Studio Styled Portraits
PHOTOGRAPHING CHICKENS!
This blog has been months in the making, but yet I’ve been hanging to share these images with you! I mean who would have thought that chickens would make the best models!
When I first posted these chicken photos on Instagram, they went off! I mean, who would’ve thought that chickens could be so photogenic!
Okay, so I feel like I need to start with the backstory about HOW this even came about. I mean when you think of a pet photographer, I’m pretty sure your brain goes straight to those cute puppy dog pictures, and maybe some baby kittens if you’re that way inclined, but chickens? Probably not right?!
After I decided that pet photography was going to be my niche that I indulge in this year, the next thing I needed to do, was to get out there and find some pets to photograph. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know I have my cat, but that he is also, in my opinion, one very anxious beautiful psycho, to sum him up briefly, so even on his good days, it’s a lot of work to get any content out of him, so I had no option but to hunt down some fur babies from a few friends. I had initially started to list down everyone I knew that had a dog and managed to get a few dog sessions under my belt which I was stoked about. The chickens though, they were just pure timing.
I’m not big on scrolling through facebook, I mean if you want to find me and connect, the gram is really the best place to do that, but on this particular day, I was scrolling through facebook and a friend who I’d met through this biz babe life, had posted in a facebook group looking for someone to take her chickens off her hands as she was going to be moving overseas.
Obviously, being that nosey friend that I am, I had a quick squiz through the comments to see if she’d had any takers. What I didn’t expect to see though was a photo of one of the chickens wearing a paper party hat that her daughter had made. As soon as I saw it, I messaged her instantly, trying to work out exactly how much longer she had these chickens for, because that party hat chicken, was one chicken that I needed to photograph and while the thought was a little funny and a little crazy to begin with, she was totally open to the idea!
I did a little research after the fact, to see if I could find any chicken photoshoots for inspiration, but I actually came up with very little. There was one photo I found where the chicken was standing bold and strong on a crate with a coloured backdrop, and the rest of what I captured was my own creativity.
I’ve never had chickens, so to be honest I didn’t actually know what I was in for, I kinda just rode this wave of excitement, rocked up to their home, set up my backdrop and equipment and hoped for the best. As it turns out, these chickens were very special chickens to the family and they were quite sad to see them go too.
There were two chickens, and they’d been raised since they were chicks. One was named Fluffy and she was the eldest girls’ pet, while the other was named Rosie, and she was the younger boys’ pet. Both chickens were handled day in and day out, which obviously made a huge difference to how long they stayed in one spot for, making my job a lot easier than what I’d initially expected.
They were also used to being inside (thanks to the kids love of playing with them) so they weren’t bothered by the change in environment. I was also surprised that the blue fabric backdrop they stood on, went pretty much unnoticed, they just pooped away as if they were outdoors! They took camera breaks to nibble at some chicken feed and then we’d pop them back on the back drop - very little drama really.
I think when booking a photography session of this kind it’s expected that there will possibly be even more patience required than with a dog or even a cat, I mean after all they are chickens, and their brain is how big? But in saying that, it was very clear that they’d each developed their own personality. Fluffy had been handled so much that she was able to balance on the girls arm while the girl walked around with her, where as Rosie was a little more skittish. It was for this reason that we choose Fluffy to be the model of the pearl necklace!
And what a model she was. Every now and then, the weight of the beads would make her take a few steps backwards, but we just readjusted them and continued to shoot. I couldn’t have been more happy with how these images turned out, and I know my friend will be forever grateful for the images that we captured, especially now that these chickens have moved on to a new loving and caring home.
Check out the photos below, and if they bring a smile to your face and if you have chickens of your own that tolerate a cuddle, then make sure to get in touch with me and book a photo session for them too.
Don’t have a chicken of your own, but love what you see? I also sell the images of the chickens only as Matted fine art prints. Contact me and let me know what size you’re after and I’ll let you know the pricing.
