Why You Should Get a Picture of You and Your Family with your Dog

When clients book me to photograph their dogs or other pets, I always suggest that they come to the session dressed and ready to be photographed too. Often they balk at this, saying they just want pictures of the dog and they don’t like being photographed etc. If this sounds like something you might say, please reconsider.

One reason you should be in the picture is because of how much your dog means to you. You have a love relationship! Like we want to take pictures with our human loved ones, a picture with your dog celebrates that relationship and the bond you have. As we all know, the lives of our beloved pets end way too soon. Even if they live a full life, it would be lucky to get more than 15 years with them. Too often, our time with them is up much sooner and sometimes suddenly. When they die, don’t we want to have a artful reminder of the beautiful love they have given us?

Most of my life I photographed landscapes primarily. In 2001 I adopted a very special dog, my Oliver, a German shepherd mix. He was my heart dog. In 2016 he took a turn downward. He had kidney disease, some canine dementia, and eventually he stopped eating and we knew it was time. I took some pictures of him and tried to take some last minute selfies with him on my cell phone. Of course, they weren’t that great, but at least I had something.

Shortly after that time, I bought a new and better camera. I joined groups to learn the camera better and in those groups I learned there were photographers that specialized in pets. I had no idea! I started studying pet photography and opened my own business in January 2019.

Since then, I have made sure I have images of myself and other family members with our current dogs. Do I love the way I look? Do I like being in front of the camera instead of behind it? No, I am getting older and it is starting to show. I am not as thin as I used to be. I am not beautiful. But I treasure those images. They will be the memories I keep long after my dogs are gone.

This is why I ask you to get in the pictures with your pets. You don‘t have to do it for all the images I take, and I am more than happy to take images of just your dog or cat. I have plenty of those of my dogs, but do not pass up the opportunity to get a professional portrait with your dog. You will not regret it.

That is me and my poodle in the banner image I use in Facebook.