Clever and Creative Holiday Pet Photos

Another year of successfully NOT photographing pets with a Santa hat.  Don't get me wrong — pets are cute with a Santa hat, and I *almost* succumbed to that photographic solution myself. It's just that it's an overused concept, and as a designer and photographer, the expectation is to find new creative ways to a visual solution. Someday, I may eat my words (as is often the case in life :), but for now I accept the personal creative challenge to find more clever and creative ways to photograph (my) pets for the holiday than resort to the Santa hat.

Christmas 2011 proved to be that challenge. My idea was to photograph my dogs depicting holiday related themes. I challenged myself to fairly simple ideas that could be photographed on a daily basis with minimal set up.

Click here to buy my holiday images as cards from my Fine Art America page here.

Here are some of my favorites:

I own a cairn terrier — a.k.a. "Toto" dog — and in lieu of "photos with Santa" I chose to photograph him with someone more familiar...Photos with Tin Man :)

The Tin Man can be found in Clifton Square in Wichita, KS outside of All Things Floral located at 3700 E Douglas Ave Ste 1, Wichita, KS 67208

Inspired by the lyrics from The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) - "Every mother's child is going to spy, to see if reindeer really know how to fly."

There's the holiday labor of love in writing and sending Christmas cards...

The trimming of the tree...

Christmas shopping at the Karg Art Glass Gallery in Kechi, Kansas...

No holiday would be complete without reading, "Twas the Night Before Christmas..."

...or singing our favorite Christmas carols - in this case "Silent Night" :)

Well all know the feeling of not wanting to wait until Christmas to dig into our goodies!

...and leaving goodies out for Santa Paws.

I had hoped for snow in order to create other holiday shots, but there wasn't any this year. Therefore I had to make do with what I had on hand for this final photo.

So you see, there are plenty of other holiday ideas for pets rather than the common use of a Santa hat. Little did I realize what I would accomplish when I set out to do this project. It was a belated idea that engendered a new sense of holiday spirit.

All images ©2011 Heidi Marcinik - Sundog Pet Photography. All Rights Reserved. No image may be copied or reproduced in any manner without expressed permission of Heidi Marcinik.