“What the… “

I recently got asked if I did mini portrait sessions for pets. And I might have been a bit too blunt when I responded. But I did kind of just blurt out “How the hell do you do that?”. I really didn’t mean anything more by it, but sessions like Angel’s pet portraits instantly came to mind. I must have left Angel for at least 15 minutes before I even tried to take my first pic of her.

How I do it – the MAXI portrait sessions for pets

I let your dogs sniff around. Let them get to know their environment. Or if it’s a portrait session at their home, let them sniff me and all my equipment until they are satisfied.

Then, and only then, when they are relaxed and comfortable, will I start taking a few pictures. And usually the dogs aren’t even aware yet that I am taking pictures. I leave them to get on with their doggo things. Nine times out of ten, in between sniffing other dogs bums or lifting their leg against a tree they will do something cute. Or even just pull one of those cute dog faces. And the more relaxed they get the higher the chance of them doing some crazy zoomies. Or in Angels case doing a few strides of mini zoomies.

And then when they are a bit tired and are 100% ok with a short break, I will ask them for a sit or something where I can get a posed photo.

Angel, being the Angel that she is

Angel is a super well trained girl. I have no doubt that if her human, Adam, had asked her to do something in the first two minutes, she would have done it. But, I don’t just want to take pretty pictures of your dogs. I want your dogs to have a good time while I do it. And I want your dogs to be themselves so that I can capture them. The true them. So that’s why I do things my way.

Angel really had a ball at this session. She had a great time sniffing around. She had a lovely time interacting with some other dogs. When she came back to us, half the time we didn’t even need to ask for a sit or a down, she did it herself. And when we did ask for a sit or a down, she went and did it with a wagging tail. I can assure you, when Angel left the park on the day of her session, she didn’t just leave with a bunch of pretty pictures having been taken . She left as one really happy dog. And I wouldn’t want it any other way!