Portrait photography – Xiao Bao

Xiao-Bao the kitty on couch

Since my mom adopts and provides shelter to unwanted cats, I always wanted to have portraits of these cats. I was however being lazy and so missed out many opportunities to get the best moments of these adorable cats.

At last I got a chance today. While I have some free time, I saw Xiao-Bao (Chinese, which means little precious), one of my family’s favorite kitties lying lazily on the couch. It came to my mind suddenly to snap photos of a kitty. Immediately setting up the table lamp and using a white board as a reflector, I was preparing to snap some photos of Xiao-Bao while it still didn’t know what I was trying to do.

Unlike human, taking photos of pets is not easy; pets won’t pose to camera. And if you force it to, it would become irritated and try to escape from you. Patience is definitely virtue and no doubt when it comes to photographing pets. Too there is an advantage of photographing pets, they are ‘naturally’ natural.

When I was photographing Xiao-Bao, I had to keep it as comfortable and at ease as possible, and waited for best moments to press the shutter. Initially the light source irritated Xiao-Bao and it tried to run away from the couch. Fortunately, my mom and sister helped me to pamper and calm the kitty while I tried to capture its photos.

I took my time and enjoyed this session. Eventually Xiao-Bao became tired and fall asleep, then I took a few shots of its nap and ended the shooting. The shots turn out to be ok, but there is space of improvement which can help me sharpen my skill in pet’s portrait photography in future.

Special thanks to Xiao-Bao although it might not know what was going on, and also my mom and sister for helping me. May all beings be happy.

More photos after the jump: