Helpful Tip For Photographing Dogs – DC Metro Area Pet Photographer

I have a helpful tip for pet photographers and pet parents that might make photographing your pets a little easier.  To be honest, I haven’t seen anyone else do this – I am sure there are tons of other photographers who started doing this before I even conceived the idea last year.  But I want to share it anyways, because it’s something that works for me and I hope it will make your life a little easier too!

Lets start with the obvious, photographing pets is not easy.  Pet photographers do it because we love it, but it’s one of the toughest types of photography out there.  Everything can happen really fast, and you have to be ready for some serious multitasking!  When I started out I tried using several different squeaky toys to get a dogs attention, and it worked, but the squeaker took up a very valuable hand that could be focusing my lens etc…  Then trying to shove the squeaker back in my pocket while still shooting took too long and made me look like I rode the short bus to school – if you catch my drift.

So I bought a few cool/funky camera strap covers from Etsy.com (you can even find ones that come with a nifty little pocket to store your lens cap in), and I also purchased some single Kong squeakers.  I slid the small squeaker a few inches up into the camera strap cover – and voila!  It stayed in place!  It doesn’t fall out, I don’t look like a dork constantly trying to blindly reach for a pocket to shove it in every 5 minutes, it frees up my left hand super quick and pooches don’t try to steal it from me {at least not yet they haven’t!}.  It’s been awesome because I don’t even have to think about it anymore – it’s always just right there – right when I need it, hidden out of sight.

One last quick tip for pet parents – the squeaker novelty can wear off quickly if you overdo it!  Line up your shot just how you want it, and when you are ready to take the photograph (with your finger hovering over the shutter button), press the squeaker and shoot away!

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Peach Fuzz – Northern Virginia Pet Photographer

I am obsessed with Kiki’s peach fuzz {I feel the term peach fuzz is more appropriate for a lady as opposed to beard}.  I love it when Kiki wakes up and half of it is plastered to her face and I love it when the entire thing is out of control.  The peach fuzz takes on an entire life of its own and most of the time resembles Albert Einstein’s crazy ‘do.’  We’ve tried taming it, combing it daily, I even tried the typical mom thing where you lick your finger and try to slick it down {doesn’t work, sorry Kiks – I used to hate it when my mom did that to me too!}, it still just goes about its merry way, it has a life of its own and it always makes us laugh.  Sometimes I wonder if she can see through it, and I used to get a little frustrated with it because on occasion it blocks her gorgeous brown eyes from my lens.  But the peach fuzz is part of who she is and who am I to change that?  I truly want to capture her just as she is – that’s how I want to photograph all pets, all people – everything I photograph.  It’s about going with the flow and fully embracing and loving what is.  The peach fuzz is just another reason why I love my Kiki Beans so very much.

Have you checked out our facebook fan page yet?   I just posted another photo of Kiki’s crazy peach fuzz over there that I took with my iphone!

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Kiki – NOVA Pet Photographer

My sweet little Kiki sure is missing her long walks with all of the snow that we’ve had.  We go as far as we can, but the snow is still too deep for her and Tot and the sidewalks aren’t cleared, which leaves us with icy roads to walk down.  This photo was taken a week before the big storm that brought us 3 feet of snow.  If it were up to Kiki, she’d live in the Sahara year round where there is no rain, no snow and the temps are a toasty 100+ degrees on average.  I have to admit, her plan is sounding kinda good about now!  

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Snowmageddon – Northern Virginia Pet Photography

Greetings from Snowmageddon 2010!  It’s been one big blizzard today, I took the girls out earlier and it felt like we were inside a large and extremely pissed off snow globe.  We have been stuck at home for 6 days now, and I have to admit that we’re getting a little batty because of it – for instance, when we watched the weather report two nights ago and they called for 20 more inches of snow on top of the 3 feet we had, Matt and I started laughing hysterically.  But it’s cool because our days have been full of hot cocoa, good music, good books, snuggling with two very sweet schnauzies, a few gourmet meals, card games, Words with Friends, a little Wii tennis and lots of family time.  We also finally got around to a few things that we’d put off too long, like watching The Hangover {awesome!} and installing some drawer handles in our kitchen.

As tough as it can get being stuck at home, I have to remind myself that it’s mother natures way of telling us to take some time to slow down, rest, restore and find some peace and balance.

We attempted a few photos today but the wind was pretty brutal.  I was squinting because of the bitter wind and laughing because Tot just wanted down so she could eat more snow.  That girl is nuts!  She’s like a mini snow plow, if we let her, she’d eat all of the snow in sight.

Photo by my hubby Matt.

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Coco and Peanut in color – Washington DC Pet Photographer

Here are some more photographs of my favorite Frenchies, Coco and Peanut!  I can’t get enough of these two!  A few of their B&W photos and their story can be found here.

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