One of the photos taken by Shadrach Webb of Marcus at Bennington Lake, Jan. 31, 2023. 

Dogs don’t play to the camera as humans do — they just play.

There’s nothing like a photo of a pup being themselves and acting silly; each one has his own personality and quirks.

But you usually need some serious shutter speed and photography skills to capture their antics in detail.

That’s why Shadrach Webb decided canine subjects would be his main focus.

Having discovered a natural talent for photography as a freshman in high school, he bought his first nice camera, an Olympus OM-D EM-10 Mill, with his own money in 2018 and wanted to try it out. 

He decided to practice on a pup that was visiting his home that day.

A photo he shot of the silky black dog enjoying the sunshine, eyes squinting and tongue out, became the inspiration for his venture.

While Webb does other types of photography, including portraits and weddings, and his portfolio includes other animals such as cats and horses, dogs are the primary clients he works with.

He created a business that cycled through a few titles before becoming “The Dogumenter,” a clever play on words born of his love for puns. 

In January 2020 he designed the logo, a side profile of a canine skull, and continues to design and create all his own products.

In 2021 he made the biggest purchase he’s ever made — a brand new Sony A7IV with a 24-70mm f 2.8 G Master Lens — after having used a Sony A6400 with an 18-135mm lens for two years. 

The results are stunning. 

When it comes to working with clients, every dog is an individual.

“They all have different interests,” says Webb, “some dogs like treats, some dogs like sticks, I’ll even bark at dogs.”

He has heard a lot of people express doubt that their companion is a good candidate for a photoshoot, but this hasn’t been the case in Webb’s experience.

“Any dog is photographable … so far I haven’t met one dog I couldn’t photograph.”

Photography, like most other in-person activities, came to a screeching halt in spring 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Webb had to think of a way to keep the business running.

He decided to create a line of collars, leashes and harnesses that featured his photography.

He already had a photo of the Blue Mountains taken from just outside town and had nothing but time, so he spent hours editing the image to repeat seamlessly so it could be printed on a leash.

The next challenge was finding a company that was able to print it on the material — he didn’t even know whether that was possible.

Once he found a company that could do it using a sublimation process and acquired a hand-me-down sewing machine, he really got to work.

He taught himself to use the sewing machine during the pandemic standstill and thought about giving up but figured it out with the help of online tutorials.

In addition to dog gear available in nine original designs, the most popular of which is the Blue Mountains with sunflowers running a close second, Webb is in his third year of making wall calendars.

The first calendar was titled “Business Dogs of Walla Walla” and featured shop dogs from around town.

The next one was the result of a partnership with Big House Brew Pub, and this year’s calendar contains client photos and was designed and branded by Webb.

More merchandise ideas are on the back burner, he says, and he will be cycling in some new designs for the existing products.

The illustrious model who is always sporting Webb’s products, a lovable mutt named Marcus, is his friend from his days of photographing dogs for the Blue Mountain Humane Society.

Webb enjoyed playing with the dogs and photographing them but wasn’t prepared at the time to adopt.

His mission was to capture their unique characteristics and help them find the perfect humans so they could leave the shelter for good.

The pitbull mix had been there for a long time and wasn’t getting much love from potential families as he was stressed in the environment and not acting himself.

Webb had a feeling Marcus was a great dog who just needed to get out of the kennel to shine.

He was right. Once he got him outside, he was a whole new pup.

So, he took him as a foster and had some fun photographing him in an effort to show off his true personality.

As a result, Marcus found a home.

Webb was glad that Marcus had found a family but sad to lose his pal.

Little did either of them know that Marcus’ new people would go their separate ways and return him to the shelter.

“As soon as I heard he was back, my heart immediately shattered,” he said.

Within minutes, Webb went and adopted him.

“I set him free, and he came back … and now he ain’t goin’ nowhere. It’ll be three years in just a couple weeks.”

The two have been a dream team since.

Marcus loves to run around at Bennington Lake and, according to the caption on his photo in the 2023 calendar, watch other vehicles pass by during car rides.

Webb has an online site, thedogumenter.com, where clients and customers can book a shoot and browse products.

He is also on Facebook as The Dogumenter and on Instagram at @the_dogumenter.

His Tik Tok account with the same handle boasts more than 21,000 followers because who doesn’t love high-quality videos of goofy dogs set to music?

Ultimately, Webb does what he does “to capture these priceless moments that us owners can keep forever,” he says in one of the videos, “… we all know how much they mean to us.”