Dancing Dogs – Funny Video!

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Terry Berenson

Check this video out. I got such a kick out of it – beautiful dog in a completely choreographed dance with his master. And “she” looks like she is having a great time!

Click here for funny video of dancing dog

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Two Dogs Dining – Hilarious Video!

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Terry Berenson

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Pet Photography Lighting Basics

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Terry Berenson


Lighting is key to taking great animal photographs, and the basics of good lighting apply whether you’re using an expensive SLR, a point and shoot, or even a cell phone.

First and foremost, don’t shoot directly into the sun. If you’re shooting outside and the sun is behind your pet, he or she will appear completely in shadow in your photo. Just walk around and take the photo from the opposite side, with the sun behind you or just to your side.

Early morning and late afternoon are always the best times to photograph outdoors. Bright sunlight in the middle of the day will take an OK photo of your pet – but it will tend to be flat and not very interesting. If you have to shoot mid-day, take your pet under a tree branch, where sunlight will filter through and shine points of light on your pet that will add beauty and depth to your image.

If you’re shooting indoors, natural light is great if there is a large bright window nearby. Most of the time, especially in New York apartments, that’s not the case. I do use a flash attachment on my camera, but never face it to my subject. One method I use is to tilt the flash up to bounce off the ceiling, half-way between me and the animal I’m photographing. Another is to hang a white sheet on a wall and face the flash toward it so the light bounces off the white wall and sheds a wide, soft light on the animal.

Please note that photographing a dog with black fur indoors requires a lot more light than one flash attachment. For the photo below, I used three portable Nikon speedlights. It’s a lot more work, but the results are definitely worth it.

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How do you get a cat to pose for a photo? You don’t.

Posted on June 15, 2011 by admin

Save yourself the aggravation and just bang your head against the wall.  You’ll get the same result.  Even when they’re sleeping, cats know when you’re going to take their picture and they get up and walk away.  At least mine do.

Sabrina and Natasha are Norwegian Forest cats, supposedly the most affectionate and “dog-like” cat breed (I’ll probably get a lot of negative reaction from cat lovers, but let’s face it, most cats are not snuggly and kissy-face like my girls are.)  They like nothing better than to sit next to me on the bed, licking my hands, and rubbing their heads under my hand so I’ll pet them.

But try and take their picture?  Sabrina, the more docile of the two, will sleep in the most adorable poses.  I’ll tiptoe into the room, literally as quiet as a mouse, and before I get the camera up to my eye, she’s up with a look that says “I don’t think so.”

The best way I’ve found to photograph my two beauties is to plan a photo shoot in my own home, just like I would for a client.  I arrange the rooms where they mostly hang out, clearing tabletops and removing ugly things like the humidifier.  Then I set my camera for the correct lighting and spend time photographing them from different angles and perspectives, using a squeaky toy to try and get their attention.  I say “try” purposely, because with cats, sometimes they’ll look your way and sometimes they won’t – and you’ll never know why either way.

 

 

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Dog Photography for the Untrained (Dog, That Is)

Posted on June 1, 2011 by admin

It always amazes me when I show up for a dog photo session and learn that my subject hasn’t been trained to sit or stay.  I couldn’t imagine owning a dog that didn’t obey these most basic commands, but it’s happened to me more than once.

The first time was with Harlem, a bulldog weighing 45 lbs of pure muscle.  His owner had his son bring Harlem to the studio, and I almost felt sorry for the young man trying to get the dog to stay by his side – until he let go of Harlem’s collar and the dog literally ran me over, knocking my camera to the ground.  The rest of the shoot consisted of me following the dog around as he did whatever he felt like doing, trying hard to catch him still long enough to click the shutter.  I took well over a hundred images to get one shot for my client Fortunately, the owner understood the problem wasn’t me and promised he’d find a trainer asap.

Even more challenging was the job where the owner wanted me to photograph her Jack Russell and Norwich terriers together in one portrait. But neither one of them was trained to sit or stay.  I told her I’d do my best, but – unless she wanted me to use Velcro, I would most likely shoot them individually and then Photoshop them together, which is what I had to do to her delight and satisfaction.

Lesson learned?  I always ask before I take a job whether the animal is trained to obey simple commands.  I’ll take the job even if they aren’t – but at least I’ll come mentally prepared for the adventure.


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Tips For Better Pet Photography

Posted on May 18, 2011 by admin

If you’re serious about taking good photos of your dog or cat, try not to do it alone.  I’ve done it with and without assistance, and my photos are always better when there’s someone nearby to help me get the animal’s attention.

The most important tip for using a helper to their best advantage is to get them to work at your level.  Since I’m always on the floor or ground when taking pet portraits, it doesn’t do any good if the owner or my assistant is standing next to me trying to get the animal to look at them.  The result is just a lot of pictures of dogs or cats looking up, with their neck being the focal point of the shot. So make sure the person is sitting right behind you so the pet’s full face is in the direction of the camera.

If you’re alone while taking pictures, always carry a squeaky toy or clicker with you.  Or learn to bark loud and high as I have.  Barking is my favorite tool for getting a dog’s attention because they almost always lift their ears, which makes for a beautiful and expressive image.

Another important tip is to always have your camera set on “continuous” rather than “single” shooting.  This allows you to click away – and often the best photo is the one right after the one you meant to take.


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Getting the Perfect Pet Pix

Posted on May 6, 2011 by admin

Alfie 1I’m probably going to blog myself out of a career, but I think everyone who loves their pet should know how to take a good photograph of them.

