An Interesting Experiment

Over the weekend I watched an online video from a professional pet photographer who was offering some tips on how to take pet photos.  One of the things she suggested was making unusual noises to get the pet's attention, rather than using squeaky toys or treats, because you run the risk of having the pets focusing on the toys/treats rather than the photographer and the camera.  I was game to try it out; I have always used treats to get the girls' attention and I was interested to see if I could get the girls attention with weird noises.

Surprisingly, it worked.  I would like to just comment that these photos were not the best - I needed to swing the lights around so I had a better background, but I only had a short time to get the photos.  We had gone out to hit tennis balls and were forced home by the rain, and I started taking pictures, only for the weather to clear up a bit, so we went to hit more tennis balls (and eventually had to call it quits because it started raining again).  So there are a lot of things I would have changed, but the brief experiment with the weird noises worked - I got cocked heads and ear flicks, which is what I was hoping for. 

Why are you making those funny noises, Mom?

Does that weird noise mean foodables?

I don't understand what is going on here, but I'm going to keep looking at you just to make sure you don't blow a gasket or spring a leak or something, Mom.

What?  Does that translate to cheese bits?

Ear flick and cocked head - not the greatest technical photo, but Abby was paying attention to me...

Fi, I think we need to call the men in the white coats - Mom is making very odd noises.

Don't worry - the girls were well rewarded for my craziness.  Next time around I'll put a little more effort into set up and background and stuff - but it was an interesting experiment.

Day 251/365.