Pet Photography.
Five easy photo tips on how to photograph your furry little friends.

The pet photography tips offer creative suggestions on posing and composition for beginners. For more advanced information on SLR camera techniques please visit our

Creative Control of you SLR Camera Course

We all love our pets and treat them as members of our family. I have two cats and one dog and I will admit that I do. My pets have their lives well documented. If you enjoy your pets and would like to learn how to have photographs that you can enjoy, here are five tips to improve your pet photography.

Tip #1

Look for you pet doing something naturally. Here I snuck up behind the scratching post and was able to capture this spontaneous shot. Be quick and make sure you have adequate lighting. As always with pets use a fast shutter speed.

This was an easy shot and it looks so natural. The important tip here is that I got down on the same level as the dog. Notice the nice arrangement with the grass in the foreground and the off center location of the dog? Always look in all four corners of your viewfinder before taking a shot.

Move in close or use a telephoto lens to show off the prominent features of your pet (the eyes). Do not use flash so make sure you have sufficient natural lighting. Flash will cause a red eye at this close of a distance.

This may be a little silly but it made a really cute Holiday card one year. I am always dressing up my pets in hats and feathered boas. Try this for a holiday theme.

Photographing pets in action can be a little tricky and may take several shots to get one right. This is where you really need a digital SLR camera, because there is no shutter lag. Use a fast shutter speed of 1/500 sec or more and be prepared to take a shot mid air by having the focus set on AI Servo for moving subjects.