Guest blogger Sam Ingesoulian explains how to photograph your pet

So today we have a guest blogger - the dad of adorable 

fur-kid Hailey, Sam Ingesoulian, a very talented photographer who excels at photographing landscapes, people and pets. Please enjoy his very well expressed thoughts about the best way to capture your pet's personality forever.  

Photographing your Pet by Sam Ingesoulian
FIVE 22 Photography

Taking photographs of pets can sometimes be as difficult as shooting a starry night. At least with stars, they tend to stay put in one place for several minutes. But with a few simple tricks and camera settings to keep in mind, it’s not impossible to capture amazing, professional-looking photos of these important family members, worthy of hanging on the wall next to pictures of the grandparents.

My name is Sam Ingesoulian, I own FIVE 22 Photography, a Portrait, Fine Art Landscape, and Commercial photographer based in the Metro Detroit Area. I started in photography in 2009 and it has been my passion ever since. You can follow me on Facebook and @FIVE22Photo. View more of my work at www.five22photography.com.

So…how do you get your pet to cooperate?

There are many tricks of the trade, but in the end it comes down to patience and being ready for that special moment when it happens. In a perfect world you’d have a “wrangler” to direct the animal to look at you, but oftentimes the cat or dog will just look at the wrangler, so it helps if he or she can stand next to you or lead the animal’s vision to where you are located. If you don’t have an assistant, try using squeaky toy apps on your phone or their favorite toy. The only hard part is holding the phone/toy and the camera at the same time. Making a strange noise will sometimes be enough to get the cat or dog to look at you for a brief second – this is where it pays to be ready. You want to have your composition set and focus locked on their eyes.

What type of equipment do I use?

You don’t need special gear, but a Speedlight or flash is a must-have if you’re indoors. Unless you have spectacular natural light, the flash will fill in the shadows and also helps freeze the subjects, which is one of the reasons a lot of my photos look tack sharp – it’s the flash, and also a steady hand and good lenses.

If there’s one golden rule of flash photography, it’s that you never want to point your flash directly at the subject, at least not without some sort of diffuser. It will make the subject look horrible in most conditions, and can also cast shadows around them and it will look ugly. Point your Speedlight up at the ceiling; the light goes up and comes down on the subject, looking very natural and even (this won’t work if you have tall ceilings). Avoid using the camera’s built-in flash, as it puts light right in the subject’s eyes and the result looks terrible.

Speaking of lenses, there is no substitute for having a good lens, period. You will see a very noticeable difference between a DSLR kit lens and a $1,000 prime lens. A 50mm prime lens is the best value.

As for specific equipment, I use a full-frame Canon 6D with Canon L-Series “pro” lenses and a 430EX II flash. I shoot in aperture priority mode 99-percent of the time and use ETTL metering on the flash, which is like “auto” mode in that the flash reads the scene and considers the camera’s exposure settings in order to properly set the flash power. It’s extremely accurate and very easy to use.

Tip: When using flash it’s easier to get little white “catchlights” in the subject’s eyes, which helps bring out their eyes and makes the eyes – and the subject – seem more interesting.

What are some rules to keep in mind?

There are some basic guidelines you can follow. Rule number one: Always focus on the eyes. If the eyes aren’t in focus, the shot is wasted, end of discussion. The way to do this is to make sure you know which focus point is active; don’t let your camera control it, because it will usually focus on what’s closest to the camera (the animal’s nose). You can always change focus points from “auto” to “single point.” Do this (consult your camera’s manual if you don’t know how) and have that focus point right on the animal’s eyes.

You also want to pay attention to the rule of thirds, so when cropping try to get the closest eyeball in the upper or lower quadrant of the frame to give it a pleasing composition. Besides focus and composition, you need to worry about your exposure; if the exposure is too dark or too bright, adjust it using exposure compensation. The last tip is to get at or below eye-level with your subject. This will always add intimacy and a unique perspective to a shot. If you have good focus and exposure, you’re very close to the goal of getting a great image. The rest is timing, practice, and a little bit of luck.

TIP: The best tip for taking great pet photos is to get eye-level with them. That usually means laying on the floor, but it adds a unique perspective and lets you see details you might not normally notice

How do you take those beautiful close-up portraits?

