Lessons Learned During My First Pet Photography Assignment

Emma Lord of Emma Lord Photography talks about her first pet photography assignment in this blog post, read on to find out what lessons she learnt the hard way!

The quote, “never work with animals or children”, is attributed to W. C. Fields. Apparently, he actually got along well with children; I take the words to refer to the occasional unpredictability of, and difficulty in managing, both animals and children. Not always of course, and many adults are equally unpredictable and hard to manage.

The words of the quote ran through my head during my first pet photography assignment, a series of dog portraits at a Christmas fair a couple of years ago. I love animals (and have also spent a number of years working very happily with children), so the quote really doesn’t apply to me in any sense of liking neither children nor animals. However, as I watched another dog relieve itself against my backdrop, I did wonder whether my love of animals would survive the day.

The first lesson of the day was understanding how the dogs and their guardians would work together. Some dogs were dropped to the studio and left. Others arrived with people who wanted to stay and watch the session. Some were left in the studio while their guardians exited the room to watch through the window. I found quickly that these were the hardest to manage. Unable to interact directly with their human family, dogs tended to become distracted, wanting to get to their people. Other lessons learned included not using the squeaker to get the dogs’ attention. Rather than look directly at me with inquisitive expressions, they tended to charge with excitement directly towards the camera to find the hidden toy.

The day was an enjoyable one, with good results and no detriment at all to my love of working with animals. Learning is a continuous process in any line of work, and as a sole trader, I take responsibility for my own learning and development. I’ll never grow tired of learning my craft, and with each photoshoot comes a new experience and opportunity to learn.