Silhouettes eliminate textural detail and black out facial expressions, relying instead on the pose and body language of the dog to tell the story.

For this challenge, we asked our challengers to create silhouettes that do exactly that, have great shape and tell a story.

Here, in no particular order, are the top 10 images for this challenge. Congratulations to the photographers who created these magical shots.

- Charlotte & Craig 🐶 📸 ✨

Michelle Brasington

The success of this silhouette is down to the hint of light still falling on the subject to create shape. Not easy to do when the dog is facing forward!

Megan Thompson | Megan Thompson Photography

What an incredible sky and excellent use of negative space for this silhouette.

Marika Moffitt | SoulDog Creative (Dirtie Dog Photography)

A beautifully executed silhouette with lots of personality and shape and a gorgeous colour gradient in the sky.

Kim Hawkins

Fabulous shapes and a lovely composition the with the dog coming into the image to fetch the toy.

Keri Nakahashi | Keri Nakahashi Photography

What a fantastic pose, the dog looks as if he is actually paddling and propelling forward!

Karen Havenaar | Pr1mo Fotografie

There's such a great connection between the dog and cyclist in this silhouette. Wonderful storyteling.

Joanne Merner | Your Dog's Photographer

Beautiful shapes, a lovely story and magical sky make this a wonderful silhouetto challenge submission.

Jennifer Patterson 

There's a wonderful story here and some really lovely touches. the division of the image into 3rds, the sharpness of the treeline and the birds flying by.

Jacqui Jensen-Roy | Soul Puppy Pet Photography

What a creative take on this challenge brief and a silhouette. A stunning example of shape and of using frames in a composition.

Andrea Fleury | Dogtography

This is such a striking silhouette, wonderful shape and the night time landscape and milky way are beautifully edited.

Emerge is the second series in our Unleashed Challenge courses and is made up of 12 challenges over 6 months. It’s open to anyone who has completed our first course in the series, Embark.

So much more than just a challenge, the Unleashed Challenges are an invaluable educational resource that will help you build up a go-to list of shots to help create variety in your work. Designed for anyone to be able to complete whether you just want to photograph your own dog or you are a professional pet photographer.

If you'd like to know more head over here to register your interest and we'll send you all the details when enrolment for Embark next opens in 2023.