Photos for Pet Safety

A few weeks ago we received a call for a commercial animal photography shoot from a Toronto based company looking to promote their pet safety campaign.  The images would be used on the company’s website and in press releases sent to media outlets across Canada and the United States.  The photos needed to be of excellent quality with the animal subjects posed in fun and dynamic ways.  The company had heard of our reputation for excellence in animal photography, so we were their go-to choice for the shoot.

We approach commercial photography shoots quite differently than a shoot for our fine art clients who are looking to create artworks of their pets.  Commercial clients have a very specific purpose in mind for their photos and the photos need to stay true to their brand image.  Of course, we still have to fulfil Jason’s artistic vision for the photos as well.  All of this leads to a set of unique challenges.

The company needed their photos to really grab people’s attention to create buzz for their campaign.  They decided to focus on safe costumes, since the campaign was taking place just before Halloween and they reasoned that everyone would get a chuckle seeing dogs all dressed up for the occasion.  Anyone who has tried to dress up their dog can tell you that it’s no easy feat.  Most dogs just prefer to be naked!  Getting the dogs into their costumes would be a challenge, but it would be even trickier to make the costumes look good on film and to make sure the dogs looked like they were happy to be all dressed up.  Thankfully we have a lot of tricks (and treats!) up our sleeves!

The company did a great job choosing costumes for all five dogs, which made things much easier for us.  The costumes needed to be safe, so they couldn’t have any parts that the dogs could grab onto (and eat!) and they had to fit well.  Once the dogs were dressed up we fixed up their outfits with double-sided tape if they didn’t fit perfectly - a handy trick that Jason picked up on fashion photography shoots.  In addition to this it was Angus’ job to continually adjust the costumes between each shot to make sure they looked great.  Of course he also had to make sure the dogs were having a great time so that they wouldn’t look self-conscious in their hilarious costumes.  Angus kept all the dogs entertained by playing games and dolling out treats.

The client was thrilled with how the photos turned out and they were able to successfully leverage the images to gain media attention for their campaign, helping keep our furry companions out of harm’s way.  Another successful project at Jason KB Animal Photography.

Using Format