.jpg "Chanel")
I first saw Chanel (Ch Starline’s Chanel) as a 10 month old puppy when I spotted her in the ring at the Del Valle show, where she won the breed from the classes and took two group placements in really serious competition. A year and a half later, she had matured into a lovely young lady and was starting to do some serious winning, already taking home those Best In Show ribbons.
As the dog fancy was packing their bags for the annual trip to Madison Square Garden and The Show of Shows, Westminster, Dogs In Review, the National Geographic of dog magazines, needed a photo of Chanel for the next cover. The magazine was on deadline (past, actually) and time was of the essence. We decided we would need to shoot something in New York. Of course, the day I was to fly out (Wednesday), NYC got a dumpload of snow, they closed all the airports, and my flight out of Dallas was canceled. I rescheduled for Friday. Which is when Dallas got a dumpload of snow. So I was canceled again. I finally made it on a plane on Saturday. Monday was Day 1 of Westminster, hounds were on day one, so I had one day to come up with a plan for how I was going to get this National Geographic photo. Oh my.
It was not whippet weather outdoors, so I would need to shoot inside somewhere. I wanted an image in which she looked glamorous and elegant, but also powerful and athletic, with beautiful whippet curves and fine features. But I couldn’t think of any place we could shoot except in one of the hotels. The Hotel Penn is Westminster Central for the week of the shows, crowded, a little dim, and really not the best place for a photo shoot. But the Affinia down the street had a large open area where the bank of elevators were located, and I decided to see if I could shoot in there.
This was do or die. I was going to have to use some lights to do this, and for that I was going to need some help. I put in a call to NJ wedding photographer Neil van Neikerk, a master lighting guru (and South African expat) whose photos I had long admired for their silky smooth light. Neil’s a busy guy, but he threw some gear in the car and met me on Sunday morning in the lobby of the Affinia Manhattan.
The bank of elevators is in the shape of an L, with 6 or 8 elevators along the long wall and one at ninety degrees at the end. They are a beautiful gold color, with raised, embossed panels on each door. I grabbed a sofa pillow to stand in for Chanel and started playing with angles and lights. It didn’t take long for me to realize that a bank of shiny metal elevator doors can make a room look like a disco if you point a flash at them. Instead of shooting with the dog (sofa pillow) in front of the bank of doors, we decided to shoot along the front of the doors with the dog (sofa pillow) in front of the single elevator door at the end. Neil set up a flash on a stair rail to bounce light into the background. He pulled out a reflector and bounced a flash into it to throw light on the dog. I laid down flat on the floor in front of the bank of elevator doors, keeping my head down as the lunchtime elevator traffic picked up. Neil and I fiddled a bit with flash and camera settings, marked the spot on the floor where we wanted Chanel to stand with gaffer’s tape, and called up to handler Lori Wilson to bring down the princess.
We had Lori guide Chanel into the hot spot. We threw a few toys around, but Chanel only glared at me, disappointed that I was there with my camera but we clearly were not going to the beach. At just the perfect moment, though, breeder and owner Lori Lawrence walked in the front door of the hotel. Chanel spotted her immediately and stood up on her very tippy-toes to see her. I took 3 or 4 photos and we were done.
We spent 2 hours setting up the shot. It took us only minutes to get it. And she looks stunning. (Many thanks Neil, it was a great cover!)
EPILOGUE: On Monday, Chanel won the breed in stiff competition and went on to win the Hound Group at Westminster.
Check out the website of Starline Whippets and view more photos of Chanel here…
Incoming search terms:
- dogs in review - chanel whippet
- lori wilson dog handler
3 comments
After reading the description of how she saw her owner and stood on her tippie toes I went back up and looked at the photo again.
Reminds me of that scene in Somewhere in Time where Jane Seymour turns to see Christopher Reeve and smiles and the photographer snaps the photo.
True love in her eyes
[...] #1 hound, with Tawny right on her tail at #3. (You can see one of my portraits of Chanel here.) For whippet lovers it’s been a great year, and at the prestigious shows coming up in the [...]
[...] is once again the lovely whippet Chanel, whom I have photographed many times. She’s one of my favorite subjects because, despite being a top-ranked show dog, her inner [...]