Prerequisites

Animals are very unpredictable and have their own distinct personality – that’s why we love them so much, right?!

In order to make your session successful, it is very important that you’re able to answer the following questions with a yes before you consider engaging our unique services. This way, everyone will enjoy the experience.

If you can’t answer yes to the following questions, you might want to reconsider doing the shoot now and address any weaknesses.

Dogs

Does Spot know sit and stay commands?
Is Spot afraid of flashes? (This will identify whether we’re doing natural light or flash).
Is Spot unsure or afraid of strangers?

Cats

Is Fluffy afraid of people/strangers?
Is Fluffy afraid of flashes? (This will identify whether we’re doing natural light or flash).

Horses and Other Animals

Is Silver afraid of people/strangers?

Session Types

Because of the varying personalities and travel-ability of our animal friends, we offer three distinct types of sessions: Studio, Home – Studio, and Location. Here at Heartstrings, we employ state of the art technology and image processing (along with a healthy dose of artistic vision) to bring you heirloom quality artwork of your best friend regardless of where or how we shoot.

Studio

All images are taken here at our state-of-the-art studio in Bradford, NH – home of our rich, hand-painted backgrounds and digital wireless studio. Sit back with a fresh cup of coffee from our Kuerig and watch the captured images appear as they are shot on our 42” wide screen high definition monitor! This allows us to take more varying shots as we know when we’ve gotten what you like right away! (Naturally, if we’re shooting Black and White film we can’t do this).

Home - Studio

Yes, we can bring the studio to you! We bring the same top-end studio lights and backgrounds to you! But here’s the catch – you need to have the space! A garage will do. So will a barn. Large kitchen? That works too. Basically, we need a space at least 10’ wide and about 12’ long. Height isn’t an issue unless we’re shooting a horse (but that’s what barns are for, right?). We can shoot green screen or bring one of our beautiful hand painted backdrops. Take advantage of our ‘Share the Love’ program by reducing or eliminating travel and setup costs by getting 5 of your friends to participate as well and we’ll all have fun and save you some money!

Location

This is our primary session type for horses. But for dogs, let’s all go to the park! Or anywhere! We love ‘different’ stuff so we’re always on the lookout for interesting places and light to shoot. Fido love the beach? – let’s go there! Have a tough guy? Let’s find an interesting old building or mill. The only limitation here is there is none! This is also fun for action shots if you’ve got a Frisbee champ. Want a little more mix? How about shooting the Frisbee champ leaping in front of a green-screen background? Now we’ve got amazing possibilities!

The Creative Consultation

The pre-session creative consultation is one of the most important aspects of the experience. During the consult, we will complete a subject profile to better help us understand your animal’s personality, quirks, appearance, accomplishments, etc.

We’ll also discuss your vision for the final image and answer any questions you may have. This can be done over the phone but we do prefer to combine it with a studio tour if you are going to be here for a studio shoot.

Preparation

This is your job! Rule #1 – please don’t groom your animal the day before or the day of the shoot except for a good brushing. If you have fido clipped any imperfections will show up. It’s always best to let a good haircut settle down a bit.

Do's

...brush your animal
...assure that they’re clean
...horse? Brush out the mane and coat and apply show sheen just prior to the shoot.

Don'ts

...have them groomed the day of or the day before.
...let them play in the mud the day of the shoot!

The Session

This is the fun part! And your presence and participation is very important! We’ve found that animals stay comfortable with their humans nearby so we may ask your help in bringing out your animal’s personality.

You’ll also want to bring along favorite treats and toys – items that they respond to with alertness. We’ve got plenty of things here at the studio, but again, familiarity for the animal is always a good thing.

We also ask you to bring along any items that you wish to be in the image. Things like hunting items for hunting dogs, favorite toys, ribbons, etc. always help personalize the image.

If you’re in our wireless studio, you’ll be able to watch the images appear on our large viewing screen as they’re transmitted wirelessly from the camera to the computer.

Image Review

Ok, so maybe this is the fun part! In the studio, we’ll sit down immediately following the session and review the images. This is where you get to pick your favorites which will be part of your package.

Please note: We do not provide paper proofs for digital images. For Black and White film, we provide contact sheets. However, a proof book or ‘brag’ book is available for purchase.

During your review we can show you how the different sizes look on our 42” hi-def screen. You can also see actual sized framed images in different finishes in our gallery.

If we do a home or location shoot, we review images either on my laptop or, better yet, on your TV! We carry a nifty image viewer which can hook into most newer TVs to provide you with a slideshow right on the spot!

We also have frame corners for all of the framing options so you can see how your image will look with various type frames.