Artsy Fartsy Friday! Guest Blogger Helen Peppe on Photographing Dogs

It's my pleasure to welcome professional photographer and writer Helen Peppe, who is blogging today about photographing dogs, especially shelter dogs, although her tips will be helpful for pets as well. Janet MacPhail, the protagonist in my new Animals in Focus mystery series, is an animal and nature photographer, so when I met Helen last summer, I felt I was meeting my own character! Janet is not Helen, of course, but Helen has been a terrific resource to keep me accurate as I write the second book in the series. And now to Helen's tips and enchanting photos. ~ Sheila

Good Dogs, Good Pictures

Photographing Dogs Solo

by Helen Peppe

People often complain to me, via comments beneath my own posted images or right to my face, “I don’t have an assistant like you have, so what can I do to get my dog to act natural?” The assumptions surrounding my job as a professional animal photographer are hilarious for how insulting they are, the most common being that owning an expensive camera is my primary skill. But one truth is that with a little bit of patience and a little bit of common sense, the average person can take an above average picture of her dog without an assistant. Having photographed my own four dogs by myself ad nauseum, I can say with complete confidence that other people’s dogs are considerably more difficult because the dogs’ owners often impart their frustrations to my subjects, who respond by either going off the canine deep end or crumpling into a submissive pose. Hunched dogs, their ears plastered tight to their heads and their eyes averted, make for poor pictures.

Several times a month I donate my time to local rescues to photograph homeless dogs. Rescues are often the most challenging to photograph solo because they lack training vocabulary—sit, down, off—and are desperate for attention, an undesirable combination. I am alone but for my whistles, Audobon bird songs on my iPhone, squeak toys, laundered tennis balls, and a leash. I do not bring treats. First, I don’t want the dog near me but away from me. Second, I want to avoid bubbling saliva and long loops of drool. Third, I don’t want begging. At one facility, I am allotted about fifteen minutes per dog as the yards must be available for regular boarders. This deadline could ruin my shoot, but I never allow myself to think negatively in the presence of dogs because their ability to read my mind is unfathomable.

The kennel worker will lead me to a row of pens whose occupants are either barking territorially at the wire doors or cowering quietly in the corners, a puddle of urine darkening the cement beneath their haunches. The worker will direct me to an outside enclosure and then leave. There are no offers of help, no explanations of which dog I might not want to kneel face to face with, no, “Let me get you a leash.” My one objective is to shoot three heart-tugging pictures that capture the dog’s size and his need to receive and give love. When I return the animal to the pen, I might see the kennel worker again, and she might ask if the dog moved its bowels and question me on the stool’s consistency, and I will feel inclined to withhold what I’ve learned in my fifteen minutes.

When I open the metal door that runs from floor to ceiling, I can hear my mother’s voice ring clear from my past, “Don’t you have any sense at all? You’re just asking to get bitten or worse.” Back then I wondered what “worse” was and didn’t understand why sense, common or otherwise, didn’t include loving animals. But I have no time to reflect on the echoes of my mother’s advice. The seconds are moving, and I must connect emotionally with the dog so that I get my three perfect pictures in fifteen minutes. I clip on my leash, exclaiming, “What a good dog, yes you are,” because I know everyone loves to be called good. And then I ask, “Want to go for a walk?” and the dog almost never answers no.

Once outside, I note where the sun is, preferring to keep it at my back—I use a flash for shaded areas—unhook the leash, sometimes the collar if it’s frayed or dirty, and sit down, all the while talking quietly as if we’re old friends, and then I wait for the dog to do what I may or may not tell the kennel worker before I leave. Post-business, I reserve several minutes for pats, eye-cleanup, and an intro to my camera, marveling as I always do about a dog’s willingness to want to please me and wish my children felt the same. Five minutes of my fifteen have passed, and I apologize to my subject for the need to hurry. If the dog is a mixture of any breed that adores retrieving, I throw one of my tennis balls and then kneel on the ground in my waterproof wind pants and focus on the dog’s head, not releasing the shutter until the dog is front-first on its way back to me, not rear-last on its way from me. Similarly to swinging spit, I am on the watch for dogs’ anuses because no one, except possibly children, wants a picture of a dog’s butt. I’m always surprised when people show me just such a picture and wait for my praise of their dog’s cuteness.

If my subject is not the retriever type, I run, and dogs being the saps they are for love and prey, chase me. I began my photographic career as a horse photographer and long ago mastered the art of running fast backward while rapidly focusing. Sometimes, however, if it’s hot, the dog might not want to run, and I won’t want a long-tongued picture. In these instances, I wait for the dog to stand, sit, or lie down and then I hoot like a chimpanzee, meow, purr, trill, squeak a toy, or play bird songs on my iPhone. All sounds work for only a few seconds because dogs adapt quickly to their environment. Never do I say a dog’s name because I want the dog to stay. This simple rule is one almost all owners who help me fail at. Repeatedly. Because of the come-here potential of sounds, the whistle and name calling work with only a few breeds, such as the small terrier sort, who pride themselves on keeping away. For the shy type, patience is my only tool. I don’t try to get close as a dog’s eyes and body position tell a story, and I don’t want his to be either I’m-a-worrier or I’m-a-warrior.

