As you all must have been aware by now that I love dogs. I love how they play, love how they wag, love how they lick, love how they think, love how they show you what’s love all about.
So by the end of 2009, I was thinking, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have all these friends of mine, people who are in my line of work and are really good at what they do, to sit in front of my camera and take a portrait with their dogs?”
I made a few phone calls, but the time wasn’t right at the moment. I folded the idea, put it in the drawer. So actually this project has been on my mind for more than a year. Like Barney in How I Met Your Mother would say, “Wait for it…”
This year, it’s different. We have enough time, Belinda from SIEM loved the idea, and some phonecalls that I made gave very positive results. “When can you start?” “Your place or mine?” “Let me introduce you with Adrian, he’s a huge doggie lover.” (that last one was Jo Widira, Kay Moreno’s wifey)
All the time I was doing this, lugging my mobile studio door to door, I was having so much fun. A lot of times when you’re in a profession that you’re good at, it’s likely that you’re doing it quite often. And doing ‘quite often’ most likely means that you’re losing the fun. He’s nowhere to be seen. The way to deal with this? Do personal, passion, throw-your-money projects like this one.
To my surprise, everyone was opening their doors, including people that I have only shook hands once! We might started out as strangers, but by the end of the shoot, we’re completely carried in conversations about our dogs. What I love from the people that I shoot, is that their love for their dogs are real and genuine.
And the dogs themselves. Oh my! Big ones, short ones, tiny ones, hairy ones, we got ‘em all. They bark, they drool, they scratch, they shed. But hey, they’re dogs! These are what they do! I just love-love being around them and shooting them.
I completely satisfied with the result. I am sure there’s a lot more better portraiture out there, I know, but this one comes from the heart. And I love shooting, editing and retouching every piece.
Thank you for all the friends who are willing to give their time and attention to this little project. Thankfully every single response I’ve gotten is a positive one, since a lot of them never had their picture taken together. I was glad to be of service.
Belinda and Siswanto of SIEM Offset also has been a great-great partner. In design meetings, Siswanto cool-calm-experienced style had gotten me to my senses when my egoistical point of view surfaced :) A lot of the design you see in the calendar was his call. And did you look at the print quality on that thing? This is top notch stuff :)
Still with me? Okay, here’s my labour of love:
All that gorgeous portraits printed into a calendar, who will accompany you throughout the year. I deliberately did not show you the design to spark curiosity :) Now, unfortunately, we only have them printed in limited amount, and they’re not for sale. We only hand them out for our customers and friends, but dissapoint not! You could win them by following @esuhadi on twitter and answer some trivia that we’ll post time and time again. (But for today, we’re giving away 10 calendars for the winners!)
I learn three things from doing this project:
1. Do passion projects. You need a break from the routine. Recharge. See different things.
2. Collaboration is cool. You’ll make new friends. Be sincere and truthful. And we all can reap from it.
3. Dream and deliver. I wouldn’t thought this would happen, that I would hold this calendar in my hands. Started from an idea hatched somewhere inside my brain cells, it has come a long way to become something that is sitting on hundreds of desks right now. People dream and wish all the time. But few could deliver. We still need to learn and learn on the deliver part.
I hope you like what you see, and like I promised, here is a video showing how we pulled this off. See? Fun is everywhere.
See you all on next year calendar project!
