Furry, bubbly news from the artistravel headoffice: Meet Mia! Mia conquered all of those presents’ and bumbled into their hearts in no time at all, and if you look at the pictures you will know, why. Even scientifically proven, office-dogs contribute to the everyday-work-life by spreading nothing but positivity and joy – and Mia is the personification of joy!

By trying to capture such a sunny creature, there are a few things to keep in mind. Our photo-blog-master Jana Niedert wrote something about that earlier and explained the approach by using photos one of our photographers, Hannah Uszball, took in our office.

As mentioned, dogs and other pets, especially when still young, are the liveliest and bubbliest beings, therefore difficult to take photographs of. One issue, for example, are image sharpness and focus, because they are moving most of the time. Especially with Mia, who has one main thing in her mind: fun, fun, and…fun. To reach sharpness, it is best to use a fast lens, meaning rapid autofocus. When the object you want to capture is moving this quickly, there is no way to use manual autofocus, you just would not get the desired focus. Another important factor for sharp movements in photography: fast shutter speed!

Shutter speed comes with the topic of light. Another important factor is good lightening. Yes, that is a factor that is almost always an important one in photography, but especially when using fast shutter speed, a very bright environment is an immense help. The faster the shutter speed, the more focused and sharper is the capturing of the movement, but that means that less light comes through the shutter. Thus, with an environment as bright as possible, you would not have to use the widest open aperture or an increased ISO-value.

When there is one thing that would not work when you want to capture the furry liveliness it is staged photography. To take an authentic photo of your pet, it is best to catch them “in flagranti”, in meaning the act of – namely the act of being themselves. A puppy spreads happiness, so do not try to put it somewhere it would “look well placed”, but let it be itself. You might help with a toy to lure your pet towards a special place, but everything else would possibly make it seem forced and unauthentic. Do it in a playful approach, so everyone is having fun and you are getting the best results!

By the way: Taking photos of your pet is a good opportunity to practice for animal-photography “in the wild”. There is more our pets teach us than we think there is. And let’s be honest: It is not only good practice but instant happiness to look at pictures like this, isn’t it?