The dog is the perfect portrait subject. He doesn't pose. He isn't aware of the camera.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.
In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view. The image may not be literally what's going on, but it's representative.
In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view and to be conceptual with a picture. The image may not be literally what's going on, but it's representative.
When the dog looks at you, the dog is not thinking what kind of a person you are. The dog is not judging you.
A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he's wearing or how he looks.
If there is a less likely sight on this earth than Clint Dempsey, the Texas trailer-park kid, doing downward-facing dog poses, or the stalwart Michael Bradley deep breathing through a tree pose, I have yet to see it.
There's a discipline. When you take someone's portrait, you don't have to take 50 photographs, just find that one so that when you release the shutter, that's the image that you took.
The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer.
There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. This kind of photography is realism. But realism is not enough - there has to be vision, and the two together can make a good photograph.
I remember thinking, 'Downward dog' is so not a resting pose!' Now it actually can be.