Christmas Family With Rainbow & Bella The Yellow Labs (Click to enlarge)

No, nothing has happened to these two wonderful Labs, Rainbow and Bella.  They are fine.  They were hearty, rambunctious, inquisitive and playful when we last saw them.  That’s the job description of Labrador Retrievers.  It’s also what gets many of them in a lot of trouble.

I post these girls today because I’ve just received word that a friend of ours is waiting to find out if her two beloved Labs will live after eating part of a Sago Palm.  She asked me to post something to warn others of this deadly plant.  The ingestion of very minute amounts of this plant can cause irreparable damage.

Recently I had a conversation with someone concerning the danger of dogs having access to chocolate.  She said she gives her dog chocolate because he likes it.  I said she is lucky because it’s poison to some dogs.  I’m afraid many might think the same of a Sago Palm.  Unlike chocolate, however, Sagos can kill ANY dog, any cat and any horse.  My friend’s two Labs are both in a coma as we speak.

Don’t believe me?  Check out HappyDogsPlay.com’s post on March 20th last year.  Sisters Pet Pics has a Toxicity page with three great sites listing all dangerous and poisonous plants to animals.  Top on the list?  SAGO PALMS!  Still not convinced?  Go to Snopes.com’s entry about Sago Palms.  They researched it and deemed this warning TRUE (!).

Some people might have a potted Sago in their home.  If you live with cats PLEASE, PLEASE get rid of the Sago.  It’s deadly.

I hope my readers heed this warning.  If you have a plant and nothing has happened yet (as occurred with my friend’s Labs) you have a ticking time bomb in your yard.  It’s only a matter of time until a seed is next to some other tasty morsel and it’s ingested by your beloved pet.  Don’t let this happen to you dear reader.

Saints Fans Bailey & Her Mom (Click to enlarge)

It’s been difficult to keep the sports jerseys off the people and dogs these days.  Here in Louisiana everyone’s a fan.  Meet Bailey and her mom.  Whether it’s the New Orleans Saints or the Louisiana State University Tigers, the chill in the air is nothing like the heat in the sports fan’s heart.

Of course that means that people want to memorialize the season.  As photographers, it’s your job to record these moments, either for yourself or for your friends, family or clients.  The requested backdrop here is dark.  Bailey is black and the jerseys are black as well.  The challenge is to light the dog without blowing out Bailey’s mom’s face.  Under these circumstances, I make choices.  I find it more difficult to adjust the exposure in camera raw post processing if a black dog is under- exposed than it is to repair a few spots on a light face.  That’s the choice I made in this instance.

For this expsoure, I made sure Bailey was lit and tried not to blow out subtle details of her mom’s face.  It’s a fine line we walk.  But we’re all smiling today .  Go Saints!!

Saints Family - Go Saints! (Click to enlarge)

Okay, so kill me…I’m a Saints fan.  There, I said it.  I can’t deny that my TV screen has some smudges on it from the pillows I’ve thrown at it in seasons past; nevertheless, I’m a fan.  It’s still pre-season, but maybe this is our year.  In any case, this little family is hoping for such as well.

This Lab puppy couldn’t have done it any better.  We have many photos of dogs doing this all by themselves on the table.  This is how you would pose a dog in a shirt, dress or jersey with the decoration on the back.  A human is on each side of the table.  See How To Set Up Your Pet Photography Studio post for a diagram.  Each person has a hand on the dog; one hand on the front legs and one hand rests on the rump of the dog.  Each human should only use one hand so it will be quicker to yank out of the frame when necessary.  At this point, the dogs think they’re just hangin’ with their person, and usually they are comfortable.  The photog makes a noise, dog turns head, hands are yanked quickly, photog releases shutter.  Easy.

It takes a little practice until everyone in the room gets the drill, but we usually get this back to front shot eventually.  It works better if the dog has a longer neck.  Bull Dogs and the shorter necked varieties might have to be anchored at a slight angle in order for them to make the turn of the head toward the camera.  Try it.  It’s not as difficult as you might think.  Of course, it was even easier with this group because the Lab was ever so comfortable between his mom and dad, and only wanted to see what the heck the woman in back of him was doing.

Family Dogs (Click to enlarge)

Are these folks lovely or what!  Posing a large group of dogs like this is a little challenging, but having their human in the frame makes it easier.  Their mom has rescued each of them from different sources; the latest – Lucy – was rescued from under the building where she works.  It took many months of patience to coax her out, then home and inside comfortably, before she felt as ease.  She’s still very shy, so she felt much more comfortable under her mom’s arm.  From left to right: Piglet, Buddy, Lucy and Lily.

I’m posting this group today to illustrate a method of grouping that you can use with or without humans.  Any box, step or stairs can give you different levels to make your composition more interesting.  Small dogs or even cats can be posed on different stairs.  Two larger dogs can be posed with front feet on a step and back feet on the floor.  Any number of configurations may serve to make it more interesting.

I keep boxes that can be covered with the floor cloth, and the stairs can be used with or without a cloth.  Use your imagination.  Don’t think it takes dogs that will obey a “stay” command to make this capture.  It takes an assistant and patience.  Give it a shot.

Bosco The Lab & Jill (Click to enlarge)

Bosco The Lab & Jill With Sepia Treatment (Click to enlarge)

Meet Bosco, the Labrador Retriever, and his person.  I posted Bosco before in Planning For Bosco The Lab.  Today I want to talk about your shooting and processing options.

Most digital SLRs have an in-camera option for black and white images.  You can toggle this on the fly.  However, the only reason I can think of to shoot in black and white is if you do not have access to a post processing program which will do this for you.  I like to make these decisions after I see the image.

Sepia filters can be applied in post processing as well.  Depending upon the program you use for post processing, you will have a couple of different methods to do this.  I work in Photoshop.  If you’re serious about improving your pet photography, I suggest you get a copy.  Photoshop Elements comes bundled with many peripherals and other software.  You may have it already and don’t know it.

I often like to see what an image looks like in black and white and in sepia.  In this case I really liked it both ways.  These two subjects are so summery in their coloring I loved the color image.  In black and white it was good as well, but the sepia filter had the hint of their coloring while muting the backdrop and placing the emphasis on the subjects.

There are two methods to use the sepia filter (there may be more, but I know of two).  Try both before you decide which you like better.  Image->Adjustments->Photo Filter, will give you different filter options.  Choose Sepia and use the Density slider to play with the percentages.  If you do not Preserve Luminosity you will see a more muted tone.  If you are trying to warm it up, leave the check mark in Preserve Luminosity.  In my opinion that just cooks it, but you might want this for certain images.

The other method is to convert to black and white (Image->Adjustments->Black & White), play with the sliders until you get it looking the way you like, then lay a sepia filter on it.  Try it all.  See how you like it best.  Post or talk about your tests or questions here.

Bosco The Noble Chocolate Labrador Retriever (Click to enlarge)

Meet Bosco.  He arrived with his doting mom, and though he would have preferred having her closer to him…like, touching…he did quite well while she stood behind me.  He’s saying, “Should I stay right here mom, and how long?” What a guy.

Sometimes when a client describes the coloring of their dog to me when they make their appointment, I have something in mind as  a backdrop.  In this case I had a higher contrast idea before I saw him.  This backdrop seemed to have brought out the chocolate in Bosco, so I changed my mind on the spot; this seemed perfect.

I list four important elements to better pet photography in the Eye Contact post.  If you thought hard you could guess these elements.  It’s not rocket science, but they are important.  Planning is one of the elements.  I’ve read elsewhere that some pet photographers don’t like to plan…they like to shoot from the hip.  Hmmm.  That could work…sometimes.  After all, I had seen some of their work and I was quite impressed, but how consistent can they be?

Planning is important because, ideally, you would like to eliminate all variables and control everything in your studio; then you could get what you wanted 100% of the time.  It doesn’t work like that, but you do try to be one step ahead of your client, their companion and all the other people and animals who may be in the room.  However, it’s also important to be able to turn on a dime, and make a new plan…on the spot.  Be flexible; be open to an idea that you or your client just thought of; think quick, your subject is, so you’ll have to keep up.

Drake The Yellow Lab (Click to enlarge)

Frida is sitting right here next to me on her Princess pillow as she does when I work every day, but Friday, June 26th is the 10th annual Take Your Dog To Work Day for the rest of you!  Yep, TYDTW has been celebrated since 1999.  What?  You’ve never known such a day?  Well, it’s about time you did.

Take Your Dog To Work: the day was “first celebrated in 1999.  It was created to celebrate the great companions dogs make and to encourage their adoption from humane societies, animal shelters and breed rescue clubs. This annual event encourages employers to experience the value of pets in their workplace for this one special day to promote pet adoptions.”  Visit Take Your Dog To Work’s web site to find out more about how you can participate, if you’re an employer or worker.

