1) Stay low to the ground. I was lying on my stomach on the lawn here.
2) Balance your light, it was 1 pm and really sunny so I shot with fill flash.
3) Peanut Butter is your friend.
4) Try not to use a telephoto zoom if you can. If you can stay close your photos will be sharper. It is just to hard to keep your self still enough when you have to roll around so much. Be patient, keep a sense of humor, and bring a hand towel if the dog is slobbery. :)
Almost forgot, marshmallows will give you some pretty funny expressions too :) Those actually get a little stuck in the teeth and you can just shoot away while they are trying to lick them out :) hehe
One of his favorite tricks is tossing a hankie in the air and shoot as the dogs' eyes follow it falling slowly. He also makes ridiculous noises that get a comical expression from the dogs, and squeeky toys too. He says his portrait sessions are about an hour & dog sessions can go up to 3 hours, especially if there are multiple dogs.
Thank you all again so much for the great advice (and Art for the giggles)! It's helped me a ton, I think I have a better idea now of what I need to do to get some great pictures. The shoot is tonight, I'll let you know how it goes!
