Pet Portraits - The Ears Matter!

Today's tip is another one that will help us take better pet portraits! Pets are terrific photo subjects and sooner or later we all give it a try and here's how to make your friends say, "WOW!"

Remember Dr. Spock? What is it that first comes to mind? It's the ears of course! In pet portraits, it's the same thing… the ears matter!

A dog - most of my photo tips will concern dogs, but translate to other animals - puts its' ears up when it is being attentive and alert. They are down when the dog is bored, unhappy, afraid and so on. No one likes a photo of a cowering dog!

If you want your pet photos to be liked - the ears MUST be up!

For the first ten years of my photo career I specialized in pets... within the first 6 months I had already made it a practice to never even show my client any photos where the ears were down.

The people don't like them and they just don't sell. You may as well just throw them in the junk heap.

The good news is, it is easy to get the dog to put its' ears up... Once you are ready to shoot, get the dog's attention in some way. (I'll tell you how in a minute.) Just make sure you are ready to shoot because it won't last long!

The easiest way I've found to get a dog's attention and make them look alert and happy is to softly squeak the squeaker on a dog's toy.

Keep the squeaker hidden. The longer you can keep the dog guessing at where that funny noise is coming from,  the more shots you will get.

The ears will pop up and your "model" will look attentive, alive, happy and its' personality will burst out of the photo!

Eventually, they are going to figure out where the sound is coming from and will lose interest. Once that happens you can switch to another technique. Instead of softly squeaking the toy, gently flick it into the air.

Again, you will immediately get the dog's attention, its' ears will pop up and you will have a second or so to get that award winning photo. With a bit of practice, that's more than enough time.

Then comes the bad part, the dog is going to go for the toy. If you have a helper to control the dog, that is no problem.

What can be a problem is constantly chasing after the toy! Word to the wise; buy a flat toy that is not going to roll away. My favorite one looks like a rolled up newspaper. (They sell them in all the grocery stores.)

Don't scold the dog for going after the toy… you made them do it! Just corral them and do it again. After you've done this once or twice, it is easy to get amazing dog photos.

I am amazed at how many "professional" photos I see of dogs with their ears down! What are they thinking? Even if the main subject is a person, if there is a pet in the photo - you must get the ears up or the photo just won't work. What's even worse is you probably won't know why.

On the subject of putting people in the photo with a dog - DO IT! That's a great photo and they will want it. But, the owner will have a tendency to watch the dog and/or try to get the dog to look at the camera. This will ruin the shot.

I always tell the owner to constantly look at the camera and smile and I will watch the dog. Then you squeak the toy! Works every time!

This one tip will leapfrog you past more photographers than you might imagine. It's so easy you will start getting stunning pet portraits almost immediately! Give it a shot! For more information, check out the resources box!