody there that's with the dog , that is Following my instructions and helping . In that sense Got it . Those are some quick tips that actually really make a big difference in the photos that you get .

Amy Castro 29:48

Great now if somebody was like I know right now in Texas . I had told you before we started shooting The other day I was outside at 6 am And it was already 80 degrees and 90% humidity . So at this time of year that we might have two or three months where There's really not a great time of day . Or let's say you've got to get a photo and you do have to do it indoors . Any Any particular tips for shooting some decent indoor photos ?

Mindy Dutka 30:15

Sure , you want to look for a light source . Yeah , i look for , you know , a window . I'm a natural light photographer . Somebody else can come in and set up lights and do all kinds of things . I only use natural light in my photography , so it's a studio . So I've seen people come in and set up a mini studio . Yeah and yeah , so that that certainly you know it is an option as well .

Amy Castro 30:43

But if you're gonna do that , you really need to know how to set those lights too , because you can almost get a better shot with using that natural light from a Window and and some tips that I know that you're getting ready to give us . Then to Expend a bunch of money on equipment that you don't know how to use properly and now you get an over exposed or like kind of like a . I feel like I am right now . This whole side of my face is very shadowed . It could be lit better , but I don't care . This is a podcast . I shouldn't have to care what I look like .

Mindy Dutka 31:11

Right , you know exactly . So you want the dog's face to be towards the light source , so you want to try an angle off to the side .

Amy Castro 31:21

Because otherwise you'd be , you'd be shooting a shadow like if I had the light . Let's use clock for for those who aren't seeing us in the video . So if my back is to six o'clock and I'm facing the dog at midnight , then I don't want the light Also at six o'clock , because now I'm casting a shadow on the dog . So I have to kind of angle myself off off a little bit so that the light is coming through and actually lighting the dog's face .

Mindy Dutka 31:49

Exactly .

Amy Castro 31:50

Okay , All right great .

Mindy Dutka 31:52

You want that light source , you want that even outside , or anything you , you want the dog , generally speaking , to be facing the light source .

Mindy Dutka 32:02

Okay because and and you know , the eyes are the most important feature You want to get some catch lights in the dog's eyes . That gives them some some life And that's where you get to really see their personality and their Expressions . But , yeah , so if you have like good light , natural light inside , you can definitely get some beautiful shots Indoors as well . And I recommend , like if you're using an iPhone , most times I recommend shutting the flash off .

Amy Castro 32:33

Okay . And using the light source that you have , so you don't get the demon eyes .

Mindy Dutka 32:41

And the other thing Using an iPhone depends on which version that you have . You can just change it to like a one time , two time , three time kind of thing . Mm-hmm , that . Don't people just take it and pinch on the screen and and zoom in . That that does not give you a good picture . So try either use your feet to zoom in or Set the camera to like the three time as close as you can or whatever , but try not to just be like oh well , look at that , you know I can stand all the way over here and and zoom in on that .

Mindy Dutka 33:19

Yeah it doesn't give you the best , the clearest pictures .

Amy Castro 33:24

Yeah , they start to pixelate after a while . Let me ask you this , one of my , one of the things , even before using the , and I'm an Android girl . So I got the Android phone which has I think it has a good camera . I have no idea if it's how it compares to the , the iPhones , but when I used to use just a regular digital camera , my philosophy was shoot a thousand shots and you might get two good ones , like . I'm not gonna just Take a picture and then look at it and analyze it , because now the dogs already done 50 things and cocked its head and Done all these cute things while I'm looking at the back of my camera . What's your , what's your thought on that ? as far as you know , should you just keep shooting You , should you take your time ? I mean , obviously you want to take your time to a certain degree , but what's the balance ?

Mindy Dutka 34:08

especially if you are more of a novice photographer shoot , more shoot yeah , we are , let's just assume we are .

Mindy Dutka 34:17

You know , you don't know like the eyes closed , the blink , it's digital . You can do as . Yeah , it takes a little longer to go through them , but you know I Would shoot more than less . I would overshoot . For sure One of that fit those 15 shots that you took could be better than another one . And there's one more tip on your iPhone which I find actually a lot of people two tips don't know . Um , you focus , so if you get your subject in there and the dogs like right in front a little box usually shows up . Just touch very gently right there and you'll see a box pop up .

Mindy Dutka 34:57

It focused on that Very few people actually focus their iPhone because I don't know that . they realize they can do that , so you just put it up there and take the picture . But you could actually focus in on the dog's eye or you can focus on something . I do recommend that .

Announcer 35:14

And you can also use .

Mindy Dutka 35:17

each one's a little bit different . I'm holding my phone here , but one of these buttons controls that you don't always have to use the button on your phone as they shut the release . Yes , Each one is different , so I don't know how to direct people to that . Even I believe if you're wearing like the corded earplugs , there's a shutter release on that . Yeah , that's a good point .

Amy Castro 35:43

Get to know your phone and features , because even when I was on vacation I was talking to my best friend and we were talking about screen captures And usually with our phones there's usually at least two ways to do something . So when I'm going to do a screen capture on my phone , i just physically swipe my hand across my screen and it takes the screen capture . She had no idea . She always uses the two buttons on the side , which is all fine and good , except it's a little bit , can be a little bit awkward .

