"The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we allow into our solitude."
- Robert Brault
This isn't a serious-ish post. You can probably tell that by the long winded post title, and yet I still feel compelled to warn you in advance. So, here goes. Yesterday afternoon I felt guilty about the fact that The Art of Fielding : A Novel by Chad Harbach is overdue on my card (I can't get into it and I keep trying because online critics talk about how good it really is, one of them said it reminded them of John Iriving, whose books I adored in my late teens/early 20s so I tried for that reason only I now want to hunt them down and frown at them because I didn't feel that) and went downstairs to return it, only to get down there and realise it was upstairs on my desk. Dumb. Not wanting to make it a wasted trip, I raided their new/recently returned display shelf and found - TA DA - Pet photography 101 : tips for taking better photos of your dog or cat by Andrew Darlow. I don't own a pet. The cat I had preferred my father. She also thought she was a dog and would only come if you whistled. The dog I had was as neurotic as I was and had this odd habit of crying loudly if it rained while we were out walking, and would then run home without me to hide behind the sofa. I figure it's me, not them, and so I don't have pets anymore. Which means I can't take photos of them, and I'm disappointed because they make such cute subjects! I'm going to do the next best thing - I'm going to take 5 of Monsieur Darlow's tips and have my nephews pose in place of cute fluffy puppies/kittens instead. I foresee tears, drama, tragedy and possible laughs all around (for them? for me? for the neighbours?) *hopeful look* This book really does have fantastic ideas for photographing pets and I highly recommend it - I'm just envious of all of the people who can actually put these into practice and brag about them. If you like this post, or if it made you laugh, then please pretty please post a pic of your own cute dog/cat/llama/chinchilla/axolotyl :-) (Don't dismiss axolotyls - they were my favourite pets of all the ones we ever had, and smarter than you'd think).On to the tips I've chosen, which are just numbers and words at the moment. Saturday I will upload the pics! (Assuming I, or my nephews, have managed to come out of the experience unscathed and somewhat willing to talk about it all).