As I write this, I am scheduled to photograph seven rescue puppies in need of pictures. I don’t know anything about these animals, but I will know enough five minutes after meeting them to get the three shots they need to find a good home. If anyone wants to take an above average picture of a dog that friends will ooh and aw at, that person must relax and hang out, throw toys, and learn how to make head-turning sounds. This person should try to keep the sun at her back or use fill-flash for shade, not be afraid to fill the frame, and experiment with natural light and angles. Some dogs are intimidated by the camera, but time resolves all conflicts. Behave with confidence and compassion, leave the treats and stress behind, and dogs will behave naturally without an assistant, which will result in pictures that will be treasured long after the dogs are gone.

Helen Peppe is a writer and photographer. Although primarily a photographer of horses and dogs, she photographs all animals and sometimes, if they have pets, even photographs people. Her short stories, poems, articles, and photographs have appeared in numerous equine books, fiction anthologies, textbooks, and magazines, including Dressage Today, Equus, Practical Horseman, Dog Fancy, Dog World, and Cats Magazine. Author of Pigs Can’t Swim, The Maine Stable Guide, History of the State Theater, and former editor of the Eastern Equerry and Wordplay Magazine, Helen's writing and photographs have won awards and recognition, including finaling for the 2011 Annie Dillard Award. She lives in Maine with her family, four dogs, eight rescued rabbits, three cats, and four guinea pigs.

Guest Blogger: Susan Whitfield's North Carolina Mysteries

Today I'd like to welcome North Carolina author Susan Whitfield, author of the Logan Hunter Mysteries, who talks about her books and the beautiful state in which they are set.  If you leave a comment or ask Susan a question, your name will be entered for a free copy of Genesis Beach! 
  ~ Sheila

North Carolina Mysteries

by Susan Whitfield

Let me begin by saying how much I appreciate Sheila Boneham inviting me to guest on her blog. I met her last year at Cape Fear Crime Festival in Wilmington and we were on a panel about book promotion. We found that we’re kindred spirits in several ways: both writers, lovers of books and animals, and residents of eastern North Carolina. Thanks again, Sheila, for the friendship and support. 

I wrote the bones of my first mystery, Genesis Beach, while I was still a high school principal, occasionally pulling out a legal pad when I had hours between the end of the school day and a meeting or ball game.  

Genesis Beach was my first attempt at writing, and I am here to tell you it was quite an eye-opener for me. I’d taught English for thirteen years on the high school level, making certain that students used correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation at all times. I found that trying to write a novel that way made my characters boring and the entire plot stilted and unbelievable. So I grabbed up my many pages and trashed them. It hurt. 

After a couple of soul-searching days of carrying ideas around in my head, I started over. The experience was surreal. Logan Hunter, my female protagonist, took over and words, phrases, and attitudes poured down my arm, into my fingers, and appeared on the monitor. I wrote in a frenzied state for hours and left the computer an exhausted but thrilled emerging writer. I hope every writer out there has that kind of experience. 

Genesis Beach is about a young lady who decides to major in Criminal Justice and then applies for the SBI, our equivalent to the feds. Part of her program requires an internship, which she completes at Genesis Beach, where her mother lived until she had a stroke. Logan moves into the old place, the beach right out her back door. Her first three weeks at the police station are boring, but when a local millionaire playboy is found dead in his hot tub, the chief of police and his two officers, Max Cash and Logan Hunter, investigate. Even though the man has no visible marks on him, Logan’s gut tells her he had help dying.  Over the course of book, Logan uses her newly acquired knowledge to search for a killer once the ME discovers internal bleeding from trauma caused the death. She eventually catches the killer, of course and by the end of the book I wanted to write more about Logan Hunter.

Since I’d set the novel along the Crystal Coast in a fictitious beach town, I decided to take her to the mountains for the second book. Just North of Luck is set in Madison and Buncombe counties in western North Carolina. I upped the ante by having Logan, now a full-fledged SBI agent, chase a serial killer. I upped the ante for myself as well, beginning the book from the villain’s point of view and hoping that readers would have a few sympathetic feelings about him before being thoroughly creeped out later in the book. This book, in my opinion, is by far the most graphically violent. Some of my friends and family started looking at me in strange ways. My husband started telling folks he sleeps with one eye open.  

Wow! What an experience. While I was writing this book and developing violent scenes, the villain lived inside my head. I must admit this was a scary time. There were many nights that I didn’t sleep. I was so relieved when I finished the book and he disappeared. <Is that a white van I see pulling up to my house?> No, really, I suppose I had to get into a killer’s head to write that kind of book, but never did I expect him to get into mine. Even though the book sells as mystery, I think it should have been listed in the horror genre. I never expected to write horror. I’m so glad Logan was there with me to get me safely on the other side of the experience. 

