Speaking About Animal Behaviour At The Prairie Creatives Conference

I truly believe that my success as a pet photographer can be attributed to my understanding of animal behaviour much more than my skill as a photographer.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone once again and speak in public, at a professional photography conference. I do not enjoy public speaking, but I do enjoy saying “yes” to things that scare me, and seeing where it leads.

As always, it was the right choice! I had an amazing weekend with the Prairie Region members of the Professional Photographers of Canada at their Prairie Creatives Conference in Winnipeg, MB. My presentation was titled “Capturing Purrsonality - The Secret To Creating Pet Portraits Clients Will Pay For”, and I shared how my knowledge of animal behaviour, gained from my 25-year career as a veterinary technician, helps me create pet portraits that their families will connect with and want to hang on their walls.

Hat Trick the dog model watching me present at the Prairie Creatives Conference in Winnipeg.

My presentation seemed to be very well-received, especially by Hat Trick, my dog model for the live photoshoot portion of my presentation. Hat Trick left his mom, Becky, at her table at the back of the room, sauntered up to this chair right in the front and proceeded to watch me present for over 40 minutes!

At one point, I was talking about “Calming Signals” that help dogs relieve stress. I used the example of yawning, and how (depending on context) it can be a sign that a dog is beginning to feel a bit anxious.

I was telling the audience that they can actually use yawning to help a dog reduce tension. Dogs find yawning contagious, just as we do, so if you are meeting a nervous dog, looking away a bit and yawning will often cause the dog to yawn as well, releasing some of their anxiety and helping them to see you as less threatening. I did a big, fake yawn, and I’m told that Hat Trick yawned as well, proving what I had just said!

I wish someone had caught THAT on video!

After watching my presentation, Hat Trick was well prepared to do an amazing job as my model! Unfortunately, weather did not cooperate (it was just like being home in Atlantic Canada!), and of course it started to rain just as we were about to head outside for some action photos. Pet photography is all about adapting on the fly, so we opened all the blinds and did some running and jumping shots right in the conference room!

Thankfully, the rain passed quickly and we were able to head outdoors to take a few photos in some foliage next to the hotel parking lot, and take a few more running shots in the courtyard.

Here are a few of the “before” images, captured in the conference room, hotel courtyard, and parking lot.

Some “behind the scenes” - it may not look graceful, but it works!

These are some of the running shots, captured using window light in the conference room. I changed the cluttered background to a simple, solid backdrop using Evoto and Photoshop.

There were so many great shots in this jumping series, it was quicker just to change backgrounds altogether than it would have been to clean up the existing background.

A little bit of greenery is all it takes to turn an ugly parking lot into a nature area! In the photo on the right, I took some of the foliage from another photo, flipped it and added it on the right, to hide the pavement and dumpsters in the background.

I experimented with a few different editing styles on these photos taken in the courtyard after the rain stopped, just to show what is possible, even with a fairly “blah” background and lighting.

Things got a little wild after the awards gala 🥳🥂🍾

One of the main reasons I agreed to travel to Winnipeg to speak at this conference was that I knew the Prairie members were super fun to hang with, and that it would be a good time. They did not disappoint.

The cherry on top of a fantastic weekend was finding out that my local Moncton Animal Shelter, People For Animal Wellbeing (PAW/SBA), are looking for people flying back from Winnipeg to escort some rescue puppies to Moncton, where they will quickly find their forever families. They pulled it all together on short notice with the rescue group in Winnipeg and funding from PetSmart Charities, and it all went off without a hitch!

I was a little worried about what might happen if my connecting flight was delayed, but it all went very smoothly. The rescue met me at the Winnipeg airport, with the pups, the crate, and bedding. They stayed with me all the way through checking the pups in, until they disappeared down the conveyor. They reassured me that there was food taped to the outside of the crate and in the event of a long delay between flights, the airport staff at the connecting airport (Montreal) would be responsible for caring for them. At any rate, there were no delays, and it was a super short connection.

At the Moncton end, a volunteer from PAW met me at the baggage claim and took the puppies from there to the shelter, where they will soon be available for adoption. Altogether, the process was easy and I would do it again in a heartbeat if the opportunity arose. If you or anyone you know is flying from Winnipeg to Moncton in the future, please get in touch with PAW. There are plenty more rescues from northern Manitoba who would love a chance at life with a loving family in Atlantic Canada.