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!
by sara
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