11/08/2026
๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ - ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ ๐ฒ - ๐๐น๐น ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐น๐. ๐ง๐ข๐ฃ ๐ญ๐ฌ!
With all the excitement of the IPPA results I almost forgot to post my challenge update ๐
And you wouldn't want to miss Zippy's 'Butt Swirls'!
We all have those fun, quirky, unique parts of our pets that we totally love. For this challenge I found it quite difficult to decide what I wanted to go with...those soul searching/'I've not eaten in days, please feed me' amber eyes, the ears that seem to have a life of their own, the snoot which is sooo good at pick pocketing, the little wonky toe...so many to choose from.
I went with the cute butt swirls and for pretty much this reason...In most of the photos of Zip you see him front/side on and never the rear view! So this is what it looks like๐
I added quite a bit of contrast to this image as I really wanted to bring out the pattern, the symmetry and the difference in colour. And the judges liked it...
"๐ฝ๐ช๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฌ๐๐ง๐ก๐จ! ๐๐๐ ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ก, ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐ค๐ฃ๐๐ก ๐ง๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐๐จ ๐๐ข๐๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ก๐ก ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฉ. ๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ก ๐๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐จ ๐๐จ ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐จ๐ช๐๐ก ๐จ๐๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐จ๐๐๐๐จ."
Oh, and do you spot an owl or an elephant? ๐ง
Just to re-cap what this is all about...I've undertaken a personal educational challenge, the follow up to Embark. Every two weeks we will be given a theme to shoot & edit, with direction from world leading pet photographers on how to achieve this. The most important & invaluable part of this for me is the feedback we get after every challenge...what we did right & what we could improve on.
And why am I doing this? Apart from the fact that it's fun (it really is!!!) whatever I learn from these courses I hope to bring that experience to my client sessions.
As I did last year I wanted to document my journey through Emerge & it's always fun to share my submissions as I go along, so hope you enjoy following my progress!
You can check out my challenge submissions for ๐๐บ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ at www.thesnootpetphotography.co.uk .
Is there anything quirky about your pet that you'd like to capture? Drop me a line!