Pet Gallery

Only a very few people look at their pets as possessions. For the vast majority, pets are part of the family. They provide friendship, companionship, warmth, and comfort. For many, a photo of the family pet is as important as a photo of the children.

Pet photography offers a different challenge than humans. Pets, like children, are notoriously uncooperative. Pets often want to be doing something different and become very defensive when they are made to do what they don't want to do. Getting them to sit still long enough to get several photos can be daunting task, especially with energetic animals, such as many dogs, or curious animals such as cats. Unlike most human portraits, shooting animals often involves getting down on one's belly and crawling around to get the best angles.

This is Totem, a gray tabby. He was amazingly cooperative at times. I chose a white background for Totem because of his generally darker fur. This shot was taken using a combination of natural light and tungsten light to give some definition to his face and to keep his neck from completely disappearing into the background..
	This shot was taken with natural light only. Notice how different the color of the fur appears. The use of some of his toys definitely made his task easier and more relaxed, though getting him to sit still long enough to get a shot was an altogether more challenging issue.
In this photo, a flash was used to create dramatic shadows and to create atmosphere within the photo.
	Even a cat realizes that looking good in front of the camera is important. Ok, in reality, on occasion, these shots of opportunity can be cute and funny.
I couldn't resist one last shot of Totem as he wandered off to do his own thing. While this breaks every rule of composition, focus, and lighting; like the preceding shot, catching the cat behind the photography equipment came out kind of like the "behind the scenes" movie stills you often see as DVD extras.