The seventh challenge in the Embark Pet Photography Challenge Series was “City Slicker.”

The goal: Capture a portrait of a dog in a man-made environment to create an urban feel. Here’s the final image I created for this challenge:

Urban shoots can be tough. You’re photographing a dog in a place full of distractions - cars, people, noise, and unpredictable environments. Location scouting is key. As someone who loves to plan, I had my eyes open long before this challenge even began.

One day, while driving through Gainesville, Georgia, I happened upon a beautiful Greek-style building with the name "Dimo" scripted across the top. When I got home, I did a little research and discovered it was a jewelry store. I loved the architecture and immediately thought this would be the perfect spot for my City Slicker photo. Even better, they close at 6 PM, which meant the parking lot would be empty and quiet. That made it ideal for working with my model.

When shooting on private property, it’s always good etiquette to get permission. So I stopped by the store and spoke to one of the owners, a wonderful, sweet lady, who gave me the green light to photograph there after 7 PM. As a courtesy, I followed up with a phone call to confirm the exact date.

The location was about an hour away, but I knew it would be worth the drive. All the way there, the skies were clear and beautiful. But the moment we arrived, ominous storm clouds rolled in. Cue the panic. I had to move quickly.

This wasn’t a place I could easily come back to, and I needed my trusty assistant to be available, too. So I tried to speed things up and skipped using my lighting gear. A few frames in, I knew that wasn’t going to cut it. I had to pull out my light and set it up in a hurry.

Between shooting, watching the dog, and making sure my light didn’t blow away, it was a multi-tasking nightmare. The wind was so strong it ballooned my diffuser and kept pulling it off the Velcro. Even one of my dog’s floppy ears kept standing straight up in the wind! 😂 I had to keep pausing to fix everything. Not fun, but I will say the cool breeze felt amazing in the summer heat! After all that hustling and bustling to beat the storm, the rain never came and I was grateful for that.

After getting some shots with the full building in view, we moved closer for a few different angles. I ended up with some beautiful images of my model near the columns and initially planned to submit one of those. But the more I thought about it, the more I worried it didn’t clearly communicate the urban feel of the location.

I didn’t want to take a chance on the image not meeting the challenge brief, so I decided to go with the photo where the building is fully visible in the background. At first, I wasn’t totally sold on it. With no foreground elements, it felt a little flat. But then I remembered what I learned in the Composition 101 challenge: symmetry and centered compositions can be powerful.

Looking at the image again, I felt the composition was strong enough to confidently submit it for this challenge. That helped me finalize my decision and go with the image shown at the top of this post.

For this shoot, I used my 15–30mm wide-angle lens. I wanted to include as much of the background as possible to emphasize the urban location. The sky was dramatic with the rolling storm clouds, and I really wanted to capture it, but I couldn’t step farther back. There was a raised parking island behind me, and I couldn’t find a clean way to include it without cluttering the image.

I was disappointed about missing that sky, but sometimes you have to make tough decisions to improve the final result. As artists, we usually have a vision in our heads of how an image should look, but with dog photography especially, you have to adapt. Things change, and if you cling too tightly to the original idea, you might miss a better opportunity.

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots from the shoot that show how we worked with the location and conditions.

I went back and forth on whether I should remove the name from the building in post. But ultimately, I decided to leave it in because it added to the symmetry. The name “Dimo” is centered at the top, and the initial D appears on both sides of the architectural planter. It creates a visual triangle, and when you place the dog centered at the bottom, it completes the shape, forming a diamond. That kind of structure helps anchor the photo and subtly guide the viewer’s eye.

Their first reaction to the photo was “cool!” They loved the amount of texture in the image, the symmetry of the scene, and the way the light fell off the dog. The building itself added a really striking element, and the overall monochrome feel made the photo look dynamic and high-definition. They also loved the dog’s relaxed pose. However, they noted there was quite a bit of concrete between the dog and the building and felt the image might have been stronger if the dog had been sitting or standing instead.

I completely agree with the judges feedback, but my dog had other ideas. That day, she decided it was “casual day” and flat-out refused to stand for me. Every time I got her up, she flopped right back down again. One thing about her: if she doesn’t want to do something, she simply won’t. She’ll just sit there and wait until you give in. So I went with the flow and captured the image you see at the top of this blog. It wasn’t what I had envisioned but it’s still a great photo and sometimes the beauty of photography is not getting everything perfect but capturing something meaningful anyway.

That said, I’m determined to create an epic shot at this location. I already have permission to reshoot, and hopefully I’ll get the right weather conditions to really take my time and analyze the scene before setting up. I’m also training my pup to stand on command… let’s just hope she actually listens when the time comes! 😂

Stay tuned for an updated version from this location. Now, onto challenge #8!