In today's episode, I am chatting with Brian Batista, and we are talking all about dog sports. So if you've ever had any interest in photographing dog sports, wondering what's involved in photographing dog, or maybe you're interested in like, Hey, I think maybe my dog might like, wanna chase things and chase them fast, or get involved in different dog sports,

this is definitely the podcast episode for you. So stay tuned. Welcome to The Hair of the Dog podcast. If you are a pet photographer ready to make more money and start living a life by your design, you've come to the right place. And now your hosts pet photographer, travel addict, chocolate martini connoisseur, Nicole Begley. Hey everybody. Welcome back to The Hair of the Dog podcast.

I'm your host, Nicole Begley, and today I have someone with me who has been a former student, and it's now taken the dog sports world by storm. BrianBatista from Alabama, from Brian Batista Photography. Brian, welcome to the podcast. Hello Nicole. How are you? Glad to be here. I'm Good. I'm so glad that you're here.

Yeah. Gosh. Got to run into you again at Shutter Hound. Yes. So fun. That Was so much fun. I, I hope that they, I hope that they have a part two, but you know, that's, that that's something that I would be ready for in two seconds. I know. They need to give us like at least a good six months to recover because I Oh,

yeah. Think I still haven't recovered from the sleep Ag. Agreed. Yeah. My brain lack of my brain exploded for like three days after that conference. So Yeah, it was, it was great. So fun. I mean, you know what's really good when I stay up past 10 o'clock and when I stay up past 10 o'clock on West Coast time,

I mean, oh my God, I was going to bed at like one in the morning every night, and I'm like, who am I? This is not normal. Yeah. When they, when you, when you're around people that make you forget your, your basic core of your being. Yeah. It's probably a good time. So yeah, that Was so fun.

So fun. Awesome. Well, today we are gonna chat about some dog sports because we first met, oh gosh, what year was that even? 2018 maybe? Yeah, it was 20, it was 2018 in Anna Maria Island in Florida. Yeah. Yeah. So for the hair of the dog retreat that I taught with Taryn Bear at the time.

Yep. It was a great three days at the Tiki House in Anna Maria Island. Also, spoiler alert, Kayleigh and I are teaching hound vision there in January. We have chest a few bottom bunks left, so if you would like to come Hound vision her hair, the dog academy.com/hound vision. Anyway, sorry. Had to plug it in there. No,

that's fine. I, and I highly recommend it because it's a great location. It's on the beach, I mean. Oh, yeah. You know, how, how can you, how can you argue with three days on the beach talking about dogs and photography January. In January. Yeah. Yeah. Where it's like, you know, the ninth circle of hail everywhere else.

Yeah, yeah. I know. We moved from Pittsburgh to Charlotte because we couldn't stand winter weather. And we got here the first winter, it snowed like a couple inches on December 7th. We were like, whoa. What? No, no, no. We shorted it, it turns out it's been good. But even living here that I love, it's still nice to go to Florida in January.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Charlotte can, it can get kind of chilly in, in the winter months, so Yeah. Yeah. Started early this year. But anyway, so that was 2018 and you were, you had your business, but it was still in the really early stages at that point, if I remember correctly. Well, it, yeah,

it, it, well, let me, let me preface that with, it's been pretty much a, a dual activity Yeah. Since probably 2011 when I Okay. Started professionally. And I've been in it for, at that point, for about 18 years. Yeah. And I was slowly getting to the point where I was like, this is great,

but it's not fun anymore. Quote, Great. This is quote great. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it pays the bills, but does that feed your soul? You know? Right. And, and that's, that's really important because, you know, I think sanity is, you know, one of the things that people tend to leave out of their daily routine sometimes,

and I was certainly a victim of that, so you know, it, and then I just started hanging out more and more with dogs and doing a lot of work with rescues and, and things like that. And it, it really helped me understand dogs from a body language and a, you know, giving them space perspective because, you know, I have the appearance of some of the people that,

you know, the humans that they're used to, and they're not really nice people sometimes, you know, the experiences they come from. Yeah. So I had to really learn how to make a dog feel comfortable because I'm not really a loud person, you know, I'm just tall. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that does, you know, especially for smaller dogs that does a lot of,

you know, things to them, they look at you and they're like, oh, that's a tall guy, you Know? Yeah, exactly. Well, and you're a man, so you're bigger, you have a deeper voice. Yeah. And I think that's, you know, it tends to be a lot of shelter dogs are a bit more nervous.

