Canines on camera

If you’ve seen some of the stunning photographs from the biggest moments at Crufts, then you’ve likely seen some of the brilliant photography of Yulia Titovets. She is the Kennel Club’s lead photographer and, as well as capturing the top dogs on the green carpet at the world’s biggest dog show, photographs dog events in almost every canine sport.

Having had to work hard to achieve her dream career working with dogs, Yulia now travels a lot photographing dogs at events and for commercial shoots, and always has two of her beloved pet dogs alongside her. 

Here, Yulia shares what it’s like to be behind the lens of some of the biggest dog events and even has a top tip for capturing the perfect pic of you own four-legged friend…

 

Tell us about how you’re a professional dog photographer 

I am a dog photographer and it’s my only job now. I mainly do big dog events, and also specialise in all types of dog competitions. I also do some commercial canine photography. Most notably, I’ve covered Crufts as a main photographer for the last 13 or 14 years. 

 

How did you get into dog photography? 

It was a case of being in the right place at the right time. 

So, I’ve loved dogs my whole life. When I was a child, I was always collecting everything related to dogs. As a family, we travelled a lot, so we never had an opportunity to have a dog of our own. The first dog we had as a family was when I was 18 and just before I left for university in England. I was fairly obsessed with dogs.

My father was a keen amateur photographer so I grew up with cameras in the house. I used to borrow his cameras and just go take pictures of random stuff around me. At university I didn’t do photography, I did marketing. But again, it was the atmosphere – there were a lot of other photographers and a lot of photo competitions. So, I sort of mixed two together and I started going out with the dog walkers and the dog trainers in London to just capture their days. It was like my destress from the university. I’d just spend days in Hyde Park taking pictures of dogs and that’s how I started meeting people and networking.

One day, with one of my friends who is a very successful dog trainer in England, we decided to go to the Kennel Club for the gallery tours in the building. A lady called Heidi Hudson was managing the picture library and all the press did part of the tour and we started chatting. Then she said, ‘Oh, you’re a photographer. Can you give me your card?’  Within half an hour, she’d seen my work and phoned me to ask me to be an official photographer for the Kennel Club. That was almost 15 years ago now. 

What is it like being an official photographer at Crufts? 

For at least the last 10 years, I have been the official main Kennel Club photographer in the main arena, doing pretty much everything, including the Best in Show. 

My work has evolved and it’s very easy for the Kennel Club because they don’t need to brief me because I know the style and how they want to use images. I have done most of their big events over those years, including all the agility shows.

Crufts is a full-on four days. The Kennel Club pool of photographers are there every day from around 6:30am and we never finish on site before 10 or 11pm. Then obviously you have to process the images (I take around 50,000 images!) and give the best shots to the Kennel Club so they can use them. You are absolutely exhausted but during moments like the Best in Show there is so much adrenaline and excitement that makes you want do it again.

It is amazing being part of Crufts, especially as there is a sort of hierarchy of photographers and
I am one of the lead photographers. 

I provide more photos for the Kennel Club’s marketing materials, which are used in the press afterwards or in advertising. It’s the only show that I do have an assistant, so if the Kennel Club needs something urgently, then she will find the image and will send it to them while I’m taking pictures. 

 

What makes a good photograph at these events? 

I am one of the very few photographers in the country who actually properly understands all the canine sports. I can do heelwork to music, agility, and breed shows and I will get the right images which depends on the type of activity a lot.

For example, when you do the confirmation shows, you have 

to display the dog in the right posture and moving correctly. For example, you can’t post the photos when the paws are in the wrong places. Or you can’t post the photo, or, you can’t provide the people with a photo if the dog is not standing correctly, if the dog is not moving correctly, if the dog’s ears are in the wrong place. You need to show the dog and the sport at their best. 

Do you have any images that are your favourites from your career?  

The best Crufts photos are usually with the emotions of the winners when they hug the dog. I do have a fair few of those. 

