Ed C. Thompson Photography

Hounds & ugly babies would drive me nuts if thats all I shot. But on special occasions it is a ball. This was just such an occasion with Freddie for Christmas.

This season I had to cover the bases & shoot every family member, including Freddie, for Christmas cards. What a doll. Very well mannered pooch. Only tried to bite me once & that was as I was leaving. He was under his dad's arm & must have thought when I reached to pet him I was going for dad. Very protective. Animals are a lot like little kids. You work for the reaction. You can't simply ask for a smile & tell a joke. You soon become the dancing monkey, squeaking & barking to get "the look". You know, bright eyes, ears up & happy to be there. A few treats help too but you can't overdo that or they get bored. And speaking technically you must have relatively flat light because you never know which way that look is going to happen. And I'm thankful for the economy of digital film. You shoot your butt off. And a huge thumbs up for digital retouching in case you get closed eyes on the only otherwise perfect image. Or you can rearrange items in the image. In fact I juggled the balls to tighten this a little. Shooting for publication I often leave negative space so that art directors can run type over my image. I get bigger play & it becomes a more integrated part of the page design. A win win. Here the negative space works well as a composition element & I too added type to create a card. Next year lets plan ahead and shoot your whole family.