Oh, absolutely. I think a lot of people go to like, oh, they must have had a bad experience for a man. But I think it's just maybe they haven't had any experience with people, and you tend to Very true, very true. Be larger in stature than women and have a deeper voice, and it's just overwhelming in all ways for Yeah,

exactly. And I've found that a lot of times in, in working in those environments, if you, if you sit down on the floor and just give them a few minutes to kind of, you know, come over to you and sniff you and you know, hello pumpkin or whatever their name is, you know, and just give them a little positive experience,

they're probably gonna be a lot more accepting of you being in their space a little bit with this huge eyeball that you're trying to show the world their personality. And they're like, you know, they've never been exposed to that before. Right. So, but I think, you know, with sporting things, it, I mean, there, there are some dogs that are,

you know, they're, they're, they're not necessarily reactive, but they're, you know, they run down this field and then they see you and they're like, oh my God, who, what's that? You know? And they start freaking out and, you know, and they, and it is okay, that dogs bark at me. I've been yelled at before,

it's fine, I can deal with it. Yeah. And usually I'll ask 'em, you know, do I owe you money or something, because they'll start, you know, they just, ah, it's a person and I don't know what to do. And, you know, but that's, I mean, I, I just, I'm very low key about it.

I don't, I don't feed into their, you know, I'm, I'm kind of like right in the middle most of the time. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I've, I've really found that a lot of times the dogs are very, my biggest concern is I want them to have a safe experience, a fun experience when they're participating in these sports,

so they wanna do it again. Yeah. You know, 'cause they can have one bad experience and that's it. Yeah. And they ne they choose to never do it again. Right. And that is heartbreaking to me because it's, you know, the, these, these spaces are supposed to be safe for dogs so they can have fun and enjoy this activity.

And who doesn't enjoy seeing a dog run that is just happy to be running, you Know? Yeah, no, absolutely. Or Diving in a pool or whatever it is they're doing. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna get back to that in a second. Sure. But yeah, so you started a lot of shelter stuff, which really helped you understand that body language,

which is so important now because now you've moved into doing mostly dog sport photography or a big piece of your business. How did, how did that transition happen? You know, was it something you sought out or was it something that somebody came to you and like, kind of, how did you get involved with the dog sport photography? Sure. So it was,

it was very, very simple. As, as most things are in life, I was at a, I was at an event, a Fast Cat event. And for those, for those of you that don't know if Fast Cat, they're not chasing cats. Okay. That's, that's not the idea. Cat stands for Coursing Ability Test and Fast Cat is a hundred yard dash that dogs are chasing a plastic bag that's tied to a string that's connected to an electric motor.

Okay. And, and that's basically the impetus of what Fast Cat is. It's, it's based on a traditional lure coursing, but they don't use Live Lure anymore, which that would Yeah. If they started doing that, that would be a little cruel. And I don't think I would wanna participate. But chasing a plastic bag is, is great. So,

yep. You know, and, and they're just, they, they're great. They're, they have so much fun with it. And, but I was at an event and there was a photographer there, and I just started talking to them a little bit and just, you know, hey, what, what does this involve? And, you know,

how did you get started in it? And, you know, that kind of thing. And after a couple of weeks she called and said, Hey, there's an event in Tampa, would you be interested in shooting it? And I'm like, well, I've, I've, I've been a professional photographer for, you know, at that point, I started this in 2021.

So you're looking at 10 years, and I've done things that could be considered sports style photography without it actually being at an actual event. And, and I was like, okay, let me, let me go see what this is about. And I was still full-time it at that point. And when I went to, it was in Tampa, so I,

it was like an eight hour drive for me, and I went down and within 30 minutes I was addicted, hooked. It was just, I mean, there's, okay, so I've fallen in love with so many different breeds doing this, but one of the ones that has been just my heart has been the vla. Oh, yeah. And I don't know if you know anything about VLAs,

but they're Hungarian, and I know they have zero expressions when you have to do a portrait session with, they have the one expression all the time. That's, you're absolutely right. Absolutely Right. The one exception to that is when they're running, and if, if anybody listening to this podcast would like to know or like to see images of VLAs running,

let me know. Just send me an email and I will flood your email with pictures of vla, because they are hilarious. There's one, his name's Deuce, and he was running in Tampa at the first event. And he is, there's one picture where his mouth is just huge on his face. And since it's October, I'm gonna go with a Halloween theme here.

The movie Fright Night, I don't know from the eighties that, yeah. Okay. So anyway, anybody that's a fan of that movie knows the, the girl in the movie that eventually turns into the vampire. She's got this huge smile and it's all toothy and everything, and it's kind of frightening. But that's really what Deuce reminded me of when he,

in his first photos of running in Tampa for me with Fast at, it was, it was hilarious. And his mom was just like, you know, oh my God, look at his face. I'm like, I know. It's like, I didn't expect that at all. And then, you know, then there's other breeds like Whippets and Greyhounds and stuff like that.