Whenever people show me pictures of their dog, cat, horse, etc., (whether taken on a cell phone, point-and-shoot or high end SLR) I usually cringe because
they’ve cut off one of their beloved pet’s body parts…usually the top of their head
or part of an ear. Why? Because most amateur photographers don’t look at the
edges of an image. How can you avoid this common error? Always take several
extra images, moving around your subject so you increase your chance of getting
a great shot.

Here’s what I mean: You see your pet doing something cute and grab your
camera. First Rule of Thumb: Get down to their level so the photo captures their
worldview.

Take the picture you want, then move about 3 feet back and take another one.
Move another 3 feet back and take a third. Then move a few feet to the left,
make a noise to get your pet’s attention, and take another one. Move forward
a bit and take a fifth. Move 5 or 6 steps to the right and take a sixth. This way
of photographing is what master photographer Steve Simon, who led a Nikon
Mentor trek to Egypt I attended, calls “working the shot.” It applies to any
photography – but is really important when photographing animals.

When you review your shots, you’ll now have lots of good pictures, with all body
parts you wanted in the frame. You’ll probably ask yourself why you needed
to take all those extra pictures. But look closely at each image and compare
the eyes, the expression and the background surrounding your pet, and you’ll
quickly see that one or two will not just be good – they’ll be GREAT. Because
the more shots you take, the more likely you are to wind up with one really terrific
photograph.

Below you’ll see four images of my goldendoodle, Alfie.
I actually shot 15 frames to make sure I would get him at his
best. You can see that they are very close in quality and feel – but the fourth one
is the one I chose to crop and edit (the fifth and last image) because the position of his head, his eyes,
and his smile are clearly better than the rest. Most important, If I had taken only
one or two pictures, and then got home and found lens blur or another problem
I couldn’t see on the LCD screen, I would have been very frustrated. Instead, I
have a fantastic image of my boy enjoying springtime in the city.

Alfie 2
Alfie 3
Alfie 5
Alfie 6

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14 Dogs and One Dog Photographer: My Day at Marcia’s Pampered Pets

Posted on April 20, 2011 by admin

Early in my pet photography career, I was lucky that my sister, Marcia, boarded dogs for a living.  An avid animal lover like me, my sister’s kennel was her house.  No crates or basements for her guests.  They had the run of her home and her backyard – and her bed, where many of them slept with her at night.

I thought having so many dogs in one place would be the ideal situation for me to practice my craft, but I boy, was I wrong.  Light stands and lots of dogs do not mix.  I spent more time catching equipment before it fell down than I did composing beautiful pet portraits.

Finally, I gave up on artificial light and decided to relax and just enjoy shooting with my camera and a bounce flash and not worry about the results.  It was still a madhouse, with dogs jumping in and out of the frame and pouncing on one another like a dog circus, but I wound up with some wonderful images.

More importantly, I left with a new respect for how hard my sister worked and how lucky these dogs and their human families were to have found her.

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Rescue Wolves: Not Your Average Pet Photography

Posted on April 6, 2011 by admin

I first met my friends Ellie and Roger when they moved near our ranch in Sedona.  They had about 27 rescue cats, several rescue dogs, a parrot, and 2 doves.  A few months later, when they rescued two large turtles from out of state and brought them to their mountaintop property high in the red rocks, I knew they were not your typical animal lovers.  They were animal fanatics – in the best sense of the word.

About five years ago, Ellie and Roger began rescuing wolfdogs, a hybrid resulting from the mating of a wolf and a dog.  These majestic animals are challenging to place in adoptive homes because they need lots of space and their behavioral characteristics are not predictable.  They can be predominantly wolf-like or predominantly dog-like.  And their size is unpredictable too, with offspring sometimes growing much larger than either of their parents.

The last time I counted, Ellie and Roger had rescued over a dozen of these beautiful “critters” as Ellie likes to call them.  Geronimo and Brightstar, seen in this photo, weigh over 150 pounds each, but are gentle giants who want nothing more than to lie on the living room couch and snuggle with you.

Neo and his pack of friends are more wolf than dog in nature, so Ellie has created a very large fenced-in area for them to live and play in.  She’s worked tirelessly to socialize them, and I had no problem spending time in their home ground taking pictures.  I just had to wait patiently for them to get used to me and forget I was there, and then I got some fantastic shots of these great noble animals.

There are many wonderful wolf and wolfdog rescue organizations that need support.  If you’re interesting in helping, check out one of these:

Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary

Wolf Rescue Resources

The Wolf Mountain Sanctuary





 

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Falling Into Pet Photography

Posted on March 23, 2011 by admin

I became a pet portrait photographer by pure coincidence.  A friend of my sister’s needed a photograph of her dog for the back of a book that was being written about him, and they asked me to do it.  Photography was my lifelong hobby, but I was far from a professional.

I spent two days with Kizzy, an incredible Bichon Frise who was trained by Reading Education Assistance Dogs (R.E.A.D.) to listen to children read aloud.  I came home at the end of the shoot and told my husband I wanted to spend the rest of my life photographing animals because it was the happiest two days of work I had ever done.

My photographs of Kizzy were good but not fantastic.  The publisher didn’t use any of my shots for the book.  But I didn’t care because I’d found my new career.  I started taking classes at ICP (International Center of Photography) and honed my craft practicing on my two dogs and two cats (who soon started to walk away whenever they saw a camera in my hands.)  Today, I have a successful pet portrait business and still love every minute of it.

The moral of the story?  Just Say Yes.  Whenever I’m asked to use my photography to help a friend or support a charity, I say yes.  Because I never know where it will lead and the possibilities are endless.









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