This photo of a French Bulldog called Esme was taken in one my pet photography events I organized in 2022. I participated in the Finnish Photo Awards 2023 (in Domesticated Animals category) with it and made it to the final (ie. TOP-10). The finalists are judged by prints so I do actually know for a fact that this photo looks great printed big.

Probably the biggest challenge in photographing pets is to get the models to do what you want. At these pet photography events where time is limited (20 mins per client) you can't afford to "strive for perfection" with retakes - especially when you're trying to sell as many photos as you can. So you take a few winners and move to the next pose hoping that in the end you'll have enough great photos to make the client buy a dozen (or more). 😁

This shot was taken with an Olympus E-M5III + M.Zuiko 12-100mm f/4 PRO IS. I think I had one Godox AD200 on top with a huge shoot-through umbrella (to minimize the shadows and create the "halo") and one AD200 next to the camera with a Dörr's 70cm beauty dish.

The backdrop was a grey paper roll and obviously this final (sepia) look was achieved in post.