Pet Portraiture: An Adventure In Patience
Originally posted on March 13, 2023
I love animals! I always have. We always had different critters in the house when I was growing up and it helped solidify a love of all forms of life. Taking pictures of animals both wild and domesticated is quite an experience though.
The old days of film were tough for shooting pet photos. You often had to set your camera for low light setting but with pets tending to be rather quick, pictures were usually blurry. The digital age has definitely made things easier. You can take multiple photos without worrying about wasting film and many cameras and smartphones have software that makes indoor photography more feasible. But, challenges still abound.
If you’ve ever had a pet or even just watched an animal in its natural environment, you’ll know that animals have their own minds; they do whatever they want regardless of you and your silly camera. So you really need to be quick on the trigger. Even getting a dog or cat to stay in one spot is difficult so having help in the form of a person with a toy or a treat is super helpful. Of course, most of your photos end up being chin shots but fuzzy chins are pretty cute.
When I had my studio lights set up a few weeks ago for the maternity shoot in my last post, I played around a little with some pet portraiture. We had a fluffy visitor with us that weekend so I had an extra subject in Penny the poodle in addition to my Bella the poodle/bichon cross and Bailey the tabby cat. It was a lot of fun trying to get all three posed and I hope I’ll have the chance to do more pet portraits this summer!
#petphotography #saskatoonpetphotography #saskatoonpets #cats #dogs