The Kitten's Tale

If anyone had told me years ago that I'd be photographing kittens with flowers I'd have told them they were mad... and yet here we are. Thing of it is, animals - and small, highly mobile ones in particular - present a special set of challenges to the photographer.
Humans don't always like sitting for a portrait, so an important part of any portrait photographer's job is to relax their sitter and help them enjoy the session - it will result in better portraits. Animals are the same, except you can't unleash your best jokes on them and expect them to fall about laughing.
So, rather than a bagful of witty one liners, approach a pet portrait session with a suitcase full of patience. Have your camera ready and watch your pets play, waiting for just the right moment to shoot. The noise of the camera may well attract their attention. If so, snap another quick shot for that 'eye contact' look.

When photographing small animals, get down to their level, and get in as close as you can without distracting them from their fun. Think about what is in and out of frame; try to include elements that help tell a story - after all, for 32,000 years visual art has been all about telling stories. If something makes for a distracting or irrelevant element, whip it out of shot, or crop to exclude it.
One of the biggest distractions in home-shot images can be the background. Houses tend to be cluttered with furniture, ornaments etc. If you are planning a photoshoot with your pets, have a bit of a clear up first. But you cannot clear away everything, so try setting your camera to a wide aperture - maybe f5.6, or even wider - f3.5 or f2.8 - to blur out the background. Depending on how close you are to your pets, you may blur parts of them too, so make sure you are focussing on the most important part of them, usually their faces.
A wide aperture will have the added benefit of allowing you to use faster shutter speeds. This can be very handy with kittens, for example, who rarely stay still except when asleep. The faster shutter speed will stop or reduce motion blur. You might also consider setting your ISO higher to further increase shutter speeds.

If your camera offers a range of metering options, and lighting conditions are contrasty (lots of very light and very dark areas), try the spot metering mode. Make sure you are metering from (i.e. focussing on) your pet, rather than the background. That way your pet will be exposed correctly, and if the background is too light or too dark, it doesn't really matter - it can even look quite nice, as over- or under-exposure of the background will remove more unwanted distractions.

 A word about light sources. Natural is best. Your camera's flash can do a job, but will distract your pets, and also flatten the image. The image will probably be sharp as the flash will freeze motion, but it will also lack character. The image below is an example. Harold and Maude still look cute, but the other images in this set possess a lot more character, I hope you agree.

If your home is not the lightest (as many are not at this time of year), you could put your house lights and lamps on to supplement any window light. However, be aware that in most cases this will introduce colour casts to your images, and they can be tricky to remove entirely when you have different types of light in the same image.

 
Lastly, don't get frustrated if your pets don't strike the pose you were hoping for, or if you just miss some 'money shots' - it happens to the best of us, but if you remain chilled your pets will too, and they'll be sure to present you with another opportunity for a cutesy classic.

Fracture In Alresford

The Dandy Lions

A simple update featuring a dandelion shot against black velvet.
Little in the way of post-processing was done. The main difference between the first and second shots in the nature of the lighting. See if you can figure out the difference between the light sources used.

Hang Ten

Another example of creating something interesting from something banal. Pegs on a clothesline shot in the early morning sun. No retouching done here apart from the b&w conversions and a contrast kick.

A Nose For Walton

On a trip to Walton-on-the-Naze to see some seals in the backwaters, I shot some blurry landscapes with the aim of experimenting with blur and impressionistic effects.
The first three are blends of multiple exposures shot with a 300mm lens handheld (so not pin sharp in the first place).
The second three were long-ish exposures from a moving train, the exposure being taken right down in post to increase contrast, saturation and drama.
This is the way I like to see life.

Peruvian Squill

A Peruvian Squill has appeared in our garden this year. No idea how it got there, as it is apparently native of The Algarve. Migratory avians passing above our garden? I hope not, for the bird's sake as the squill grows from a bulb.
To separate the delicate flowering portion of the plant from the busy garden background I shot with a macro lens set to apertures between f8 and f2.8, depending on how much of the plant I wanted to keep in focus.
I resisted the temptation to polarise the shine off the petals as I wanted to highlight the contrast between the light open and darker closed flowers.
A tripod was essential as even the slightest bit of camera shake blurs macro images. I also shot a greycard and balanced in Photoshop, rather than relying on the Nikon's built-in white balance settings, as purples can be awkward to get right.
A small water spritzer added a dewy look to some of the shots.

Sonnet 54

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem

By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!

The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 

For that sweet odour which doth in it live. 

The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye 

As the perfumed tincture of the roses, 

Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly 

When summer's breath their masked buds discloses: 

But, for their virtue only is their show, 

They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade, 

Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; 

Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made: 

And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, 

When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

(William Shakespeare)