We have one that we call him Venom because his name's daily, but we call him Venom because that's what his face looked like, looks like when he runs. And it's just so, I mean, I, I can't get enough of it. It's just so great. So that was, that was really my first event in June of 2021. And since then,

it's been slowly and sometimes very quickly progressing into a full blown addiction for me. And then, you know, it kind of branched into doc diving and scent work and barn hunt and agility and UPD Dog and so many other, I mean, there's so much stuff for dogs to do now. Yeah. It's, I don't know how, I mean, they,

they have to collapse when they go home because they've done, you know, not, you know, just the sporting side, not to mention confirmation and, you know, like the Westminster Right. Channel Club dog shows and all that. I don't know how the, after five days, how they don't just get in the car and go p after they're,

after they're done. 'cause it's, it's so, I mean, but they're, they're going at this a hundred, hundred and 50% in everything they do. Yeah. And it's so great to watch. So that's, that's really how it got started for me, was just, you know, word of mouth and, you know, going up and asking people,

you know, Hey, what can I do for you? How can I help you? Just to, you know, just to show them that I'm interested in this activity, not from a self-gratifying perspective. Yeah. But just because I'm in it for the dogs, you know? Yep. And, and I think that's really a good way to get started in dog sports photography,

is to go up to an event where usually for a sporting event, they have to have an AKC club host the event. So you could go up to the host or the club and you know, somebody there make contact there and just ask how you can help. It doesn't have to be photography related. It can be how can we help you set up,

how can we help people? We can release dogs if they don't have a releaser, we can help them retrieve the dog. Yeah. If they don't have somebody, you know, and, and just those kind of things. So it doesn't necessarily have to be, Hey, I wanna shoot photos. Well, that's great, you know, we all wanna shoot photos.

But, you know, if you really want to, if you really want to show people that you're interested in the sport and the dogs, and not just necessarily what your, what your ultimate goal is, it's probably an easier way to get into it than just walking up and start taking pictures without talking to anybody. Yeah. I mean, that's very similar with anytime you wanna create a partner marketing or charitable marketing partner is,

you know, we have to approach it from an active service first of, you know, getting to know people and offering help and having a genuine, yo genuine interest in whatever it is that we're reaching out about will help everything go further than just the initial, Hey, I'm a photographer, and like, let's be a partner. Like, or know,

Like, absolutely, Yeah, you promote me, I'll promote you. And you know, they're just like, oh, I don't know you, I don't trust you yet. Like I Exactly. And their, their, what's the word I'm looking for? Reputation really is online if they're putting their name behind yours and, and you're not gonna show up.

So, sure. Yeah. Okay. No, I love that. I had another question about that. Oh, with the showing up at Dog Sports, do most dog sports. So I have never really been around dog sports. I was telling you before we recorded my Zoey dog would've been amazing. She probably would've been been amazing at Fast Cat, but I didn't even know that existed until I started talking to you at Shutter Hound.

But she would've also been really good at Flyball. She was so fast, but she was dog reactive, so that was not gonna happen. But anyway, do dog shows have official photographers? Like I know that it's really, if you show up at a horse show and there's official photographers, it's kind of a no-no to go, even like for me to take my camera and photograph the other people from our barn because there is an official photographer there.

So I generally don't, and I'm happy to not. 'cause then I don't even have to take my camera and I can just horse show. But it's that kind of the same case with these different dog events. Yes. So there is a, the, there is an official, let's call it a bible, for lack of a better word. It's called a premium list for all these events.

And the premium list contains every single piece of information that you would ever wanna know about the event. So for example, you would have the event site location, do they have RV sites available? What are the closest hotels? What time does the event start? What time does the event end? What time does it run through? What are the scheduled break times?

Who's the emergency vet on call? All that stuff. And you know, even even registration for the specific events, you can also find in the premium list. So, and even the official, excuse me, the official photographer for the event is listed in the premium list also. Is it a, I wouldn't call it a no-no. To come up with your camera,

but only in the situation where you're photographing your own dog or somebody, you know, ha or somebody that you know, has asked you to come and photograph that dog if you're specifically wanting that, you know, person to photograph for you. Yep. Even, even then, I would say it's a professional courtesy. If you want me to think you're a professional,

say hello. Yeah. And announce your intention 99% of the time, I'm, I'm one of the easiest people on the planet to work with. So if you do that, that's great, but if you come in and you don't say a word and you just come in and plop down right in front of me, that's a big problem. So, you know,

and it, it's, it's more of a professional courtesy, like I said. So it's, you know, I, I really, I really think that a lot of people when they come in, like some people will come in with their cell phones and things like that to, to video their own dogs. And it does kind of ruin the experience a little bit in my opinion,

