shine pet photos | modern pet photography

Remember my gorgeous cat client Mickey from awhile back?

Well I’m happy to report that our cancer survivor extraordinaire is healthy and doing great! His mom and dad ordered a coffee table book and this was a really fun project for me because:

#1: This is my first cat photo book! (And I hope it’s not my last)

#2: His mom and dad were so adorable and wanted fun quotes, songs, and names incorporated into the book. So I got to do a lot more design work on this one and loved every minute of it.

And of course, I had “Hey Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind!” running through my head the entire time I worked on this.

Click on the cover to see the book!

Seriously don’t mean to brag or anything, but Los Angeles in the middle of January is still sunny, gorgeous and did I mention sunny? Sometimes I get a little jealous seeing photos of dogs frolicking in snow, but then I remember that I can shoot outside in flip flops in January and the tinge of envy quickly disappears. : )

I met Major, Ticky and their mama in Venice and we took a stroll along the beach. You can probably guess pretty easily which is which — I think Major totally looks like a “Major!” But what you probably won’t be able to guess is Major’s age…

By the way, Ticky is NOT a chihuahua - she’s a Min Pin! Totally fooled me. She looks like a little baby deer frolicking in the sun.

So would you have guessed that Major is 14?? Old man is lookin’ good! Thank you Victoria for a fun photo shoot! Despite Ticky’s intense fear of my camera I’m really happy with the results. Hope you are too : )

Hey ladies, Valentine’s Day isn’t that far away! If you’ve been interested in a Shine Pet Photos shoot make sure you get what you REALLY want this year by letting your man know with a customized message sent straight to his inbox.

Send me a photo of your pet, your name, and your man’s name, and he’ll receive a customized message through email. If he gets the hint and books a session, you’ll also receive a $75 print credit!

Email me at grace[at]shinepetphotos[dot]com to get started on your message today.

Rocky is a total rockstar and incredibly professional model. He was so good at listening to his mama’s commands and really worked hard for our shoot. We met at one of my most popular places to shoot and had a great morning.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get asked is regarding lighting — Do I use flash, do my clients just have ridiculously well lit homes, etc etc etc. When I shoot indoors, I try to avoid using flash as my main light as much as possible. My tips for shooting indoors for are:

#1) Shoot with a fast lens, and shoot wide open.

#2) Try to find the best light in the house. Use windows as your light source. Good light trumps location.

#3) Shoot manual. Play with the ISO and crank it up if you have to. Blurry, out of focused images just stink and take the life right out of a potentially good portrait.

If you’re shooting outdoors and want awesome light:
#1) Try to avoid shooting in harsh sunlight. This creates ugly highlights and shadows. I generally only shoot when natural light is best, which is early in the morning or right before sunset.

#2) If you’re shooting outside and it’s super bright out, use a fill flash. I use a flash a lot when I’m shooting a back-lit subject and want the gorgeous sunflare from behind, but want to have a properly exposed subject.

#3) If you’re shooting outside and it’s super bright and you want to shoot a backlit subject but  don’t happen to have a flash, try changing your metering mode to SPOT (it looks like a little dot) and expose for your subject. This tends to brighten up the subject so you don’t get a dark silhouette.

The second most frequently asked question I get (and I get this question nearly every blog post!) is what lens I use. 99.9% of my photos are shot with either the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens or the Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. I really don’t need any other lens in my bag, and if I find myself in need of another like the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L lens (for when I’m at the beach or dog park) I just rent them from my favorite neighborhood camera store.

A lot of people who use the 50 mm f/1.4 lens are surprised to find out we’re shooting with the same lens. The trick to getting the most out of this beeeyoootiful piece of glass is learning to ABSOLUTELY PERFECT your focusing. I always try to focus on the eyes, unless I’m intentionally focusing on the nose, tongue, etc. I also don’t let my camera choose my focusing point for me. I always shoot with the focus set to the center point and reframe.

Whew this turned into a novel! I’m going to start a Photographer FAQ section on the blog to address more questions so stay tuned. Any more questions? Feel free to ask!

(Click on small photos to enlarge)

My client was a little shy about posing with Rocky but she’s just gorgeous! This is one of my favorite pet + owner photos to date.

Our photoshoot was to commemorate Rocky’s 1st birthday on January 30th. So happy early birthday Rocky! Hope you love the photos Sharyn!

I’m going through some photos of Rocky and just had to stop and share this one.

Lifeguard off-duty, guys!

Stay tuned for more of this funny guy.