One of our biggest requests is a portrait featuring a dog owner with their dog or dogs. How does this work? Well first off we ask that you connect with us for a free pre-session consultation. This is where we get to meet your dog(s) and have them see and get used to the studio. Even if we are doing this on location it helps to sit down and discuss briefly what your vision is for the portrait session.
Read MoreWhat To Wear For Your Dog And Me Portrait?
We do a lot of portraits of dog owners with their dogs. To make the portrait the absolute best we always recommend to the owners what they should wear. The concept behind this is you want to be in color harmony with your dog(s). If you wear a really bright red shirt and your dog is black—though black and red can look good together—guess where the eye goes when someone looks at the photo? To the brightest color. The dog gets lost in the image. You don’t want to upstage your dog.
So we recommend tones that will be in harmony with your dogs fur color. Whatever the dominate color of the fur is you want tones that are compatible with that color. Usually you cannot go wrong with earth tones for a brown colored dog. Deeper reds like rust or a maroon —browns, tans and the like are good choices.
Read MorePhotographing Multiple Pets in A Session
Having more than one pet can be a lot of work—I have two and that keeps me hopping. But what about 4? And all rescue dogs. Recently I photographed a couple who rescues dogs—primarily Shar Peis. And most of these have a lot of issues that kept them from being adopted.
They were great dogs as well as people. Organization is the key when photographing more than one pet. It’s good to have people who can handle the other pets while an individual one is being photographed. In this case the couple took care of 3 of the dogs while I photographed the individual shots. Bring lots of favorite treats or toys to help keep them occupied.
Read MoreBetter Togehter: Photographing Dog Families
Dog portraits are great solo but sometimes it’s better together. Meaning if you have more than one dog and they get along why not get a portrait of the two (or three) of them together?
Now maybe you have more than one dog and you want to be in the portrait with them. That is very doable. Unless they’re super well trained and behaved and maybe a little tired it will take a bit of time to achieve this so have patience. Often times I find that the dogs are doing just fine but it’s the people that are super stressed about the process. They’ve overly worried that their dogs aren’t performing as they should. After all they think “they’re so well behaved at home!” Well they probably are but you’re now in a studio that they’ve maybe been in once before—hence the reason we stress a pre-session consultation with you and your dog(s) so they can get to know the place.
Read MoreOutdoor Pet Portraits Part 2
Dogs can easily be distracted and was mentioned in the first part of Outdoor Pet Portraits. Most clients we work with prefer the undistracted environment of the studio. There aren’t birds or cats or even squirrels to content with. Even having additional people in the area can be distracting for some dogs.
However some clients really prefer the outdoor look and we’re happy to accommodate them. For safety I always have the client leash the dog. Even if you have the best trained dog int he world you don’t need them dashing after an animal during the session and getting hit by a car or knocking people over. It’s just a good safety precaution to leash your dog. There are ways to pose to minimize the leash and we can also digitally remove it if necessary.
Read MorePets Can Be Good Therapy
People struggling with addiction often lack the confidence or communication skills to form relationships with other people. By no means is this always the fault of the person in recovery. Our society stigmatizes those with special challenges, even though blind prejudice rather than fact underlies most of these misperceptions.
One way to bridge this gap is with the help of pets. This form of healing, known as pet therapy, offers benefits for both mind and body. These include:
- Acceptance and love from a faithful companion.
- Comfort and happiness from positive interactions.
- Stress reduction that leads to lower blood pressure.
- Encouragement to exercise and to spend more time outside.
- Motivation to recover from illnesses and other challenges.
Of course, choosing a pet requires thought and preparation. In this post we'll focus on the things you should consider when taking this important step. These tips will help to ensure both you and your new friend have many happy times together.
Read MoreCelebrating Moms of "Fur Children"
Have you ever thought about having a great portrait of you and your furry companion? Well this is the time to do it. We’re about to celebrate Mother’s Day in a big way at Springs Pet Portraits!
May is the month we celebrate moms. In honor of Mother’s Day for 2016 we are celebrating moms of “fur children.” During the month of May we are offering mini sessions for you and your furry companion. You will get a mini session and an 8x10 print for just $49. This offer is good for in studio mini session portraits only and only in May.
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