because, you know, you should really be focused on your dog and the fun they're having and are they safe and, you know, and all that stuff. And let me worry about the images because me laying on the ground and looking at your dog at eye level is gonna be a much more compelling image for you to see than you standing up with your cell phone,

you know? Right. And you're running at your feet, you know? Yep, Yep, yep. For sure. Absolutely. Yeah. There, there are official photographers Okay. Listed in those, in the premiums. Where do you find these premium lists? Are they just on the websites? Yeah. Well, so for any AKC event, whether it be fast cat doc diving,

you know, all the ones that they do, you can go to akc.org and they have an event search. And if the premium list is ready and available for the event, which usually, usually two and a half to three months prior to the event is when most people do their pre-registration. Hmm. Okay. You can, you can look for the event in your state and in a date range,

and then you can find the days that the event's gonna be going, and they'll have a premium list link attached to it, and it's just APDF you can download. Okay. Good to know. How have you found just the, the, I know you said you've really enjoyed the actual, like, act of the, the event you'd love being there.

Yes. I know that at least in the horse show land, it's been more and more challenging for photographers to make it business wide, like to make it businessly successful. Are you seeing kind of the same challenges in the dog sports side, or is that really not as affected yet? Or how are you handling that? Well, there, there are definitely challenges because I think that a lot of people don't realize that we don't,

we don't really receive any compensation or anything like that from the clubs or the, you know, the, the, the whole really goal of the entire thing is for the clubs to make money. That's their fundraiser, that's their, you know, that's how they do their group activities and things throughout the year. And that is totally fine. I, I'm 100% cool with,

you know, coming up with my own, you know, paying my own expenses to be there for the event. And how we get paid is, you know, when people buy photographs. Yeah. And, and that's the, that's really the, the main thing. And it is a challenge because, you know, there's a lot of uncertainty going on right now,

you know, there's, but I still do, I still do portrait work and I still do, I do some commercial, but not enough to say that I do commercial right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, and so, you know, it's really a, it, it's really a thing where you have to, you know,

you have to diversify. You have to be willing to accept that there's some things you can do and some things you can't do. Yep. And because there's, I mean, there, there's, right before Shutter Hound, which was at the 1st of September, I had been on the road for almost six weeks straight. Oh, geez. Yeah. And, and shooting,

shooting events back to back like that is, it's not a con it's part of it. You, you accept that responsibility when you go into it, but it does create a lot of stress. Yeah. And because, you know, you, you're doing this because I really, it's funny because I, I really don't wanna disappoint the dogs. Yeah.

And I know that's weird because it's, you know, personification of a dog. They're, they don't care about photos, they don't care about ribbons, they don't care about titles, they don't care about any of that stuff. Right. They just want that bag. They just Wanna do the jump. Yeah, Yeah, exactly. Or do the jump or,

you know, chase the rat or, or, or, you know, find the rat or, you know, whatever sport it is that they're playing in. And so it, it, it really creates a lot of challenges because, you know, there's, there's so much, you get so many photos from an event that, I mean, and editing is a big part of it too.

And, you know, for a, for a three day event, you're looking at, you know, at least 10,000 images. Wow. So that you have to go through and, you know, and I do my, all my own editing and stuff like that. I don't, I don't farm it out to anybody else. And, you know,

because I've, I've had experience with Photoshop since version six. I'm really, really dating myself now. Right. But, but yeah, it's, and I, I really want that personal touch because if my name is ultimately on these images, and I don't want somebody to get something that somebody else edited and be like, you know, oh, Brian Batista did that,

and, well, not Really, not really. So yeah, it's a quality thing. So, but getting back to point, it's, it's really, there are some challenges, especially now because of all the stuff that is going on in the world. But, you know, you really have to just kinda weather the storm and that that's been, sometimes it's easier said than done.

Yeah. But usually, I mean, you know, it is really always there. If I, if I needed to, you know, if I'm, I'm not gonna starve. That's, yeah. If I had to, I would go back and do that. But, you know, thankfully I've been able to maintain a good, a good level of sustainability in this.

That's awesome. And it's been, it's been mostly, I'd say 95% dog sports in the last two, two and a half years. Wow. That's awesome. Yeah. So are you then showing up at the, the event and photographing, and then basically doing like a gallery where people can order images? Yes. And is it all happening after the event?

Are they announcing you there? Like, are, how are you getting the word out to the people at the show that, Hey, I'm here, here's the photographs, here's where you go look at them, and then following up with them to like encourage them to, to continue to look. Are you able to get any sort of email out from the host or get anyone's email addresses or kind of how are you managing,

letting people know that you're offering this? Gotcha. So at the event, I usually hand out business cards, or I'll have some kind of signage that has a QR code on it Yep. That they can scan and go to the website and all that. And, and in the last, let's see, probably March this year, I started a new process where used,

used to be, I would add all the photos from particular days in like half day folders. So for example, you'd have Friday AM runs and Friday PM runs well being in it. And I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't think of this, but somebody told me about a year ago, they were like, okay, so I have a really crappy data connection at my house.

Oh, yeah. And I'm not gonna look through thousands of photos to buy, you know, the photos of my dog. Yeah. And I'm like, wow, okay. I can't believe I didn't think of that. So my solution was, I actually photographed an event that was a specialty for the Cavalier King Charles Club, which I don't know if you've ever watched a Cavalier King Charles run,

but I mean, it has to be ridiculous. It it Is so great. Those and Bassett Hounds, if you can ever catch them. Oh yeah. Running is just hilarious. So anyway, at that event, the previous year, they had a, they had a photographer, but there was no, there was no organization, there was just, you know,

go into the particular day and there's all the photos and you find the one of your dog. And what happened is there's four breed standard colors for the Cavalier King Charles. There's Tricolor, black and Tan, and I can't remember the other two to save my life. Yeah. But anyway, so happened, they're Probably brown and white and black and white,

I'm guessing. Yeah, Yeah. There's something like that. Yeah. And, and so they, they would run dogs that are the same color back to back, to back, to back back. And it's like, okay, I have no idea which dog is mine. Right, right. And I was like, okay, so we have to do something this year because it's gonna be,

I really don't want that headache for anybody. So I've actually started organizing all the dogs by name in the gallery, which is a little bit more work for me, but it saves people time. It makes it easy. Yeah. And you know, it, the, it, it takes a little bit longer to get galleries ready, but in that process,

I save a lot of time for people to, you know, search and search and search. And it's just, it, it just made it easier for them. And so, as far as capturing email addresses and things like that, so people will reach out on Facebook or through email or through text, and I keep in touch with them that way.

But there's, with the vendor that I currently use, I'm, I'm in the process of thinking about moving vendors, believe it or not. Yeah. But the current vendor I use, you can, you actually have to use your email address to sign into the gallery. Yep. And I'll usually try to keep as much as I can. I'll have it just a coming soon,

the, the, the gallery's coming soon. But they'll put their email addresses in and I can keep in touch with 'em that way. Perfect. Yeah. Awesome. So that's another, that's another way to, to do that. So, Yeah. I love it. And that's great. Are most people buying prints? Or are you offering anything bigger?

Are people ever upgrading to, to anything larger? It's a, it's a mix. I would say probably 60% are digitals. Yeah. Which is great because there, you know, there are at home printing options that you can do. I mean, obviously I prefer you buy a print from me because it's not a money thing. Trust me. It's a,

it's a quality thing. Yeah. And you know, the, the, the difference, and, and you and I have fought this battle many, many, many times, is the battle of printing something at a big box store Yeah. Versus a professional print house like White House or Miller's or somebody like that. And the quality is just nowhere near Yeah.

Comparable. You could, I mean, I would had depend on how much storage you have on your galleries, but you could deliver those as, you know, in another gallery that, that they could print from there and have it sent to their house, you know, even if it's at the normal. 'cause I do that for people that purchase digitals.

You know, it's for a portrait session. But if they add on the digitals, then I deliver the digitals in my cloud spot gallery, which has a store link to it that has prints and cards and things that really aren't marked up hardly anything at all. Sure. 'cause I just really am doing it as a service to them since they've already paid me that they can then get extra prints,

order cards, do that kind of stuff from a place that I know is gonna look great. Sure. Sure. But yeah, I mean, you'd probably have a limit on how long that would be available. Well, and the good thing is, is that the, the, the plan that I went with is, is basically the unlimited plan Yeah.

With that vendor, so Oh, nice. I can leave them up for years if I choose. Yeah. And the, the cool thing is that, I mean, I do offer a lot of other things, like, you know, your standard prints, but also metal prints, canvases. I don't think I'm doing any like, greeting cards or anything like that.

Yeah. It's probably something I could do. I just haven't done it yet. But mostly it's, and I, I really use the selling point for the prints from buying from me versus, you know, getting the digitals and then printing them yourself is eventually you either have to go get 'em or, you know, something like that. And with this process,

you just add the print to your gallery and have it shipped to you. Yep. And you can do all this. I mean, the world has changed where we can, you know, buy everything we need in our underwear, so, you know, there's Yeah. There's no point in, you know, going out if you don't have to. So,

you know, and that's just a, that's just another value added thing for, for clients when they, when they choose to go the print route. Because I, and I'm very much a print person. I love prints. I've, I've got a ton of prints in the corner that I have not hung in here yet, and I need to Yeah.

Just, you know, when I get 'em in, I look at 'em and I'm, I'm, they look gorgeous and I'm, I'm, I'm enjoying them. I just, you know, I travel a lot. So You put On the wall wall. I hear you. I hear you. Yeah. Easier said than done sometimes. So just kind of,

what are some of the, I guess, the main pros and cons of doing this? If somebody's like, huh, I'm interested in maybe exploring this world, kind of what are, what are your, let's start with maybe one of the more challenging things Okay. About, about photographing dog sports. Sure. Well, the main challenge, I think is you're gonna have to understand your gear to the point where you don't have to look at it.

You're gonna have to know the muscle memory. Muscle memory. Yeah. Of how to do, of how to change your shutter speed without going, Ooh, where's that button? You know, you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to be able to do it quickly. And, you know, changing from tracking to not tracking, I can tell you from mind numbing experience that some of the tracking mechanisms and some of the more advanced mirrorless cameras does not work very well on Fast Cat.

Or, you know, a dog that's running 25, 30 miles an hour. Especially, Is it just some of the tracking things you have to like, go to specific tracking case? Or have you found the mirrorless have not been working as well for you as the Yeah. The, the one, the one that was recommended to me by my camera vendor, I don't know if I should say names here or not,

but I shoot Canon and it, it's, it's not because it's a, it's Coke Pepsi 40. Right. You know, six one, half a dozen, the other. But in shooting Canon, I have found that their case four is great for that particular event type. Yep. As long as you, as long as you set your tracking sensitivity to locked on and deadlock,

don't let it choose something else because Okay. Yeah. Inevitably it will. Yeah. Yeah. Because there's a, there, there's one specific situation that I can tell you black dogs that are back lit. Mm. That particular situation, the camera will be focused on you, and then all of a sudden it'll go, Ooh, what's that? Well,

I, yeah, I think I, Charlotte and I have had this conversation. I think that it's looking for like the specular highlights from the, the eye. Yes. And so when you have like, water, backlit water, or just backlit in general, it's like, oh, here's something sparkly a squirrel. Yeah. And it moves the focus point over to it.

It, it's interesting too because a lot of the, the most of the fast cat events, the blood, the bags are white, so it sees this white thing moving fast and it's like's, oh, oh, that's what you want's it. Yeah. And I'm like, no. Yeah. So, you know, as, as advanced as these things are there,

there are some situations where you have to, you have to think on your feet and be able to adjust because, you know, like how do you turn tracking off quickly, right. So you can use just a single focus point or a expanded focus point so you can keep things that you wanna see in focus versus letting the camera just go, Ooh,

squirrel and go over there. You know? Yeah. 'cause you can't really have the dog run again. How many times did the dogs run for these events? Just once. So it's interesting. So there, there's different, there's different run types. So if, let's say, for example, and, and what, one thing I would want everyone to take away from this,

if you're interested in dog sports as a photographer or a, or a participant, is that these with exception of confirmation, there are no events that there are no restrictions for events. So if you have a pure bred dog, great. Mm. If you have a rescue dog, great. If you have a dog that you have no idea what it is,

great. Bring them. You can register your dogs. If they're not a pure bred, then have a registration at birth. You can register them as what's known as a canine partner. And that's how you can, your AKC number is how you track or how you accumulate points for titles. Okay. So if there's a, if they're registered with an AKC number,

great. If you're not, you can do, those are called qualifying runs. And you're only allowed two runs per day per dog. Okay. So, and each run is considered, it's tied to an event number for AKC. So you can run two qualifying runs a day, and that's where it's timed. You'll get your, you'll get your time and your score and you know,

ultimately how many points you earn towards your first title or towards your next title. But if you're, if you're not registered, you can do what's called a non-qualifying run or a fun run. And, and those are, you just don't accumulate points for titles. Yeah. You can still get 'em time. They just won't count towards the AKC process. And then the last thing you can do is what's called a bunny hop,

which is for puppies, because you have to be 12 months old to, to, to run a qualifying. Okay. Or a full length fun run. Okay. Yep. But a fun, but a, a puppy run is like, you know, up to 50 yards, like half of the course. Okay. So, and, and oh my God,

the photos are adorable. I can imagine This last weekend we had a boxer that had had her, her ears done, and they were in the things to make 'em stand up. And there was another dog I photographed similarly in, in Louisiana earlier this year, and he had, his ears were wrapped. Yeah. They were up like that. But then they were wrapped in this thing.

He, he looked like he was wearing a fez and, and I, I wanted to Photoshop a fez on him, and I haven't done it yet, but just little things like that. But so the, the takeaway is that, you know, a pre-registered run is like $25 plus processing fees, and there's another run called Day of Registration, where you just walk up and say,

Hey, do you have any availability for me to run? Those are, I think 35. Okay. And some change. Yep. But, but fun runs are five bucks. So if your dog has never done this, do a fun run and test It out. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. It's basically a tried. Perfect. Another, another really big thing that's,

that's a, a challenge with this is the amount of travel, like I said before, you know, Yeah. Six weeks on the road. That's even a lot for me. They're, they're, they're not gonna, they're not gonna come to your backyard, so you have to go to them. And, and that's okay because, you know, like I said earlier,

I've been to Hawaii and Wisconsin and Tampa and Oklahoma and, you know, just all over the place. I'm going to California sometime early next year, back to Hawaii in February. So it, I mean, it's a lot. Oh, nice. Yeah. But, you know, it's, it's, if, if you point A is great, point B is great,

but if you don't like the part in the middle, this may not be the gig for you. Yeah, Yeah. For sure. I love it. I also love that it's, go ahead. I was just gonna say, I love that it's a, KC is so inclusive of all the rescue dogs out there that any breed can do this. Absolutely.

And they can still get registered to qualify and have the points and all of that. So Yes. And I would say that that makes my rescue Heart happy. Say Oh, indeed. Indeed. And when you see a dog, like in, in New Albany, Indiana, earlier this year, I, no, it was last year, it was October last year,

there's a rescue dog that ran and he ran two of two events a day for three days. So he ran six total runs. And on the sixth, you know, the first run, he was like, I have no idea what to do. I'm terrified. Because, you know, there's a lot going on. Yeah, yeah. At an event side,

I mean, you know, dogs see this thing that they've chased before. They're barking at it, they're going crazy. And for a dog that's never done this before, it can be a little overwhelming. Yeah. So you want to, you know, you want to get them used to it in the experience and, and being, you know, comfortable with what's going on.

So I told his mom, I said, just relax, be patient. Let him figure it out. Yeah. Because just give him a little time, you know, they, all they need is a little time. And he was, he's a bull mastiff, and his name's Benny, and his mom calls him Benny Loafers. And, and he was in a,

in a really horrible situation before he was rescued. And to know that story and see him run down this thing, not only running after this bag, but chasing it, like he wants to catch it. Yeah. And then by the, by the time the weekend was over, he was, he was doing what's called a bag hit. Those, that's like the holy grail of images for Fast Cat is when the dog is actually pouncing on the bag,

and then their, their body is moving so fast that they're, they can't slow down fast enough, and they grab the bag and then they do flips and, you know, and grass explodes and, you know, if, if they're running in the rain, you get water splashes everywhere. It's so great. So, you know, and, and for him to do that,

I was like, oh my God, it's hitting me all in the fields. I love it. I love it. That's awesome. So that's definitely one of the advantages I would imagine that you, that you love about this. What are some of the other, the other pros? I mean, the travel could go on the cons or the pros,

depending on how you look at it and how much Travel's involved. Yeah. I mean, if, if you, On why you sounds like a pro. Yeah. Well, it's very much a pro. And if you, if you're interested in traveling, I mean, you know, if it's something that you really enjoy doing, then yeah, absolutely.

It can be a pro. It, it just, it, it, it flips back and forth for me. Yeah. It's a, you know, sometimes it's great, sometimes it's very monotonous and boring and, you know, there's only so many, no offense, but there's only so many podcasts you can listen to. Understandable. Yes. But,

you know, I think the, the meeting, the different dogs and the different people. This past weekend I met this incredibly awesome french bulldog named Cooper. And after every run he came over to snuggle with me. A French bulldog was doing Fast Cat. Oh, Yeah. Oh yeah. And, and believe me, when I say I, I say this with as much reverence and love and respect and admiration as I can,

French bulldogs are nuts. Yeah. And, and they bring all that to Fast Cat. And, and they That's crazy. That is one breed that I would've not have guessed that you Yeah. It, it's really fun because there's, there's a lot of dogs you wouldn't expect. Like this past weekend we had some Papillons run it. Oh, wow.

And, and you know, and it's funny because usually I tell people that have French Bulldogs that run fast Cats, they're like, oh my God, you're, it took you so long to run down there. And I'm like, you know, a hundred yards is a long way when you're built like a beer can. Yeah. Right. And you can't breathe,

But Yeah, exactly. That's what they sound like at the end of it. But, you know, papillons dachshunds, you know, don't sleep, don't don't go to sleep on those little dogs. Yeah. Because they will, you know, they, they, they're insane for it too. Do they have different divisions like a heavyweight and a lightweight division?

