Tip 1
Shooting an animal at far distance doesn’t have much impact. Lure the cat/dog with food to get closer. If you are not alone you have more chances to shoot a playful dog: the other lures and you get yourself the perfect shooting position.
Tip 2
Sometimes they come closer to play not to eat but this is an even more complicated situation: they move fast, and most of the time, don’t even look towards the camera. Therefore, some compact digicams come with a shooting mode called “kids and pets” that comes in handy in this situation. The camera will be set to a fast shutter speed and everything else to ensure that the moving subject wont turn out blurred (like for example the image stabilization on).
Tip 3
When using flash, be aware of the pet eye (a concept similar to the redeye only its not red but shiny white). For compact cameras, the best you can do is not to use the flash, or, maybe your compact has on-camera software to remove this effect. For semi-pro and pro cameras, this problem is solved by the pre-flash light.
Tip 4
Stay tuned for the right moment. A good example is the yawn. But similar situations are the sleeping, the caching of a ball or stick, the licking, the scratching.
Tip 5
Is it close? Close and still enough for a macro? Look at that eye, that tiny cat nose and the mustache.
[tags]cat photo, dog photo, how to shoot pets, pet photos, pet photography, cat photography[/tags]
