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Pet Portraits

So I’ve been interested in getting some new faces on my site for a while now.  I’ve been experimenting with different styles and techniques trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life.  Part of my problem is I get burnt out photographing pretty quick.  I need a fresh dose of creativity frequently.  I get this dose from changing up my subject matter.

Recently I had quite a different life experience, I got a little taste of dog ownership.  My wife’s parents were going out of town for 2 weeks and needed a dog-sitter.  Lucky us! I can honestly say I wasn’t a huge fan at first, but the little guy grew on me.  While Bruce the beagle was with us I decided to set up a little shoot with him.  This turned out to be WAY more challenging than I originally anticipated..

Most of the issues I had rose from the fact that he wouldn’t sit still.. He kept knocking down my backdrop (a piece of black foam core), and he couldn’t stand on the flooring I set up (another piece of black foam core, too slippery).  All his running around frequently put him either too close to the lights or too far away. I decided to use a 200mm lens to keep the foam core behind him filling the frame, but due to the long minimum focus distance was forced beside the camera (to keep him standing where he needed to) vs behind looking through the viewfinder, so composition, focus and zoom were all a crap shoot.  And the list goes on..

Then I got a brilliant idea! I’ll give him a bone!  This would settle him down and keep him interested in what I was doing.  This was not a bright idea.. It made everything worse. Then I had another great idea! I’ll get his ball out! He loves it, and will focus on the ball!  This was also not a great idea.. He does love his ball, but its an obsessive kind of love.  First of all he gives it the death stare, and will not for the love of everything good and holy take his eyes off of it.  Secondly when when you hold it too long he will start barking at you.  I had lost the battle.. This was way to hard to do by myself..

Lucky for me my wife came home about this time and got him to settle down and we grabbed these a few keepers.  She kept his attention as long as she could with the ball and we figured out a way to get him to stand in the best spot for the lighting I had set up.

Morale of the story, if your dog isn’t Lassie use (at least) 2 people! Or use natural light.. And don’t give them treats or balls until you are done.

Interested in having your pet photographed?? Contact me and/or

keep your eyes on Art In Motion’s  facebook page for details coming up on getting your pets portraits taken!

Unedited images telling more of the story of Bruce’s photo session:

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