To take a close-up shot of your pet with a smooth, blurred background, set your camera to aperture priority mode and your lens to the widest aperture possible (lowest f-stop number). For a good lens that will be f/2.8, or for a really fast prime it might be as low as f/1.4; on a kit lens it will be f/3.5 usually. Next, get close to your subject, and have them be a few feet away from their background. (In general the further the subject is from the background, the blurrier it will be; the closer they are to the background, the more it’ll be in focus.) The wide aperture setting will take care of the rest. Be warned though, you could end up with eyes that are in focus and a blurry nose and head. Sometimes that looks pretty cool; it’s all up to how you want the picture to look. If you want your pet’s face to be more in focus, just close down your aperture a bit (go from f/2.8 to f/4, for example) or zoom out a bit. Extra distance between you and the subject will get more in focus.

TIP: Blurry backgrounds are best achieved by using a wide aperture, being close to your subject, and having them as far away from the background as possible.

How do you take photos of your pet in motion?

The trick to capturing pets in motion – like a dog in midair – is a fast shutter speed and a camera and lens that can hold focus on a moving subject. I put my camera into continuous focus mode instead of single-shot. This keeps the focus motor active the entire time, so I just hold down the back focus button, but you can also do it by holding down the shutter halfway. The second part of the equation is a fast shutter speed, which requires a lot of light to work properly. If you’re in midday sun you will be fine, but if it’s dark you will need to boost your ISO to compensate. As a general rule you can try switching to shutter speed priority mode and set your shutter speed to 1/500 or so as a starting point, and see how that looks. Going higher is okay as long as you have enough light. Ideally you’ll want the dog’s eyes in the shot, and it’s much easier to focus if they are going side-to-side instead of coming toward you. So get your shutter speed up, set it to continuous focus and fire away.

Shooting animals in action takes patience, high shutter speeds, and lots and lots of practice.

Is there a way to achieve similar results with a point-and-shoot camera?

So far, the tips mentioned revolve using a DSLR, but what about you point-and-shoot camera owners? The problem with automatic point-and-shoot cameras is shutter lag, which is the time between when you press the shutter button and the picture being taken. It can be a few seconds on some cameras, which is too long in most cases unless you have a very patient animal. Most point-and-shoots will also use the onboard flash in a lot of cases, which always looks terrible. My advice: Turn off the flash and set the camera to burst mode so you can take many pictures at once. Use portrait mode if your camera offers it, and if you can control the aperture put it at its smallest number.

Well I hope this little article will help you to achieve those shots to cherish of your pets for years to come. Thank you for your time and remember…Don’t just take photos…create memories!

Sincerely,

Sam C. Ingesoulian

www.five22photography.com

Cooper's Thoughts on Japan and Breath Freshening Treats

Enjoying a car ride

So Mom is pretty busy again this week with final papers and exams for school (she has less than two weeks left!) so I’m going to write the blog this week.  I’m Cooper, by the way.  Cooper Neal Mahakian Lambertus.  Which is a lot of names to learn, even for a highly intelligent puggle like me.  Fortunately Mom and Dad usually just stick with Cooper.  In case you are wondering, I am 7 years old, I spent my childhood in Ohio and I like to stay in really good shape.  I run around my backyard a lot trying to keep the squirrels away, and once I trapped a possum, and I’ve found bunnies under the deck a bunch of times.  This was not my first home but it is for sure my furever home.  I love my mom and dad (and even Fagan and my cat sister Laverne), I have a couple of super good friends that come to visit, and I even get to sleep on the big cloud bed with the whole family at night! Mom says it’s getting a little crowded... but it’s the best home ever!  

It’s been an interesting week.  Yesterday we took a car ride with Mom and Dad.  Which is usually great, because I love taking car rides with my people parents.  And it was Sunday, which I think Fagan explained last week was, like, the best day of the week.  But then Dad got out of the car with a suitcase, gave Mom a kiss, gave Fagan & me hugs, and went into a building.  And Mom drove away with us.  What was that about?!?  This is not okay.  Mom explained that Dad was going on a business trip to a place called Japan, and he would only be gone for 5 sleeps, but I don’t think I like this at all.  And Fagan really doesn’t like it; she’s been pouting a lot. Aaaaaanyway......

