Pet Portraiture

A few easy tips for creating gorgeous photos of your fur babies

My kitties are my favorite subjects to photograph. But, they, honestly are not normally as excited about the process of a photoshoot as I am — except for my glamour girl, Miss Uma Zooma Angelwings, that is. She does seem to understand that she gets to be a super model for a moment, and will often grace me with that “I am so sexy, and isn’t my fur gorgeous?” look.

I’d love to share with you a few tips which I have found to be quite useful in capturing beautiful images of my kitty babies. I don’t have a dog, but all the same tidbits apply to canine photography as well.

Get Down to their level

Oftentimes, I see people’s pet photos taken from way up high, at “human eye-level.” But the images tend to be much more engaging if you get down into the realm of their world, seeing it through their eyes.

To capture this image of Bisou and Raja playing with a peacock feather, I was down on my stomach on the floor. It would not have looked at all the same from a higher vantage point.

And this one is from the very day that little Freyja came home from the rescue group which had saved her and bottle-fed her from the time she was two weeks old. (All the kitties are rescue-babies!).

And here is Bisou, all grown up and looking gloriously handsome in the sunshine. He has always had such an ethereal glow to him that we call the “soft-focus” kitty. But, again, imagine how different this would look from above.

Now, rules are made to be broken sometimes. And, I do love this photo of Bisou leading me down the path from the top of the hill. I am looking down, but do you see what makes this photo work? It’s the eye contact.

And, I took this one from below Freyja’s eye level. She was evading me when it was time to come in for the afternoon. I just loved that sassy little look in her eyes.

Luck, Patience, and Eye Engagement

Animals can be tricky to photograph because they don’t tend to sit still and pose for you. And, quite honestly, a huge component of every good photo of both domestic and wild animals is plain old good luck and also being in the right place at the right time.

Patience plays a big role too. When I am photographing birds or Mr. Squirrel (whom I do actually consider to be one of our fur babies), I often set myself and my tripod up behind a camouflaging bit of greenery, and then try to stay as still as possible until my subjects come to me.

But, cats are different. Their photos tend to be cuter when the viewer can tell that the kitties are engaging with the viewer. Most of the time eye contact greatly enhances the image.

But the trouble is that while you may be looking at them through your camera lens, what they are seeing is not their beloved owner’s eyes, but rather a strange-looking device pointed at their faces. It’s not really very surprising that they tend to look away.

The easiest way that I have found to get them to look in your direction is often to have someone else stand right behind you and either talk to them or hold something that jingles or entertains them just over your head.

Or, sometimes, I am coordinated enough to hold a toy over my own head and shoot the photo with one hand! This photo of Freyja was the product of one of those sessions. The light was just so pretty in her eyes when I caught her half-napping on this Indian silk bedspread that I had to try to get a shot. I probably took about twenty photos (and did a lot of dancing around and making sweet talk) to get this single one that turned out well. She’s not looking directly at me, but I think you can tell that she just was, and that she is now saying, “All right, Mom, are we done yet?”

Using a Long Lens

I have found that surreptitiously sneaking a photo in with a telephoto lens works very well. The kitties are not as aware of the camera pointing straight at them and will tend to behave more normally.

I took this photo (above) of Bisou in the garden the other day from about twenty feet away. Again, I was at his eye level. And, again, I took several photos to get this one.

This is the beauty of the digital age. I remember when I was young and used real film. I was not as daring with the photos because they were so expensive to develop. But today, the most expensive part of taking a myriad of shots is the time that I have to spend sorting through them to get the perfect one.

This shot of Mr. Emerson was also shot with a long lens (a Nikon 70–200 mm 1:2.8). I was able to focus in on him when he wasn't looking at me. Then I called his name and shot this just as he turned.

And iPhones in portrait mode can be amazing too!

The iPhone (especially in portrait mode) takes amazing photos too! You don’t necessarily need a fancy camera to get good images. And, the benefits of using the iPhone are that it is often with you at that exact moment when you want to shoot the photo, and it also does not tend to distract the cat as much as a bigger camera body.

Playing with the Light

If you look at all of the above photos, you will notice that, in most of them, the kitties’ eyes are in at least partial sunlight. Nighttime photos tend to be trickier because of the red-eye look which results when the light bounces off the reflective coating on the back of their retinas. You can always fix that in an editing program. But, for me, I have found that I just like the daytime images better most of the time. And, I try to take the photos when their eyes are in the sunlight.

I loved the sun on Freyja’s face in this one. Her eyes just lit up to the color of a Caribbean lagoon.

And Uma looks like her regal self in this ray of sunlight streaming in to illuminate her on her leopard pillow throne.

And Emerson looks absolutely ethereal caught in the sunlight slanting in across the wooden floor.

Framing — You don’t have to capture everything from head to tail

If you look at the photos above, you will see that several of them are cropped in to just capture the kitties head and shoulders. I used to always try to get those gorgeous tails into the photos (which can be beautiful too) but have found that the most compelling images often just capture the kitties faces.

This photo of Freyja combines several of the above elements: eye level, eye engagement, sunlight illuminating her gorgeous eyes, and a cropping to just her face and shoulders.

I hope that you enjoyed playing with photographical possibilities with me, and that it might inspire you to try taking a few images of your babies. I’d love to see some of them, if you are interested in posting them in the comments section (below).

And please, if you thinking of adopting a new fur baby (or looking for a place to make a donation), remember to support your local shelters. The workers and volunteers are truly angels come to earth. They work tirelessly to save these precious lives.

If you enjoyed this piece, you might also like:

A story of what it is like to be a photographer’s daughter:

Experimenting with a macro lens for the iPhone:

Another little tale of Mr. Squirrel’s antics:

Photos and story ©Erika Burkhater. All rights reserved.