The beauty of Duck Lake State Park, is there are plenty of options for diverse backgrounds when photographing dogs!
Duck Lake is located in Whitehall, Michigan, and has two access points into Duck Lake itself, a boardwalk that leads to a sandy beach along Lake Michigan, and a plethora of paved and woodland trails.
There is a portion of Duck Lake that has super shallow waters with a sandy bottom. If I sit out in the water, it provides the perfect vantage point for capturing big water sprays in action shots! Since this area of the lake is protected from the wind, there are minimal waves, which make it a very friendly and safe environment for smaller or young dogs to explore the waters too. (This location is super easy to access, with only a 1-2 minute walk from the parking lot.)
The “Hall of Trees” trail is a bit tricker with the lighting, but when that light hits just right, it makes for some epic photos! This trail breaks into several smaller trails, one that juts off into a sea of moss and pine saplings. This allows for a cleaner background, softer textures, and rich greens that we don’t often find here in Michigan. This is another prime location for puppies or smaller dogs, providing them a playground to explore, where I can capture a variety of emotional portraits in a shorter amount of time. (These trails do require the ability to walk ~1-1.5 miles, and are not handicap accessible.)
During photoshoots in both locations, I do keep all dogs on leashes. In my camera bag, I keep several styles of leashes, including thiner show leads for the smallest dogs, heavier leather leads for the bigger dogs, and a long 15’ leash we can use for action shots. These leads are always edited out of your final image, leaving it looking as though your dog was the perfect angle, posing like a professional dog!
As always - no dog training is needed to capture professional photographs of your dog! It does help when your dogs knows the basics (sit, down, stay or wait), but I am very used to working with puppy brains or show dogs, where photographing them standing, and then capturing them in a sit or down when they naturally provide that behavior, is perfectly fine as well.
*There is NO travel fee for this location, as it is super close to my home base!
Take a peak at some of the dogs photographed in at Duck Lake! 👇🏻
