Award-winning photographer Margaret Bryant (Dallas/Fort Worth, TX) makes capturing dog portraits look easy—but anyone who has aspired to take portraits of a four-legged friend knows it is a skill that is hard-won. In fact, creating memorable dog portraits requires more than a good camera and a squeaky toy. Dogs need to feel comfortable before they reveal their personalities. To get them comfortable, a photographer needs to recognize when a dog is stressed and when a dog is relaxed. In this book, Bryant teaches photographers how to recognize subtle but important dog behaviors and provides tips to help them modify their own behavior to “talk” back to the dog and set the stage for great dog portraiture.

After providing tips for helping a dog to relax, Bryant moves on to share techniques for posing individual dogs and groups. She includes myriad images to share inspiring ideas that help to showcase the personality of the pet. She also offers ideas for getting the dog’s attention and getting reactions and desired behaviors on cue. Finally, she offers both simple and elaborate ideas for setups that might be used when photographing dogs.

With the tips in this book, photographers will have the skills they need to handle and pose dogs to make great sales.