Photographing Blind Pets

Animal shelters offers a lot of diversity to a pet photographer. To me, the group that was the most difficult, but the most fun, was the blind pets. 

I've photographed one blind dog and one blind cat, so I'm going to talk about how I was able to get their attention and hopefully it will help other  photographers. 

Harley

Harley was a dog at the shelter I previously volunteered for. 

For his safety, I carried him out to the yard. Photographing him inside his kennel would've been a nightmare and he wouldn't get the photo he deserved. Also the shelter's photo room had too many objects for him to bump into, so we went in one of the shelter's fenced in yards.

Harley kept his head down a lot, so my main goal was to get his head up and looking in my general direction.

Luckily for me, Harley loved chicken. Since it was in a plastic bag, I would make noise with the bag and then give him a piece of chicken. We did this multiple times before I started photographing him, so Harley knew when he heard the bag, chicken was coming.

I would move in a different direction every time, so he would move towards me to get his chicken. Sometimes I would make him walk towards me while we were practicing. This allowed me to get a photograph of him that would lead to him being adopted.

In Harley's case, it just took teaching him a simple trick to photograph him. Sometimes the things we do without our camera is more important than when we have the camera in our hands. 

Toph

Toph was a blind cat at the shelter, however, after checking her microchip, they contacted her family and they immediately came to her rescue.

Prior to this, I got the chance to photograph her!

I fell in love with Toph's eyes. I know it's the result of her blindness, but they're so beautiful.

Typically, I would photograph the cats at my previous shelter in the exam room while they were on a table with a backdrop behind them. However, to keep Toph safe, I set up all my equipment on the ground and we worked from there. 

Unlike Harley, Toph was not won over by the sound or promise of tasty treats, so I had to be more creative with how I got her attention.

I tried toys that made noise, but she was still unimpressed and continued to wonder about the exam room.

I would call her name and make other noises to attract her attention, but she kept investigating the new room she was in.

Eventually, I started squeaking like a mouse. This got Toph's undivided attention. Jackpot. She immediately started hunting for me. When I got her on the backdrop, I would give her a lot of love then remove my hand in the direct of my camera and she would follow.  

Some people may be thinking, why didn't she just put her on the backdrop and take the photo? Why go through this guessing game? 

You'll capture a better photograph of the cat (or any animal), if they willingly stand in the spot you need them. Otherwise, you'll get a lot of photos with the cat's head down or they will run immediately from the spot. 

Remember, every dog and cat is different, so what worked for these two may not work for a blind pet your photographing. 

It's important to be creative and find out what will work for the pet you're photographing. 

Noise will be your best friend when photographing a blind pet. Be patient with them, put down your camera, get to know them first, and then you can capture their image.