Another method that works for me is to photograph the pet or animal in their natural surroundings. Be it a cat like the one on the left or a bird dog on point in the field using natural surroundings many times makes for a more interesting image and lets your viewer enjoy the experience also. Not to say that studio and posed images aren’t as good just that many only take posed images and leave the tension out of the image. This yellow cat delighted in stopping in our back yard to catch some sun and just stare at the yard and of course he had his favorite stump to sit on.

I left the back ground the way it came from the camera including the chain link fence but I did up the contrast a little. This picture was taken with a now Old Nikon 5700 with clouds in the sky so the colors held up good. We have taken many pictures in the back yard to include some mallard ducks, Washington Douglas fur tree squirrels and of course the plentiful gray squirrels.

There is considerable cropping on this photo as the lens was not long enough to reach out there so I took it any way knowing I could crop and adjust the image to get the look I wanted and still capture the eyes as this cat could look right through you or totally ignore you if a bird or anything caught it’s interest.. I will post more back yard pet images later.