Tips For Taking Better Photos Of Your Guinea Pigs

Let's face it, our beloved piggies can be tricky, ornery little devils to photograph. They wander off. They chew on a friend's ear or decide to clean their face just as you're framing a shot. Their varied coat colors make them blend into some backgrounds, and clash with others. But when you do pull off a good photo, boy, is it worth all the effort!

While trawling on the Web site for The Nate Berkus Show for an old episode on another topic, I stumbled across a segment on pet photography, featuring photography expert Me Ra Koh. Her tips include:

• Make like a fashion or home photographer and create a staged set. Remove things that clash. Create some kind of boundary to prevent your piggies from wandering "off set."
• Get your "models" into a calm, even Zen-like state. Have a handler nearby to help you; your two hands are already busy with your camera, you would be greatly assisted by another pair of hands to keep the piggies corraled.
• Get down to -- or below -- their level. You miss a lot when you're standing up.
• Use props to help spark their curiosity, animation, and cuteness. Frame your shot to emphasize the things you love most about your pet (e.g., their profile, their ears, etc.).
• Learn to use your camera's features (e.g., no flash, natural-light settings, continuous shooting mode) to increase your chances of getting a great shot with every shot. After watching Me Ra photograph a pair of dogs (and noting the similarity to fidgety pigs), my next camera is soooooo going to have a continuous shooting mode feature.

For the full details of Me Ra's tips, read the Photo-Recipe for Your Pets article on Nate's site. You'll absolutely want to watch her in action in the Pet Photography Tips video clip, in which you can see her help various owners take pictures of their rowdy dogs, multicolored cat, and wandering bunny.

Comments

[Whitney]

Hi Alison:
That's probably the thing I like most about digital cameras -- the ability to see a shot on a camera's preview screen and delete it as soon as I realize it's no good. Before digital cameras, I spent soooo much money on film and film developing...often to find out that maybe only 1/4 to 1/3 turned out to be as good as I'd hoped they'd be.

The pros always make it look easy and they all say it's only because there's hours and hours of practice preceding their best work!

[Whitney]

Hi Kate:
I can't say I blame our critters for not liking the camera flash -- it's sometimes quite bright for my eyes, so I can only imagine how it feels to them!

[Alison Colby-Campbell]

Wish I'd read that before writing my blog about my first time fostering a guinea pig. I spent ages (106 photos) trying to get the 4 shots I put in the blog of which I really think only two are good. My blog post (brain4rent) is linked below. http://brain4rent.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/fostering-good-relations/

FYI I found your post on flooding on the House Rabbit Network and followed through to photography. I am a huge fan of both animals.

[Kate]

I don't have guinea pigs but your suggestions works on my rabbit who has camera shy and prefer to nap in their rabbit hutch just to escape from the flash.