4. What Does Your Subject Love? To make a subject comfortable, sometimes I try to find out beforehand about something they love and integrate it into the portrait. It could be an object such as a musical instrument or a baseball glove. You can reference a place by using a map or an article of clothing indigenous to the area. The sky’s the limit! In the image here, we added the subject’s two pet Jack Russell terriers. I let my subject just pick up the dogs and hold them in the manner most comfortable for him. Photographing dogs is tricky because in the best dog shots you want the animals to be looking at you with their ears up, and sometimes our canine friends just aren’t in the mood to cooperate. My secret to getting a dog’s attention is to get it right where I want it and then make the most authentic cat “meow” I can muster. For a few seconds, the dog will give you a puzzled “how is that cat sound coming out of that guy with the crazy box in front of his face?” look. Hopefully by the time it figures out that there is no kitty to be found, you’ve already gotten your shot. My human subject found his inspiration in the quizzical looks on the dogs’ faces and mirrored them beautifully. 5. Mix It Up By the time you and your subject come together, a photo shoot may have been weeks or even months in the planning. Perhaps this sitting will be the only time your subject is photographed for a long time, and it may be the only time you get to work with them. For this reason, it’s always good to anticipate their needs, and maybe throw in a little extra. For instance, if a family comes to you for a family portrait, each individual family member may not think about it, but might like to have casual individual shots of each of them made at the same time. And one of those individual family members might be able to use a more formal professional headshot for their business card or company newsletter. In the case of actor Joe Zaso, we made a traditional actor’s headshot (left) and in the same sitting, shot an additional headshot (right) that could also be used on a model’s composite card to market himself for fashion work.