By this time, I was even more willing to write another Logan Hunter mystery and hopefully tone it down a bit. I set Hell Swamp back in my native Pender County about four miles from my childhood home. This mystery begins with Logan miffed at having to return to work even though she’d taken off a few days to plan her wedding to Chase Railey, another law enforcement officer. With some kind of major virus circulating through the SBI, she begrudgingly reports to The Black River Plantation to find the crime scene terribly compromised…an agent’s worst nightmare. 

When she pushes through the crowd and into the front foyer, her eyes bulge at the carcass of a small woman, gutted like a deer, and hung from the chandelier. <Yes, I know I said I’d tone it down, and I think I did in this book. Once you get past this scene, things really do calm down a lot. Trust me;-|>  

Deer hunters are the prime suspects in Hell Swamp but they’re closing the circle and trying to protect their own. Logan won’t be getting any time off any time soon. Her fiancé, Chase Railey, comes in to help her solve the case, but due to a misunderstanding, Logan doesn’t want him there. The conflict is evident between them, Logan making Chase as uncomfortable as she possibly can, However, Chase continues to work the case and keep an eye on her.

I enjoyed writing this book because it brought back so many childhood memories—great ones—and also provided me with an opportunity to write conflict between two people who love each other. Trust became a major issue for them to work through. By the end of the book—quite a shock to most readers—they have made up, adopted a victim’s dog, and locked up the perps. Chase gives Logan his mother’s wedding ring a few days before Christmas.

Sin Creek is the fourth Logan Hunter mystery, set in Wilmington because I absolutely love that place. I lived there for a year but cruised the streets all through my high school years. I set most of the novel down by the Cape Fear River, where the Riverwalk connects The Cotton Exchange to boutiques, restaurants, and Chandler’s Wharf. In this novel, Logan is called to a gruesome scene where a college freshman has been murdered. As she begins her investigation, she’s pulled into the porn industry when she discovers the young girl had sex on film in order to pay tuition and have an exciting and titillating nightlife.

There are several messages in this book, beginning with my letter to readers at the front. My discomfort in writing such a book comes through, I’m told. It was difficult to write, for sure, but I hope parents with children heading to college will read it, not to scare them but to inform them that there are many slime balls out there just hoping to hook up with the naiive. This book was even more difficult because I killed off a character I dearly loved. I cried over the pages many times while I worked to get it just right. Another message in this book is about becoming an organ donor. I hope it makes the reader at least think about recycling in the truest sense of the word. 

I’ve written a few pages in the next Logan Hunter mystery, but it will be 2013 before I can say much about that one. It will be set here in North Carolina, probably on the Inner Banks (IOX) somewhere. I have lots of research to do.  I enjoyed writing women’s fiction and hope to write more of that as well. I’m also researching an ancestor in hopes of writing an historical fiction.

Sheila, thank you again for showcasing my writing on your new blog. I hope to see you soon.

Susan Whitfield, author of the award-winning Logan Hunter Mystery series, lives in eastern North Carolina and sets her novels here. Susan has four published mysteries: Genesis Beach, Just North of Luck, Hell Swamp, and Sin Creek.

She has also compiled recipes from mystery writers across the country for Killer Recipes. Proceeds from the cookbook are donated to cancer research I honor of her grandson, a cancer thriver. Susan is an avid blogger and promotes and interviews other authors on her site. Susan is letting her first women’s fiction, The Goose Parade of Old Dickeywood, “cure” for a few weeks before her last edit/rewrite. Then she plans to begin the query process.

 For more information, visit Susan’s website at www.susanwhitfieldonline.com where you can view video trailers and keep up with events. Susan is currently interviewing authors at www.susanwhitfield.blogspot.com . She is a member of Mystery Writers of American, Sisters in Crime, Carolina Conspiracy, North Carolina Writers Network, and numerous other organizations. She can be found on Facebook and Twitter or over at www.booktown.com as well.

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Mysterious Mondays are one-third of Sheila Webster Boneham's Writers and Other Animals blog, running (surprise!) on Mondays and focus on mysteries and thrillers and the people who write them. Check out the Weekly Blog Schedule on this page for more information. Writing on Wednesdays looks at all sorts of writing and the work (and play) of the writer, and offers resources and writing prompts for writers at all points along the path. Artsy Fartsy Fridays is a collage built of art of all sorts, including writing, photography, painting, drawing, and books in which other art forms play important roles. Come take a look - who knows what you'll find!

Sheila Webster Boneham's first Animals in Focus Mystery, Drop Dead on Recall, will be out in October. For more information, visit Sheila's Fiction Page. You can also connect with Sheila on Facebook.