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Pet photography is a great way to spend quality time with your pet. Plus you’ll have plenty of fun pictures to show your friends. PetSmart and National Geographic wildlife photographer, Joel Sartore, have teamed up to give you pet photography tips on how to best capture your pet’s character and personality on camera. Check out our exciting interactive website and find out about the new items from National Geographic here: http://natgeo.petsmart.com/.
Being calm and patient is the key to capturing great pet photos. Wait until your pet forgets that you’re nearby or is used to the idea, and then starts to go about his or her normal actions. Snap away while your pet climbs, plays, and eats. Keep quiet and stay still as not to startle your pet. Use your camera’s zoom to get up close without scaring him or her. Your pet might do different activities during different parts of the day, so check in every few hours to see what’s happening. You might catch your pet doing something new and interesting. Try giving your pet a new toy to play with or a new habitat accessory to explore and get some action shots. Be creative with lighting. You don’t need a fancy light kit or flashes. Just work with what’s available. Changing the lighting can dramatically affect the photograph. Try all sorts of different angles. Use a low angle to make your pet seem bigger than he or she is, for example. And when shooting close-ups, use a shallow depth of field (by opening up the camera’s aperture), to keep your pet in focus, but blurring out the background. This draws the viewer’s eye to your pet. To learn about pet photography tips or to shop PetSmart’s National Geographic collection, click the link above.
