Family Photos w/ The Family Pet

I love seeing family photography where the family pet is included.  They're a family member too!  (gone are the days when dogs were strictly outside/backyard dogs...now they're literally a cherished member of the family.)

Courtesy of: MyFoxyFamily.com

Its funny, our dogs even sleep in bed with us!  I wouldn't have it any other way...

If you're like me and want to think of creative ways to have your family pet in the family photo, here are some really cute options by some phenominal photographers and beautiful families.

Family Photos:



Daniela DeGrassi Photography

Jackie Culmer Photography

Jackie Culmer Photography

Whitney Owens Designs Photography

Newborn Introduction:

Elena S. Blair Photography

Newborn Photos:

Sweet Feet Photography



Tara Romasanta Photography



Avenue B Photography

(I just love these big labs resting their heads on newborns - so adorable!)

Engagement Photos:

Amanda Pair Photography

Adrian Hitt Photography

Wedding Photos:



The Nichols Photography

Children with their Pets:



Beth Jansen Photography

Photographer Unkown

Boggio Studios

Diana Leventhal Photography

Senior Photos:



Oak Stream Senior Photography

Banyan Pet Photography

My Favorite Family Photo Ideas

This is a compilation of my favorite family photo ideas.  There are so many to choose from nowadays and you want to be creative and/or different, but also stay true to your sense of style or taste.

Color Coordinated Photos

Color coordination is always what makes family portraits appealing to me.  The photo below is a perfect example of how nice it is when everyone is coordinated and the photographer has found a location that suits the wardrobe colors.  I love how this family took a beautiful and organized photo, and then took another chaotic but still beautiful photo.

Photo By: Ashlee Raubach Photography

                                              Photo by: ashleeraubachphotography.com

Photoshoot Inspiration - Five Great Photoshoot Ideas

Chase Jarvis has some great ideas in this blog post regarding photoshoot inspiration.  I especially love the grandma/grandpa photoshoot idea.  To capture your grandma and/or grandpa from every angle and to photograph their hands would be such a magical bonding experience. 

Chase Jarvis: 5 Photoshoot Ideas Worth Stealing

I actually shot some great ones of my hubby's grandma Ruby who was 89 years old at the time.  She lived with us for a couple of years and our dogs really took a liking to her...I'm glad I got the pictures I did because sadly she's no longer with us, but I still cherish the photos I took of her and the little trinkets she gave me over the years.  Here's my favorite of the many photos I took of her:  (Keep in mind that I was using a little digital camera at the time)

Despite the quality of the image, I still think I should try editing this photo in Photoshop to clean it up a little bit since I've always wanted to frame it somewhere in our house.   Such an amazing lady, with some great stories to share with us!  For some reason, I just love this photo and how the sun is playing off the side of her face.  Thinking of you Granny Goose.

Family Photo Albums

Here are some great ideas posted by Susan Keller on iheartfaces.com on how to put together a family photo album.  She does a beautiful job putting the photo grids/collages together to  make them look seamless.

How to Make a Great Family Photo Album
 
Here are some of the examples she used in photos:

This style is more of 1 page of larger photos and the 2nd page with a photo grid.  (which is the style I tend to choose more often than not...)

February Photo Challenge - Day 2

The photo challenge for day 2 was 'mechanical' and I immediately thought of taking artsy pictures of nuts and bolts, but realized that wouldn't really be mechanical....so my next thought was "my car!"  I popped open the hood and took some pictures.  The picture below is the one I thought had the most character.  I played around with Camera+ and got some pretty cool looks with it.  I'm pretty happy with how cool they turned out. 

Honda Mechanical - BEFORE

February Instagram Photo Challenge

I found this photo challenge online and decided to follow along with it.  I hope it will challenge me to look "outside the box" at things and creep out of my comfort zone with objects I'm not used to photographing. 

Christmas Portraits with Bokeh

I saw this on Shutter Sisters' Blog and thought it was a great idea. For the record, I'm not claiming any ownership of this. lol. Great inspiration though...think I'll have to try it myself!



This is the perfect time of year to experiment with those beautiful fuzzy orbs of light we call bokeh. A string of Christmas lights is the ideal tool for creating bokeh in the background. For this photo, I setup a backdrop with strings of lights draped over top of a cream colored blanket. Then I placed my cute little subject about 10 feet in front of the backdrop and set my aperture as low as I could (f2.5 in this case). What resulted was a soft, creamy glow of bokeh in the background.

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us and the holiday twinkle lights are going up, get out there and play around with bokeh! Show us your results, past and present so we can all get in the spirit of the season!

www.shuttersisters.com

Photoblog - Pet Inspiration

Cute Running Puppies (clipped to polyvore.com)

I would love to learn to get a picture of my trio of maltese doing this! (hmmm...do I need to install a wood floor? haha)