Holiday Treat: A $50 Giveaway, Plus 5 Tips for Taking the Best Pet Photo for Your Holiday Cards

Once upon a moon ago, my husband and I were DINKs.

What's a DINK, you ask? Well, it's simple: Double Income, No Kids.

We were living the good life. No mortgage to pay. Sleeping in late. Watching movies all day…just because we could. You catch my drift.

But before long, we started to crave a family and started with adopting some pets. Before long, we were the proud, albeit insane, owners of three cats and two dogs. (I'm still not sure how it happened…)

 

Anyways, since we didn't have any kids yet, our pets were spoiled rotten – and we thought nothing of spending oodles and oodles of money on scratching posts, fancy treats, and tons, and tons, of toys.

Our pets became members of our family from the moment we brought them home, so naturally, we spent lots of time photographing them in their natural (and not-so-natural) states for hours on end. We learned a lot about taking pictures of our pets – especially when trying to take the perfect picture for our Holiday cards!

I'm sure many of you are getting ready to order your Holiday cards, and with this in mind, we are pleased as punch to offer you a terrific Holiday Giveaway from MyPublisher.com, the pioneer in online photo books.

MyPublisher.com is giving one of our lucky readers a $50 Giveaway to their online store!

The winner will be selected on November 25th at noon EST – we’ll use randomizer to pick the winner. Please let your friends and family know about this incredible giveaway contest!

So do you want  $50 worth of FREE HOLIDAY CARDS this year? If so, just follow the rules below.

Here’s how the Giveaway Contest works:

We'd like to know more about you, and what you think of our blog. So, the rules this time are super easy!

1.) Simply read and comment on three posts of ours. Feel free to include a link back to your own site – actually, we encourage it!

That's it!

Thanks,
Denine

 

5 Tips for Taking the Best Pet Photo for Your Holiday Cards (Courtesy of MyPublisher.com)

TIP #1: Pets have no idea what you are doing. Really.

To a pet, you standing still holding a camera is just plain odd.  Pets will never ‘pose’ the same way as humans, even the best-trained dog.  Pets will either try to get close to you or run in the opposite direction.  Your best bet is to photograph your pet candidly, doing what they enjoy.  They can be interacting with their favorite toy, daydreaming, or even sleeping.  Profiles of pets are particularly great, and much more interesting than a straight-on photo.  Profile images really capture your pet’s personality.

TIP #2: Pick a time where your pet is tired. 

It’s just the opposite for children, but if a pet is tired, they are more likely to be mellow and easier to deal with.  Wake them up from their nap, and start taking pictures.

TIP #3: The background should contrast with your pet’s coloring

If you have a black lab, pick a contrasting light background, like white or cream.  His coloring and features will really stand out.  If your pet is light or white, the opposite is true.  Pick a dark background that really contrasts with his light fur.  You want to avoid having your pet ‘camouflaged’ by the background.  Also, pick a background that has no clutter or distracting objects. 

TIP #4: Don’t photograph your pet with ‘birds-eye’ view.

Get down on your pet’s level.  You will capture so many more expressions and angles. 

TIP #5: Use them or lose them!   

Don’t waste your time and effort photographing your pet if you are going to leave them on your hard drive.  Use the images to create high-quality holiday cards on MyPublisher.com.  MyPublisher offers exceptionally high quality cards with standard envelope liners.

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