My fave photo

I thought I would talk about treats today.  Because I really like treats.  Probably more than regular food.  My favorite treats?  Ones that taste like coconut... or peanut butter.... or mint and parsley.  Yeah, I know mint and parsley sound like a weird combination, but they taste pretty darn good and Mom says they make my breath smell much better.  Which is awesome, cause there’s a shitzu down the street that I really like.  I think she likes me too, since she smells my butt like every single time she sees me!  So yeah, I digress.  Mom says the mint helps my breath smell better while the parsley helps with the enzymes in my belly.  Not sure what all that means, but if mint & parsley treats taste good and help with the ladies, I am all about ‘em.  And Mom named the mint and parsley treats she makes “Kiss Me Coopers.”  Which is pretty cool.  I bet there aren’t that many dogs with treats named after them!  

Hope you are having a super good week!  I’m going to go patrol the backyard one more time before bed, so I’ll catch you all later!  

Top Five Reasons Sundays are Better

Sunday morning I woke up, yawned, rolled over, leapt out of bed and ran down the hall. I practically inhaled my breakfast and ran to the back door of the house to go outdoors to do some business.  

(Oh. Okay. I guess I should point out that Mom is super busy with homework and starting her new company, so I agreed to do her blog for a week or so. And in case you don’t know who I am, I am Fagan. Puggle extraordinaire living in downtown Brighton with my brother, Cooper (also of puggle heritage), my sister Laverne (a cat) and my parents. So anyway, back to my story.)

As I cavorted around our GINORMOUS backyard with Cooper, I thought a lot about how much I like Sundays.  And how much better they are than Mondays.  After coming back in the house and getting a treat and drinking some water and taking a nap, I thought about it even more and came up with five pretty solid reasons Sundays are better.  

1.  No loud buzzy noises first thing in the morning.  I mean, really….  What are those awful noises Dad sets to go off most mornings, waking the entire house and interrupting some awfully good puggle dreams. Like one day last week, I was dreaming of running through the green grass (that stuff I haven’t seen in months ‘cause it’s covered with snow) and rolling around in the sunshine and BAM! That loud buzzy thing next to the bed starts making its racket and then everyone has to get up. Don’t like it and Sundays it doesn’t ever seem to work. So I like Sundays. 

2.  More snuggles. Everyone seems to have a lot more time to relinquish a lap and let me take advantage of some good snuggle time. I really like to hang out with my peoples, and it seems like they are awfully busy with other stuff on other days and snuggle time is pretty limited. But on Sundays? They get a big mug of that stuff they drink every morning and they sit back down. Which allows a puggle and her brother to take advantage of some serious lap time. Good stuff.  

3.  Play time in the yard. Whether it is winter and Dad is out there with the loud, snow blowy toy that he likes to push around the yard, or it's summer and Mom is planting pretty, smell good things for Cooper to pee on (that is why she plants them, right?), the weekends mean some serious play time in our awesome yard.  We get to run up and down the fence, and roll around in the sunshine, and play ball for hours.  Sometimes the neighbors will stop by and that gives Cooper the chance to really stretch his vocal chords.  He’s a super good barker!  I try to be a super good barker too but I usually lose interest after someone starts petting me, but not Cooper!  He commits to the bark!

4.  Mom makes super yummy treats for us in the big box with a door in the kitchen.  Today I heard her making some noise in the kitchen and came out to investigate.... What did I find?  Mom was making some of those AMAZING cheesy treats that I love so much!  She says that they take me on a flavor joyride to the intersection of Cheddar and Parmesan.  I just think they taste fantastic; they are my favorite right after the Michigan Cherry Berry Bites.  And apparently, once school is over in a few weeks, she’ll be making treats a lot more often.  

5.  Family field trips.  Dad is gone a lot during the week, so on the weekends, he likes to take us lots of places.  Sometimes we go on super duper long walks and he lets us smell just about everything.  Other times we all get in the car (except Laverne, she’s old and cranky and doesn’t like cars at ALL) and we go to the best places!  Like Kensington MetroPark, or Island Lake Recreation Area, or the dog park, or PetSmart, or Starbucks, or some other magical place where the people are super smart and like dogs!  It’s super amazeballs  and we all get to hang out!  Dad wanted to take us to see Frozen this week, but Mom told him about some crazy rule that theaters don’t let people bring dogs with them (that’s crazy, in my puggle opinion, by the way!!!), so Dad said we’ll have to wait until summer and go see a movie at the drive in.  GO DAD!  Can’t wait!  By the way, if you haven’t seen Frozen, Mom has been playing the song “In Summer” a lot and I have included here for your listening pleasure:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFatVn1hP3o

So what is your favorite day?  Is it Sunday too?  

Pugs and kisses, 

Fagan Marie