After Mike and I adopted Rigby, our friends made fun of us because we took sooooo many pictures of her. What, we were proud parents! And a little crazy, yes. Pets are part of the family, and it’s important to get photos memories of them, too.

Rigby was a Valentine’s Day present from Mike, so it’s only appropriate that this is one of her first photos:

Rigby Valentine

Pictures that show your pet doing what they love to do are the best way to tell the story. Rigby’s favorite things to do are:

Rigby and the leaves
“hunt”

Best Friends
snuggle..

petting her puppy
be pampered…

IMG_9438
and sleep.

Just like with humans, zooming in for closeups of our pets is key. I love getting detail shots of Rigby. The black details of her nose, eyes, and paws are so striking against her white fur:

paws
paws

puppy nose and tongue
nose and tongue

IMG_9437
sleeping face

And, lest you think my dog is a total sloth, I do get the occasional action photo:

shaking herself off

Did you know that pets can get red eye? Except it isn’t red, it’s usually yellow or green.

chair

You can avoid this by either using natural light, or pointing your camera/flash so it isn’t hitting your pet’s eyes straight-on.

Do you have awesome pictures of your pets (except cats (just kidding!))? Upload them to the TSAM Photo Fun Flickr group so we can compliment and learn from each other (If you don’t have a flickr account, just link to your photos in the comments).

Want more tips on pet photography? You can find them here thanks to HP, my awesome photo partners.

Next week, family photo traditions (pay attention, dads).