Why Have Portraits Made? Part 2
In my last post we talked about how often and why you should have professional portraits done. I told you about a local family with the mom of the family was diagnosed with cancer. You can read all about it here.
Today I want to talk about photographing your pets. As pet lovers we truly understand the fleeting time we have on this earth with our pets. We may only have a few years especially if we’ve adopted a senior animal.
While you think that they may not have changed much from year to year it can be shocking to see the difference.
I challenge you to look at your snapshots of your pet from one year ago and noticed they really have changed.
One of the comments I hear from potential clients all the time is “My dog is getting older I should schedule that session soon.” Often times by the next time I see them their dog has passed on and we didn’t get a chance to memorialize them with professional photos.
Having professional portraits of your pet every year (including your family of course) is a great way to memorialize moments & milestones.
My little toy poodle, Libby, I treasured for almost 13 years. She modeled for me all the time. I have pictures of her in a bubble bath, pictures of her in Halloween costumes, her helping me with new photography backgrounds. She always was happy to model for me for a piece of Tillamook cheese.
She had a medical issue as a very tiny puppy that we were treating at the veterinary hospital I worked at. The wonderful family brought her in to the hospital almost every day. One day I offered to add her to my family since I worked at the vet every day anyway. After careful consideration the family thought it was a great idea. (Libby had many “poodle parties” with them over the years after.)
Suddenly this January I noticed that will be wasn’t feeling well. Her spirits are always high so with her medical issues she sometimes had a fluctuating appetite and when she got a little picky I didn’t think much of it. But after really not being hungry for a couple of days and watching her pretty closely I decided to take her in to the veterinarian. She was due to have a dental cleaning anyway and it’s standard procedure to have a full blood panel done before anesthesia.
The news came back very grave. My veterinarian called me the next morning at 7:30 in the morning and asked me to have her hospitalized for the day for supportive care for extremely high liver values. Of course we rushed her right in and she was put on fluids for the day and came home feeling spunky again.
The next day she seemed to go downhill again and so I scheduled the ultrasound we had put off the day before. Within about two hours a veterinarian call me back again and said the ultrasound showed very serious liver cancer.
I’d gone from having what I thought was a perfectly healthy dog two days ago to a dog that I just realized I had severe cancer. We knew we only had a couple of days left with her. I shutdown the studio I cancelled all of my volunteer efforts and I contacted my clients and took the next few days off. That Saturday we had let her go.
A week before I had bought a new camera lens and thought she would be of course a great model to try it out on. I’m so thankful I thought to use the lens right away and to use her as a model as always.
Now that she’s been gone nearly five months I’m so so glad that I took the time to take professional photographs of her.
Obviously the point of the story is to remind you that life happens quickly.
If you are already thinking of having professional portraits of your pet don’t put it off.
I make the process really, really simple and very catered to you. Even if your pet is sick or elderly or doesn’t get around very well I can come to your home and we can make special arrangements.
If you have any questions about scheduling your pet’s portrait session whether they’re young or old please give me a call text or email I’m happy to talk to you. I have free planning session consultations where we can discuss all of your questions and concerns.