How To Take Family Portraits With Your Pets

Four Tips On How To Take Family Portraits With Your Pets

If you have pets, they are very much a part of your family. And I believe that they should be included in family portraits. Your time with your pets can be short and so making sure that they are documented in family portraits is important. Here are four tips on how to take family portraits with your pets.

Firstly, Make Sure The Location Is Pet Friendly

First and foremost, you’ll want to check with your Photographer to make sure that the location is pet friendly. In my experience, most locations are pet friendly. However, there are a couple of locations that I regularly shoot at that do not allow pets. Ming’s family portraits were taken at the Arizona Cactus Garden which is pet friendly.

Make A Plan For When They Are Not Taking Pictures

Depending on your pet, their attention span for pictures may be less time than the entire session. I recommend making a plan for when your pet is not taking pictures. If the weather allows, you can leave them in your vehicle with the windows cracked. Another option would be bringing along a leash. And you can also bring along a friend to watch your pets when they are not in pictures.

Bring Treats To Incentivize Good Behavior

The third tip on how to take family portraits with your pets is to bring treats for them. The treats can be used to reward them after listening. Or they can be given to your Photographer to get them to look in the direction of the camera. When photographing dogs, I typically have a squeaky toy on my camera that works really well at getting them to look at the camera. I also recommend letting your Photographer know any words or phrases that can grab their attention.

Don’t Be Afraid To Dress Them Up

Last but not least, I recommend dressing up your pets. If you plan on coordinating everyone’s outfits, I recommend finding an outfit online for your pets as well 🙂 This is especially the case for the Holiday’s. Dressing up your pets will make the pictures even more special and I LOVE when clients take the extra time to do this.

If you are considering including your pets in your next session, hopefully this brief article on how to take family portraits with your pets has been helpful. Thanks!