In support of this great day Sisters Pet Pics and HappyDogsPlay.com are offering a free organic hemp dog toy to anyone posting a photo of your dog at work right here.  HappyDogsPlay.com is a general store for dogs and dog lovers.  Our dogs love this toy, and I can’t tell you how our cats just chortle with glee every night when they re-kill Taco.  All you need to do is post a pic of your companion at work.  How ’bout those nosey puppies near a keyboard?  Under your desk?  At the water cooler?  For instructions for posting and commenting, refer to both stickies, particularly How This Works.

I’m going to mention Take Your Dog To Work every day this week with the hope that you will take pictures of your dog(s) hard at work with you.  The offer expires on  Friday, July 3rd so that will give you a whole week to download your pics and select the best one!  Heck, why stop at one?  Upload several!  Try to follow good photographic principles but above all, shoot, post and spread the word!

Although Drake, pictured here, is not at work, he sure would have liked to be right there with his mom.  Can’t you just see him?

Tsunami The Lab Mix (Click to enlarge)

Could Tsunami be any more beautiful?  No.  All 15 years of her!  You heard me; 15 years old.  Now that’s longevity.  She lives with an artist and many Greyhounds, but she’s a mama’s girl.  Perhaps the the closeness to her mom is directly attributable to her advanced years.  She wasn’t really nervous in the studio as long as she could see her mom, who is standing behind and to my left for this shot.  Tsunami is acting as if she was told to smile…so she did.

Today’s photographic topic will be about shooting dogs with cataracts.  In my experience it’s almost impossible to avoid them showing, even in ambient light.  At worst, the whole eye can be blown out, which is not really fixable without cloning another eye.  In the studio it’s important to bathe the subject in light without blowing any highlights. Cataracts compromise this plan because they present with a sort of absence.  Although red eye won’t be a problem with multi-directional studio lights, severe cataracts can still pose a problem.  The only fix that I know of is to touch them up after the fact.

Tsunami has been traveling this planet for a while now and like most of us who share her years we have the bumps, bruises and ailments to prove it.  When any of us are ready for our close-up we’d like to be airbrushed just a little…and so it was with Tsunami. If you would like to know more about animal’s eyes see The Eyes Have It.

It goes without saying that I invite critique, questions and posts of yours as well.

Molly & Maggie The Chocolate Labs (Click to enlarge)

Meet Molly and Maggie, two extraordinarily lovely Chocolate Lab puppy sisters.  If you listen closely you will hear them say, “Hiya, hiya, hiya”.  Molly and Maggie are examples of what happens when you push already good buddies close together.  Their front paws cross and in Molly and Maggie’s case, that resulted in their legs getting tangled in an adorable puppy-like pile.  One of the noises from my box of toys and noise-makers caused these silly girls to tilt their heads in exactly the same endearing way.  Although the sit is not perfect, and their mouths are open, to me it was a perfect studio composition with multiple animals.  Now don’t get all sheesh, she’s pretentious on me.  I know.  Nothing is really perfect (or else everything is…hmmm), but if you read my  Eye Contact post I talk about planning as a very important element to better pet photography.  This is always the shot in my plan.  Bodies close.  Legs crossed.  Heads tilted – and in the same direction.  Perfect.  But remember, I’ve never made a capture that could not be improved.  How could this one be improved?  Closing the angle would show less underbelly and more coat, for one.  Their sit could have been tight and alert and their mouths could have been closed as well.  But I’ll take this one with pleasure and pride.  Every time I look at it I smile.  I hope the mom and dad of these two smile when they see it too.

By the way, speaking of ‘hiya’, if you remember the ’50s children’s television show which started with a mischievous cat uttering the words, “Hiya kids, hiya, hiya”, then comment here with the name of the show for 10% off the purchase of any photographic package on your next visit to Sisters Pet Pics.  Why?  Because it’s been plaguing me for years and no one I ask has any recollection of this show.  I’m beginning to believe I made it up.  I think it was a show about a cat and dog which were represented by very primitive paper mache animals…or something like that.

Even if you don’t know the name of the TV show, subscribe to our newsletter, Better Pet Photography, and if your pet is featured you will receive 10% off any photographic package on your next visit to our studio.  Subscribing means you will receive one email message from Sisters Pet Pics Blog on Fridays, highlighting the topics of the week.  We do not pass on your email address to any third party.