I got the brilliant idea of a “family portrait” the other day — Moose, Lally, and I all in the same picture for once. (It’s rare that I can get that to happen.)
Moose is the easy one. He’s pretty happy to lay there and pose for pictures without a problem for quite some time. All it takes is a little petting and you’ve got a Moose in place! I’m probably the second-easiest one out of the family trio. I’m not usually fond of pictures of myself, but I’m willing to pose and try not to blink.
Lally is the problem child when it comes to picture time. Every time she sees the camera, she does two things: first, she runs right up to the camera and pushes her face into the lens. Nose smudges, yay! Then she turns and runs away. If I want pictures of her backside, this is a good time to get them.
I quickly gave up on the idea of a portrait of the three of us together. Lally was having no part of sitting or lying down near Moose and I. In the few pictures we did get, she looks absolutely miserable. I did manage to coax her over to me (on the opposite side of the room from Moose) and got a few pictures of us together.
I always thought it would be fun to be a pet photographer. You get to meet all sorts of different pets and owners and interact with them. I didn’t quite think of the patience angle — you have to be willing and able to wait out the pet’s (and person’s) antics. You also have to be quick enough on the trigger to catch the perfect family portrait for the split second that it exists.
After attempting to wrangle my own dogs into a family portrait? I definitely have a new appreciation of the hard work pet photographers do!