Pets: Friends AND Family

[Suzanne]

Hello everyone! I've noticed that one of the things people love to shoot often once they have their camera in hand is their pets. And I think most of you are like me and your pets are very much friend and companion and most definitely family. If it's not to silly, I'd love to see your shots of your family ie; pets.

Mods if it is too silly please delete I just know there are some beautiful shots out there, and I know that people love to share about their pets, so it seemed like fun.

Forgive if this is a repetitive post.

I'll get the ball rolling I guess though I know y'all are gonna outshine me with your skill. But these are a couple I thought came out pretty good and that captured their personalities.
Cheers Everyone!
Queen of the Hill: Jenny (Alaskan Husky 6 yrs) She's my angel.

Wet dog :Maya (Siberian Husky 2yrs old) She loves to swim

Silly Maya . . . she's also the court jester.


The cat refuses to be photographed so I'm left taking paparazzi shots of her. None of which I will share here.

[Fit]

Love them! I assume you are aware of the Scruffy Dog websites?

[mythlady]

Here's our cat, with whom I have a love-hate (well, really tolerate-hate) relationship (it goes both ways). I'm pretty much a dog and/or bird person, and this cat was a member of the family before I was, so we are kind of stuck with each other:

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Elise,

Here's our cat, with whom I have a love-hate (well, really tolerate-hate) relationship (it goes both ways). I'm pretty much a dog and/or bird person, and this cat was a member of the family before I was, so we are kind of stuck with each other:

That's really nice Elise, I have a black cat like this and I never get her looking this good.

Looks like the secret is; fill the frame, get close (how do you stop them nuzzling the lens?) and shoot with a wide aperture.

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Suzanne,

If it's not to silly, I'd love to see your shots of your family ie; pets.

Mods if it is too silly please delete I just know there are some beautiful shots out there, and I know that people love to share about their pets, so it seemed like fun.

Forgive if this is a repetitive post

No, not silly, we have had one before, but it got buried, so I don't see any harm in starting over - you are forgiven

Cheers,

[DippyRebel]

I think it's lovely to see people's family pets.

Elise - you've shot your black cat really nicely. Like you I'm more of a dog person (currently I have two retired greyhounds) but thought I'd share our longest-standing pet, Cobweb. She came here about 13 years ago as an 'organic lawnmower', but we soon realised that she was useless in that role, although superb at eating trees, hedges, the vegetable patch...

Here she is, racing through the recent snow as fast as her dumpy little legs will take her:

[mythlady]

Looks like the secret is; fill the frame, get close (how do you stop them nuzzling the lens?) and shoot with a wide aperture.

Thanks, Dave -- actually, I wasn't close to him at all -- the other end of the porch. But I happened to have my 100-400mm lens on the camera, so I shot him at 190mm, 1/80 second at f/5.6. I don't know if I was on a tripod -- maybe, because my hands are awfully shaky without it. I wish I could tone down that bright light in the corner, but it's not crop-able and I don't now about darkening it in PS . . .

Thanks, Rachel -- what a funny looking goat! They scare me a little (I think it's the eyes), but this one looks very friendly.

[purplehaze]

Suzanne, your dogs are beautiful. I know that look of Maya's very well, having a husky (hybrid) of my own. Maybe someday I will capture it and we can compare.

Elise, your shot is masterful, as always. It has an eery quality, as befits its subject.

Rachel, I absolutely love your goat and not just 'cos we share dumpy legs. Great shot. Thanks for sharing.

Janis
(resisting the urge to post any more pictures of my own mistress, at least for now)

[Suzanne]

Hi Suzanne,

No, not silly, we have had one before, but it got buried, so I don't see any harm in starting over - you are forgiven

Cheers,

AWW thank you Dave. It's nice to be forgiven.

Elise, what a great shot of your cat. And yes I know the type. Fortunately I have a pretty good relationship with my current cat she's just a little camera shy. I have a few shots of her but theyre not worthy of posting. Though it could be interesting to try again as she is now a tripod having lost a leg to bone infection last year. Could be interesting. Also I love the way you capture the glow of the eyes. Very nice.

Rachel, I love your goat! and what a great shot, plowing through the snow like that. Made me laugh

Chris, checking out the scruffy dog websites now. . .

And last but not least... Janis, oh yeah I know that look.

Thanks guys!

[djg05478]

My crazy birddogs, being unbelievably still

Unfortunately, I had to work from the jpg cause I accidentally deleted the RAW file. I'm still working on developing an effective workflow

[mythlady]

Debbie, what beautiful dogs. Well done.

[djg05478]

Thanks Elise. I don't know how I did it, but to me, it looks like the dogs are separate layers and pasted onto the picture of the tree...but they aren't, they sat amazingly still in very low light. Probably had something to do with the hotdogs they were "staying" for.

[DippyRebel]

My crazy birddogs, being unbelievably still

Unfortunately, I had to work from the jpg cause I accidentally deleted the RAW file. I'm still working on developing an effective workflow

Very regal - could feature as the Christmas card from an English stately home or the like

I can see them focussing hard on something desirable... I try the same with my dogs, but they tend to drool, which isn't very attractive

[SaraLou]

Here's George my English Pointer... Despite being the most 'fair weathered' dog I know, he LOVES the snow!!



On the beach at Bognor Regis

[SaraLou]

My crazy birddogs, being unbelievably still

I have the same trouble with George...must be in the genes!

[DH59]

I don't have any pets myself, but I did a portrait session with my sister's cats last week, while I was in possession of a Canon 24-105mm f/4 IS lens that I hired for a few days. I used on camera flash (Canon 580EX II) with a Lightsphere attached.

I quite liked the second one - he'd just munched some cat biscuits that my sister leaves on the windowsill.

[djg05478]

I have the same trouble with George...must be in the genes!

Absolutely!...and I wouldn't want it any other way . George is very very handsome. These dogs are really challenging to get good exposures.

Its hard to get thier eyes sometimes because of eye color, fur color and shape. You have to get them to look at something at an angle to show the white of thier eyes to help make them more prominent. And then biggest challenge of all is the fur. It goes from a crazy, highly reflective white to black (in your case), liver/dark brown (my case).

Regardless of all the challenges and bad photos, my dogs are very well documented

[risingphoenix]

Not really pets But I am on a K-9 Search and Rescue Team. These were taken right after I got my new camera so I was still really new with it but since we are sharing


Rudy *Retriever* Trained In: Wilderness and Cadaver


Samantha *Retriever* Trained In: Wilderness


X *Pitbull* Trained In: Urban Rescue and Wilderness (only certified pitbull in RI)

Our teams site http://www.ossarinc.org in case anyone is interested

[SaraLou]

Absolutely!...and I wouldn't want it any other way . George is very very handsome. These dogs are really challenging to get good exposures.

Its hard to get thier eyes sometimes because of eye color, fur color and shape. You have to get them to look at something at an angle to show the white of thier eyes to help make them more prominent. And then biggest challenge of all is the fur. It goes from a crazy, highly reflective white to black (in your case), liver/dark brown (my case).

Regardless of all the challenges and bad photos, my dogs are very well documented

Thank you

I completely agree that getting the right exposure is really tricky...but as you say, that doesn't stop us trying!! After all, practice makes perfect