I usually don’t touch my camera between the events. I’m so busy August, September, October, November, that after November, I will often not touch the camera until Crufts. However, during the Covid times, I used to take the camera out and now I live in the Dolomites, Italy, so it’s amazing scenery. I would just take the dogs out and spend hours taking landscape photos, but with a dog involved in it. Among everything that I have ever done, my favourite photo is of my younger dog running in the mountains. 

 

Tell us about your dogs

At the moment, I own three Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers, a father and two sons. They are nine, 11, and 14 years old. Two out of three dogs are with me all the time. They travel everywhere with me. They used to show but now they’re all retired. They’re champions of a few countries on the Continent. The youngest dog has actually been in the main arena at Crufts. 

 

That’s amazing! How did that work with taking photos? 

I was there with them. My first husband used to be a photographer as well, so when I showed my dogs at Crufts, he used to cover for me, doing the main arena and everything.

I’ve done most of the sports with my own dogs, which obviously helps with photography because I understand it from inside. I’ve also used them on the shoots as models for commercials. 

 

Does it help that you’ve also been a dog trainer, too?  

I have done behavioural and puppy training, and I also used to run a boarding place. I used to have a lot of clients and access to a lot of dogs for if I need them. For example, for one of the commercials that I did, the client needed five different dogs, of different breeds, who would hold vegetables in their mouths. Both of my dogs could do it, but it was really difficult to find other dogs. I ended up just training some of my client’s dogs to do it. 

 

Do you still do much commercial work? 

Since I moved away from the UK, not as much. A lot of brands that I used to work with have been sold to bigger companies and they will often just buy stock photos.

 

How do these jobs differ from event work? 

I almost said that the commercials are easier, but then remembering that commercial with the five dogs holding vegetables, that was not! With the events, I turn up, do the photos and then deliver the images. So, I don’t need to organise the whole thing, which I have to do with commercials. There’s a lot of logistics involved. A lot of logistics and getting people in the right place at the right time. 

What would be your top tips for people taking photographs of their own dogs at home on their phones?

Train your dog and get down to their level when taking photographs. 

With my own dogs, or with my clients’ dogs, the first thing they learned, even just for in a general household situation, not the photography situation, is ‘Stay.’ It’s such a useful thing to have as a trained command. With photography, if I teach ‘Stay’ to all the dogs then I know I can keep using this command and then at some point they will stay just long enough for me to take the photo, then you praise them.

You get the best photos when you are on the dog level. You will see me laying on the ground taking pictures all the time! A lot of pet people say that as soon as they get down to dog level the dog runs to me. If you practise the ‘Stay’ command, your dog will give you the opportunity to get the photo. 

These are my two tips and then, patience – the amount of photographers that I have seen who just don’t have patience! You have to be as calm as possible to get the shots that you want to get. 

 

How would you reflect on your journey from being the little girl to the main photographer for the Kennel Club? Is there anything else you’d like to achieve? 

I never thought that I will get to where I am. It is crazy; when people ask what I do for work and say I am a dog photographer, the majority of people just can’t believe it. I’m very proud of myself. Obviously, it would not have been possible without the Kennel Club and without all the networking that I’ve done both through the Kennel Club and on my own. It’s hard work. You have to be on a very high level or you need to work every event weekend. And then there is the processing which is a nightmare. 

When I was young, I really wanted to work with dogs. But the way our parents were, they would have never accepted it, as it wouldn’t be seen as a ‘proper’ job. Now I have financial independence from my parents, which is very important for me, and that I’m doing it through dog photography is amazing. 

In terms of what I want to achieve, I would probably want to have more international recognition. I have worked in lots of events around Europe, but I don’t think my name is that known in Europe. I should probably do more marketing for Europe, but for me at the moment, it works well to go back and forth between England and Italy.

 

Find out more...

To discover more about Yulia and her work, you can follow her on Instagram: @y_ltovets and @fourlittlepaws_photos