If you know me, you know I have The Brat Pack living in my house – and they are very familiar with my camera and their craziness makes regular appearances on my Instagram. But, I also babysit my fur-niece and fur-nephew from time to time. And, they are not as resigned to being impromptu supermodels as my own pack.
Ozark and Sadie spent the night the other night and I don’t think there are two more difficult dogs to get to pose. LOL
This is Ozark. Ozark is a curmudgeonly, senior-citizen, former pound puppy, who was adopted by his mom, my BFF, from a shelter about ten years ago. Ozark has been around me since he was a little over a year old and he has never liked to have his picture taken. It doesn’t matter if the flash is on or not – if he sees you get out the camera (or heck, even if you point your phone at him), he turns his head away and refuses to look at you. Or he walks away. Or hides his face in a pillow. LOL
But, I have a new lens to play with and, this time, I was determined to wait him out. I took over a dozen shots of him and, finally, as you can see from the look on his face, he resigned himself to the inevitable and let his portrait be made on his favorite chair at Aunt Kristy’s. My legs were cramped from squatting in one spot, but I got him!
Now, this is Ozark’s fur-sister, Sadie. They think she’s between two and three years old and was adopted by my BFF in 2014. She was actually a passenger on one of the rescue transports we did for Saving Dogs of Missouri and my BFF fell in love with her. So, after Sadie had been transported, vetted, assessed, and fostered at the rescue shelter, my BFF formally applied to adopt her and that was that! Sadie is a silly spaz and a total klutz. She thinks she’s a lapdog, she’s afraid of my senior Teacup Yorkie, and she’s also one of the sweetest dogs you’d ever want to meet.
Sadie doesn’t mind the camera so much, but trying to get her to sit still for a picture is nigh on impossible. However, she is absolutely obsessed with the huge tree in my backyard. She’s utterly OCD about it. She will sit and stare up at that stupid tree for hours. So, if you want a picture of Sadie, outside you go. The trick here was getting her to look at me, as opposed to any possible squirrel-interlopers up in the branches. For one decent shot, I have probably a dozen shots of a black blur trying to figure out a way up into the tree. LOL
And no portrait package is complete without close-ups!
So, this is how I practice my pet portraiture – I torture my own furkids and my extended family of furkids. I exhaust them. I wait them out and win the battle of wills. But, I always – always – get the shot! 
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