Page 48 - Australian Photography Dec 2020

PROFILE: ALEX CEARNS
On the strength of that image and some of her early pet portraits from the rescue centres, she was contact- ed by two galleries offering to represent her work. The offers were fortuitous. At that point she had already started selling some of her photographs, with a CD of 100 pet images just $95 – a business model she laughingly admits was “not the best”.
On realising that Perth had no dedicated studio pet photography businesses, and with a few clients up her sleeve, she decided to take a punt and launch her own business. The seeds of Houndstooth Studio were sown.
IN THE STUDIO
“I started off by putting an advertisement in the newspaper for $800, and from that I booked eight clients,” explains Cearns.
Word quickly spread. In the first six months she had 20 clients. By year’s end, 100, and the following year, 400. Today, Houndstooth Studio photographs more than 1300 pets a year, with all creatures great and small welcome.
Human or animal, a great portrait is one that tells us something about the subject. With pets, it’s no dif- ferent – a raised paw here, a lolling tongue there – it’s the unique moments that Cearns seeks to capture in her studio.
Remarkably, from start to finish, a client and their pets will be in the studio for just half an hour. Cearns takes about 300 shots in 15 of those minutes, which means that by the time most of the animals realise what’s happened, they are already back in the car on their way home.
This ability to work fast and minimise the animals’ (and their owners’) stress levels while also ticking off a shot-list is a real skill, but a few tricks-of-the-trade for photographing pets definitely helps the process.
“With 1300 animals a year, I get all sorts,” she says. “Take dogs, for example – I get dogs who bite, dogs who are terrified, dogs with anxiety issues, dogs who want to sniff around the place – everything!
“I spend five minutes winning them over and getting them relaxed,” she says. In the studio, there’s a comfortable 19-degree environment for them to settle into, and the 15-minute shooting part is designed to be over as quickly as possible.
THE GEAR
• Canon 1DX Mark II
• Sony A9
• Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 II lens
• Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens
• Tamron 150-600mm lens
• Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 lens
• Profoto lighting
| 48 | DECEMBER 2020 | AUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM