Underwater Dogs

The photographer, Seth Casteel, specializes as a pet photographer in LA and Chicago. His reputation rests upon this sub-specialization, pun intended, Underwater Dogs. It is his first book and is highly successful. Dogs, humor and great photos make it a winner reminiscent of Wegman's innovations.He understands dogs and their wildly expressive enthusiasm for chasing balls and fearless water play. This is physical humor with a heart. You get to see it all so clearly because he also demonstrates the skills and knowledge to light his moving subjects under water and what a particular lens' focal length matched with the right point of view can capture what matters the most in a fraction of a second. He distills that one moment out of the many in each dive. He has convinced both natural breeds and unusual breeds to "go for it". Fun meets trust. Thankfully, he also is skilled in how to control tone, color, contrast and depth of field masterfully to complement the composition and intentional distortion of the subject. He solves complicated problems and has a good eye.However, in general, this is not an entirely new creative genre. The more established William Wegman is the undisputed pioneer and creative master of humor, gesture and novelty photography using dogs. Consequently, there is already an existing market for anything adorable and humorous with dogs that steps beyond dogs posed for simple calendar shots. Casteel's version has a Wegman in space effect. The pool provides a way for the dogs to defy gravity while still allowing natural distortions created by water resistance from the force of the dive. The result pulls and parts various flaps and folds of the dogs' faces. This allows for the unexpected and highly expressive to surprise us and to distinguish each dive from the others. Casteel, like Wegman, understands the crux is the power of gesture, and that the unexpected or unusual sells. I think Casteel has far better craft than Wegman, although Wegman does not rely upon matters of craft. But Casteel is absolutely dependent upon it and thankfully for us, has complete control over everything except the magic born in the singular moment itself. Casteel is not trying to be Wegman, does make elaborate set-ups, props or wardrobe, and instead has carved out his own "underwater dog guy" identity quite well. Both photographers succeed wonderfully for their own reasons.Since Casteel is also partly based in Chicago I am hoping for my own reasons he might figure out a way to do a book that relates to our city. Maybe shots of dogs diving through ice fishing holes on Lake Michigan can contrast with southern Californian pools. They might chase loaded Bowser Dogs instead of balls.I have given this book as a gift to several friends with happy results. It also happens to be well printed for a very modest price. I think it is a steal.

I received my copy of "Underwater Dogs" on Tuesday and I without a doubt think this is the best dog photography book I have ever seen and I actually own quite a few as I am a huge dog lover. The pictures in this book are unlike anything I have ever seen up until a few months ago when I, like thousands of other people, discovered Seth Casteel's website and his amazing underwater photos. Not only are the photos themselves so unique but the clarity of them are incredible and the colors just pop!! The expressions on these waterloving dogs are something out of a Dr. Suess book. Who knew dogs looked like this underwater? I will tell you who knew, Seth! And he captures these expressions with amazing skills and what is one heck of a good camera. These pictures are as professional as you can get and yet there is such a playfulness that it keeps it from being unlike any other dog portrait book. As for the actual book itself I was impressed at how well the book is made. A book of this quality could easily sell for 2 - 3 times this Amazon price. At $12 this book is a steal and I, for one, plan to "steal" about a dozen more copies to give as Christmas presents to my dogloving friends and family. The other thing I really like about this book is that it is a true coffee table book. Some coffee table books have way too much writing. Guests sitting on your couch dont' want to read a War and Peace novel. They want a book they can flip through and look at pictures. But as fun and entertaining as these pictures are I don't think anyone could just flip through this one. They will have to look at each and every page as every page offers an entirely different view of the underwater life of dogs. Some are wide mouthed, all teeth and look like sharks honing in on their prey which most of the time is a tennis ball. Others look serenely under the water as if they are trying to discover some secrets of the deep. While others have goofy grins that seem to stretch for miles under the distortion of the water. There is even one very interesting photo of a yellow dog where somehow Seth captures the image of the dog's face in a bubble that the dog himself is breathing out under water. I think other photographers could take thousands of underwater photos and never capture an image as unique as that. How he did it I don't know but I do know this. Seth Casteel has mastered the art of photographing dogs. His "land" portraits are just as impressive and I am so glad he included at the back of the book a small portrait of each dog so you can see what they really look like. This book is an absolute must if you love dogs and I think should be one of the best selling Christmas presents under $25 for this coming season. Bravo, Mr. Casteel, your book is utterly fantastic and as a fellow doglover, I thank you for showing those of us with waterloving dogs what they really look like down there in the deep end.

While I generally do not purchase picture books, I found the unique subject matter (dogs photographed underwater) quite alluring and decided to buy a copy of UNDERWATER DOGS ... now, I can't put it down.Seth Casteel has put together a fascinating and revealing portfolio of photographs of dogs at play ... underwater. The head-on/in-your-face pictures are quite amazing and they certainly elicit a wide range of reactions. Casteel offers a different perspective of how seriously and aggressively dogs approach the simple task of playing fetch. Wide-eyed, wide-mouthed and baring some wicked teeth, many of the dogs come across as furry sharks, sea-monsters or even aliens when shown underwater ... much different than the happy little fuzz ball flopped-out on your floor. The book certainly delivers on the author's desire to reveal the wolf-roots of the domesticated dog. Adding to the book's appeal, Casteel doesn't settle on presenting readers a predictable portfolio of "water-dogs" (Retrievers)... Bulldogs, Dachshunds and even a Chihuahua are among those breeds represented. The best part of UNDERWATER DOGS, however, is the final chapter that has out-of-the-water "mug-shots" of all the dogs photographed throughout the book ... talk about Jekyll and Hyde.UNDERWATER DOGS is a great book that will surely generate smiles, chuckles and quite a few "OMGs!"; A must-have for dog lovers.