Amy Castro 36:10

So definitely worth , because on an Android has that same little thing that comes up , that it's a little disc , but if you touch that it focuses in on that area and that can make such a huge difference . If you just touch that button right on the dog's face , or if you're really close to the dog on the dog's eye , then that's what's gonna get in the most , in the most focus , as opposed to just kind of general focus , and it can make such a huge difference in the photo . So yeah , get to know your phone because you'd be

Get to Know Your Equipment for Best Shots

Amy Castro 36:39

surprised . Sometimes I've blamed the phone for things and then I realized I have it on the wrong setting or something dumb like that .

Mindy Dutka 36:45

So there's also a portrait setting which gives you a little bit more of . It's called bokeh when the behind is blurred Yes , it's called bokeh , and so it separates the objects from the background , which you want to do . That , so , like when you can , you can always , if you're in small spaces and stuff like that you want want to shoot in the portrait mode . Okay , you'll get more of a SLR photo out of your iPhone than that . The other tip I have , which surprises me how many people don't be aware of what is behind your subject . Are they standing in front ? you know , like that's when you get these weird things that look like they're coming out of their head , or if there's garbage right there .

Mindy Dutka 37:38

you can't wait , but pay attention to that move that . Is there a pile of leashes that could be moved Not so much for candid photos and move yourself like if you move sometimes you can't . you know you can't move the pole that's behind there , right . Right But if you move yourself a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right , you get a different angle , and now the pole is next to them and not behind their head . So , pay attention to that .

Amy Castro 38:11

Yeah , i laugh because I've gotten I take a lot of photos . I mean , my phone is full of photos of animals and most of the time it's spontaneously shot like oh my gosh , look how cute that kitten is sleeping , or look at how cute his head is cocked or how he's playing with that toy , and then I take the picture and the and the photograph of the animal is great , but then there's a dirty shoe in the background or something it's like . I can't put that in the internet . I don't want people to see how messy my house is . So , yeah , lost many a great photo to garbage in the background , literally . So definitely good advice .

Mindy Dutka 38:45

In that situation you may have lost the moment . If you went and moved the shoe , yeah exactly , you could have possibly moved yourself just a little bit One way or the other and not gotten the shoe in the picture .

Mindy Dutka 38:59

Yeah , so think about that , because with animals you have to be quick . You know , like you have to be ready for that shot anticipating . You know I've done so many shoots , especially on the private shoots , where the people , when I show them , you know I'll do like a reveal and I'll show them the folders , the pictures , and they're like , oh my god , we walked away . We were sure you couldn't possibly have gotten any pictures at all .

Amy Castro 39:29

Yeah , sometimes they only give you one chance . Hey , before I forget to ask . I've got to ask this because this is probably the bane of my existence with photographing pets for the rescue and I'm sure it is for people who have pets when the pet , when the pet is a solid color like solid black , is the hardest to try to get those eyes and face sometimes to pop . Any particular advice that might make that a little bit easier for people ?

Mindy Dutka 39:58

Yes , especially black dogs , because you just wind up getting that blob . Look , that's what you really want them facing a light source . Okay , light is coming on to their eyes , because I give you just took a dark picture . If I do , you know that you don't get that , so you do need some kind of light Coming off of them when you get down to their level . That helps as well . Things like the lighting that you take it in like black dogs actually absorb the light like their fur , so lighting is even worse bright sunlight .

Mindy Dutka 40:36

Okay actually help . So you , you want them a little bit shaded , not not dark , but , you right , a Covered shade place . But that that's the biggest thing is is make sure there's some kind of light source To their eyes . Yeah , that's a .

Amy Castro 40:53

That's a good point , because I think sometimes what I've tried to do is to just Pour more light and it doesn't . It doesn't seem to get better . So it's , it's the , it's the quality of the light and how the light is hitting them , more than the quantity of you know how many . What are the ? what's the Wattage of this light bulb that's blasting on this poor dog ? or direct sunlight , or whatever it might be . So that's , that's very good advice . Thank you , anything else that you want to share with us before we , that I you know , before we wrap up , because this has been Incredibly helpful . I'm looking forward to implementing Some of the tips that I've learned , because I can already see the mistakes that I've been making along the way .

Mindy Dutka 41:32

You'll be in the show notes , but you know people take a look at my website dogs I meet calm . If you're a business Pet brand , give me a call . I spend a lot of time talking and figuring out your story and And creating photos that tell that story for different . You know there's a lot of different reasons that you want photos and a lot of yeah , you're trying to , and that people also . I don't think people understand the value of professional photos because they're like I got an iPhone , i can take pictures , but you know they're . It's like anything else .

Amy Castro 42:07

There's a difference , definitely , and especially , you know , i will say just for myself , you know , From the standpoint of having a business and having a brand , is that , you know , having somebody that is a professional , that has that I , that has the right equipment , that really knows what they're doing ? I mean , yeah , you could probably get a picture of your product and an animal with it , or you could get a picture of yourself for your Headshots , or whatever it might be . But I mean , i can attest to the difference between even a decent photo , what I thought was a decent photo , and when you get a really great photographer to take a photo . I mean it just it changes everything . It changes how the world is going to perceive you and your business . So it's it's something that's worth investing the time , energy and and money into for sure .

