One of the most challenging aspects of photographing dogs and cats for me is to get into the habit of  “shooting loose” as they say.  That means to leave some space around the main subject so that you can go back and crop in post-processing or offer a variety of different print sizes.  From my macro photography days, I’ve always been a huge fan of frame-filling scenes, so I almost always compose in camera with the idea of NOT cropping later during editing.  This is an example of a very tight composition featuring Chesapeake Bay Retriever Hudson, “GCh. Chesastar Hudson Bay”, with handler Michelle Scott at the Penn Ridge Kennel Club show in Harrisburg, Pa. over the weekend.  I love that there is nothing in this composition that is unnecessary.  When composing a scene through my camera’s viewfinder, I try and ask myself if there are elements that take away from the subject and if there are, they don’t need to be included.