A few years ago Carli Davidson was just another young photographer. To make money she worked as a zookeeper; and because she is a fervent animal activist, she volunteered at animal rescues. In 2010 she purchased a high-speed shutter camera and had the idea of combining her two passions. She began photographing the rescue dogs in mid-motion, pausing them at a thirteen-thousandth of a second. She called the project Shake and posted a few pictures on Facebook. They quickly spread virally, reposted over and over. In 2011 a Shake photo was featured in Photo District News, the award-winning magazine for the professional photography industry, and won the prestigious ‘Best Photo’ award. Photographers were instantly impressed. By the third quarter of 2011, Carli’s website was getting 30,000 hits a month. She only had a few Shake photos up, but everybody wanted to see them. Then the ‘big publications’ began to write about her: Huffington Post, New York Times, Vanity Fair Italy, to name just a few. In a 90-day period her site spiked to 8.5 million views. People were visiting the site from all over the world and the fan letters came pouring in. Shake is the answer to the fan requests Carli received over and over again. Everybody wanted more Shake photos. One hundred dangerously adorable models posed for the book. Sixty-five of them, including the likes of Scooby the Rottweiler, Greta the Shi Tzu, Twinkie the Jack Russell Terrier, and the famous, mixed-breed Ramen Noodle were selected. Two photographs of each dogs are featured side-by-side in the book to caption the motion of their shakes. One photo shows the dog beginning to turn; the other shows its wild hair and fabulous facial expression mid-twist. Many of the dogs are shaking off water; that is captured in the photographs too. The New York Times said it well when they described Carli’s work as a ‘hilarious portrayal of flying fur, flopping jowls, and bulging eyes.’ Shake will feature an introduction by Carli explaining the inspiration behind the project and her experience shooting the dogs. This will be followed by her spectacular photography of each dog shaking. The back of the book will feature each dog in a non-shaking pose, with name, breed mixes, and personality traits from their owners and the rescues. National publications such as National Geographic, Rolling Stone, People, Discovery, and Huffington Post have already expressed interest in featuring the book. Nikon Camera is also a staunch supporter of Carli. They gave her the camera she used to shoot the photos in the book. She is a favorite of their European headquarters, particularly their UK office, and was asked to shoot the Olympics for them. Three of her Shake photos are in a press-kit they sent out about her that went to journalists at magazines in 33 countries.
