Get Your WHOLE Family Involved
How to include your fur babies into your session!
Family is important and that means ALL of your family. As someone that has four dogs myself, we always try to incorporate our pups into photos whenever possible. We recommend including man's best friend in your session whenever possible, so here are a few tips to help get the best results.
The first step is just knowing your dog or dogs. If your dog is well trained and does well on walks, they can more than likely handle a photo session. If your dog is on the more energetic and free-spirited side of life, it could pose a challenge to get them to cooperate during the session. A young puppy is always a gamble, but both a cooperative one and an unruly one can make for some great photos (depending on what you're ok with come proofing time). This is up to the discretion of the client of course, so speaking with your photographer ahead of time to set an expectation is always best.
Another thing to consider is how well your pet handles being tied up. While you're obviously going to want photos of all of your family, you'll undoubtedly also want photos of just the human family members as well. A dog that has anxiety about being tied up can get worked up quick and become uncooperative for the rest of the session. If your pet is like this, it may be best to move them back to the vehicle for the remainder of the session or get them towards the end of your session (weather permitting of course for their safety). If your dog is ok with being tied up it's always important to work quick and untie them once done at a location to keep them happy and engaged.
The last thing to remember when having your pets join in is to have the humans look at the camera until the photographer says otherwise. It sounds a little obvious, but all too often the parents or kids worry more about what the dog is doing which can prevent the photographer from capturing the best image possible or take longer than needed. In my personal experience a baggie of treats or the dog's favorite squeak toy are great ways to ensure they look at the camera as much as possible, so keep that in mind when speaking with your photographer and booking you session .
That's all I have for this week's post folks. I hope this information finds some of you well and alleviates even a little bit of stress for your next session with your furry friends! Thanks for reading and as always please leave me a comment on my Instagram page and let me know what you thought!