Mindy Dutka 42:52

Exactly on Instagram , i'm dogs I meet , so please feel free to give me a follow and check out the work that I'm doing and the different projects that I'm on , and , certainly , if anybody is compelled to Do any amount of a donation to , i'll give you that to put in the in the notes as well .

Amy Castro 43:12

Yes , definitely .

Mindy Dutka 43:13

Foundation five dollars . It doesn't matter . You know , every amount counts And if you can't donate and you see photos on my Instagram or something , please share them just yeah awareness for the projects .

Amy Castro 43:28

Yeah , that's a . It's such a great , such a great cause . Thank you for sharing that with us . I'm gonna time out for just a sec because I did want to ask you the brands like the dog That's behind you or the , the photographs that you've taken for for brands Are they providing the dog ? Is it their dog ? do they borrow a dog from a shelter , or I mean , i know that some brands The brand is the dog kind of thing . You know , but I'm just curious about that .

Mindy Dutka 43:57

So it really depends and I have done some interesting things . So if it's a product Let's just say it's a dog food or a dog treat or something like that I work with people all over the place and in a situation like that And it , and they don't have some mascot that's recognized , you know , with the , so they ship me the product . So I'm based in Massachusetts but I can be someone in California easily , they send me the dog toy , dog food . I already know we , you know I've got a shot list . I I know what it is that I'm looking to capture . I get the dog models . No , great , that's part of what I do and I choose . You know , i get a location , depending on what it is , or multiple locations , locations , depending on what the story you know , that that we are trying to tell . So it's , it's a done for you in a way that people you know that's great database of dog models I've also , where I've used shelter dogs as my dog model .

Mindy Dutka 45:04

That's great win , win for everybody . So a lot of times companies will Give me products and if someone , i use someone's dog as a dog model , i will give them some photos as their payment for doing it and that they'll get the dog food or the dog toys or whatever Yeah , as their payment . But when I use a shelter dog , that product the toys goes to the shelter .

Amy Castro 45:30

That's great .

Mindy Dutka 45:31

And it depends . Sometimes I've worked it into my fee , sometimes not , but either way , i usually give a monetary donation to the shelter for the time and for using , you know , being able to use one of their dogs . And then , yeah , don't win , because most dog rescues have a pretty good social media Base , so they put those dogs pictures out . The brand gets more exposure . So it's a win win for everybody . And that is a model that I use and when companies are interested in it , i , you know , have the resources to implement that .

Mindy Dutka 46:06

And then back to your other question . I've done a lot of work for a veterinarian text of the veterinary emergency group Locations all over the place and I in that case , their story is is unfolding within their hospital walls , so I've gone to wherever that is and the subjects are actually dogs and the people or cats , and sometimes it's snakes , sometimes it's rabbits . You never know what's coming through those doors . Oh yeah , and that is a more of a documentary of Photoshoot that I do . So certainly In that instance that's what I would do Some other times . You know I I do photograph for a lot of pet friendly hotels and resorts . That needs to take place in their location , because you're sure you're single , you should along with the dog .

Mindy Dutka 47:01

I Actually did one really cool . I was in New York doing some work with virgin hotels New York and a company called shameless pets which is also a great dog treat company and What . I wound up getting two dogs that have not been able to get adopted and The rescue brought them to the hotel and they were the models that we used in the in the hotel shoot with the shameless pets products and That was a huge win for everybody . The dogs got a lot of exposure . Everybody pushed it .

Amy Castro 47:39

Oh yeah , who doesn't ? who doesn't want the famous dog ? My dog's famous . He's in a magazine or TV or something . That's great .

Mindy Dutka 47:46

Exactly So . I'm always looking for collab , you know , to kind of create those collaborations When the opportunity is there , or create the opportunity and put the idea out there , yeah well keep us in mind .

Amy Castro 48:00

Down here in Texas We have lots of cute animals that we can work into a commercial Starlet Awesome . Well , mini , thank you so much for being with us today . This has been an education . You know on so many different levels about the , the work that you do and why you do it , the rescue , the rescue mission down in Mexico , and just some fantastic tips for Photographing pets . Really appreciate you taking the time with us today .

Mindy Dutka 48:27

Like I said , I thank you for inviting me and thank you for having me . It's been a pleasure talking with you .

Amy Castro 48:32

Again , thank you so much for being here and , for those of you who are listening , thank you again for listening to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk . Make sure to share this with your friends and family members , or , if you've got rescue friends , make sure that you share this as well , because there's been a lot of great advice in this episode and , as we say in every single episode , if you don't do anything else this week , make sure you give your pets a hug from us .

Announcer 48:55

You've been listening to the Starlight Pet Talk podcast . We're glad you joined us to gain new insight on the many loving ways to adopt and care for your pets . Be sure to subscribe so you'll never miss an episode , and if you want more information , go to StarlightPetTalkcom because your pet can't talk . Be sure to join us next time for Starlight Pet Talk .