EMILY SHUR PHOTOGRAPHS CESAR MILAN FOR HIS NEW SHOW "BETTER HUMAN BETTER DOG" ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Sure, she’s photographed many amazingly talented actors, comedians, and musicians, but for Emily, this key art project for National Geographic’s new “Better Human, Better Dog” series is what really counts as a dream job. Why? Because dogs. Emily, who has an adorable French bulldog named Momo (whom you might have seen in this campaign for Frontier Communications), loves dogs. And for this shoot, she had a set full of them.

The show centers on famed dog whisperer Cesar Millan, who expands his focus to include the pet owner as well. He’s training people to be better dog owners, Emily explains. The central concept for the key art was Cesar as a guru, his energy inspiring a zen feeling in the dogs around him, but there were multiple iterations of this idea that Emily was meant to explore, as well as motion assets to capture.

With six to eight dogs on set, there was a lot going on, says Emily—lots of noise, lots of movement, dog handlers, a motion crew, props and set stylists, producers, PAs. The complete opposite of zen. “I had to get a moment where each dog was looking chill,” says Emily, so she had several areas fo the stage set up at once to make the most of her time. Her DP would work with one dog on one side while she shot Cesar or a different dog in another area. She also leveraged her pre-light day to full advantage, bringing Momo along to act as stand-in (and her husband as Momo’s dog handler).