Well, the, the, the very cool thing about Fast Cat is the way it's set up is dogs don't actually compete against other dogs. They just compete with themselves. Okay. Like if they ran, you know, eight seconds the first run, and then they run 7.8 seconds. Yeah. Then they get their personal best. AKC in recent years made it to where there's a ranking system.

So you could be the first American pit bull terrier Okay. In the, in, in the fast cat world as from all rankings. So, you know, you could come from like, for lack of a better word, I guess, the Fast Cats that you run on the weekends and stuff like that, they're, they're qualifying or, or like regional competitions.

And if you're within, I forget the actual threshold or benchmark that you have to have, but there's an, there's a national event and it's, or I'm sorry, an invitational, and it's done every year in December, and I think it's in Orlando. And people will receive invitations from AKC to come to this event and run their dogs to like, on the,

on the big stage. Yeah. That's, and, and there's also an, there's also another event that AKC does, it's called the Fastest Dogs, excuse me. And it's actually broadcast on ESPN every spring. I love It. And so, yeah, so if you, if you're ever looking on ESPN and you search for AKC fastest dogs, you'll,

you'll understand how this can be addicting because they have, they, they'll do like the dogs you expect to run really fast, like whip Its, and greyhounds, and you know, those kind of borzois, you know, all your sight hounds, German Shepherds even, you know, they're, they're crazy fast. And, but then they'll do a specialty group where it's like a Bassett hound or,

or a bulldog or, you know, something like that, A breed you would never expect. And, and it's just, it's, it's so much fun to watch. Love it. Oh my gosh. Awesome. I actually got to see something very similar to this when I was in Africa. Gosh, when was that? 2006? We were at the cheetah,

oh, I forget what it's called. But it was basically Cheetah conference, conservation Center Pretoria outside of Johannesburg. And for some of the exercise that they would lower course these cheetahs, it was unbelievable. Oh Yeah, I bet. Yeah. Cheetahs are like, I mean, that, that's, that, that's hardcore right there. And there's a, there's actually a,

a, a tiger or a big cat sanctuary somewhere close to you that, that had a, a reel that was on Instagram or Facebook or somewhere. And it was this white bengal tiger that was, it wasn't chasing a, a, a artificial lure or something that was in the rain and it was chasing, it was chasing something, a toy or whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm just sitting there thinking, you know what, that is the ultimate fast cat photograph right there. And that's probably what, how I'm gonna meet my demise is, is photographing something like that, that I probably shouldn't do, but why not, you know? Well, maybe just in a protected context situation. Yeah, yeah,

exactly. But I mean, I, you know, regular That's, most of us should be interacting with large cats. Yeah, yeah. Regular, regular Bengal tigers and white Bengals and lines and stuff like that. They're just, they're, they're awesome. I love 'em. Yeah. That they're, they photograph so well, they're, they're so striking just to look at.

And I think that's where a lot of these dogs come in. Like, you know, I've seen Afghans and Oh yeah. Saluki and, you know, the Saluki are really funny because I'm, every time I see them when they're not running, they always have these, you know, like covers and sweaters and stuff like that on. And I'm looking at him,

I'm like, I think this dog has better credit than I do. I love it. It's got clothes, got gear. Yeah. Awesome. Well, this has been awesome, Brian. I really, thanks for taking us for a little peek behind the curtain of Fast Cat. I mean, truly. Absolutely. I never even heard of it prior to when I saw you in September and letting us know a little bit about the world of dog sport photography.

I know we get some people in the academy periodically asking about that, and to which I'm like, oh, we don't have know, there's a couple people in there to do it, but it's just an area that I've never really explored. So thanks for shedding some light on that, letting people know a little bit about it. Absolutely. If you guys have,

you know, wanna reach out to Brian, Brian, where can they find you online to kind of follow your dog sport adventures? Sure. So you can find [email protected]. And there's the, the bag for Fast Cat is actually affectionately known as a trash bunny, just because it's a trash bag and it's mimicking a bunny. So you can also go to trash bunnies.com

and that'll take you to Brian Batista photography. It's just a little easier to remember in my name. Love. That's awesome. That's, that's, And yes, please reach out. Facebook, Instagram, text, phone, awesome. Smoke signal, whatever you use. Perfect. I love it. Well, thanks so much for taking the time to share it with us,

and I hope you guys enjoyed it and I'll see you guys next week. Thanks for listening to The Hair of the Dog podcast. This was episode number 216. If you wanna check out the show notes for access to any of the resources that we mentioned, simply go to www.hairofthedogacademy.com/ 2 1 6. Thanks for listening to this episode of Hair of the Dog Podcast. If you enjoyed this show,

please take a minute to leave a review. And while you're there, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss our upcoming episodes. One last thing. If you are ready to dive into more resources, head over to our [email protected] of the Dog Academy. Thanks. This community.