Everybody Say Alpo Want Your Four-Legged Friend In The Family Photo? Call A Pet Photographer

Keith and Shelly Clark wanted a family portrait. Nothing fancy, just them, their three girls, two boys, three cats, one dog and a quarter horse named Whoopies.

Neatly combed (the animals) and dressed in casual denim (the humans), they gathered on their shady back lawn. On hand were all but two of the cats, who happened to be hiding.

“This is who we are,” said Shelly Clark, holding a fluffy white domestic long-hair feline named Claus. “We wanted to have a complete family picture. It’s just something I’ve always dreamed of.”

The Clarks’ photographer, Bea Wachter, has some dreams of her own. The Spokane Valley woman hopes to create a niche in pet photography. She got the idea after winning several awards for photos of her favorite subjects: her English bulldog, Elizabeth, and her massive French mastiff, Simone.

“Animals just fascinate me,” said Wachter, as Elizabeth snored loudly at her feet. “They make me laugh. I just enjoy being with them.”

Wachter is in good company. Fifty-nine percent of American households have some type of pet, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. And many of those beloved companions are highly pampered.

They sleep in the master bedroom and dine on gourmet meals. They get surgery and prescription medications when they’re sick. Some even have therapists.

It just makes sense, Wachter said, to include these loyal companions in the family portrait.

“It’s a growing market,” said Al Berger, one of a handful of Spokane-area photographers who now advertise their willingness to invite dogs, cats - even pigs and goats - into their studios.

“I have people who spend more on their pets than on their kids,” said Berger, who owns Cunningham Studio of Quality Photography. “We’ve done tigers, wolves, goats and parrots,” he said. “I’ve got just two rules: It’s got to be legal, and no snakes.”

Myron Bursell, co-owner of Green Gables photography studio, has a similar policy.

A few years back, he turned down a woman with a boa constrictor. But he’s happy to accommodate almost any other pet.

He keeps a pooper scooper and a bottle of carpet cleaner on hand. He sits down with the owner in advance to find out if the animal has a favorite word or action - one that may trigger that winning expression.

It doesn’t always work. “You trick them. You give them treats. You bounce up and down and make a fool of yourself,” he said.

“It’s a feat, but it’s also a lot of fun,” said Bursell, who photographs 75 to 100 animals a year, mostly in his garden or studio. When it comes to animals, he always teams up with his wife and partner, Rita.

Once, while her husband snapped away, Rita had to hide behind a table, holding a restless pooch in place.

“We got a nice head and shoulders shot,” Bursell said.

And no one was the wiser.

Berger, of Cunningham’s, has his own strategies.

“We keep bacon bits on hand,” he said. “We used to keep catnip, but we found cats can get a little wild.”

The job, he said, is a lot like photographing babies. And as with babies, sometimes there are “accidents.”

The pet owners, he said, “have to clean up the mess.”

The price of pet photography varies by photographer. Sitting fees range from about $25 to more than $50.

An 8-by-10 can be as low as $20 or more than $100. Photographers usually offer a variety of packages, but most pet owners want just a couple larger prints to frame.

“Some people might think it’s extravagant,” admitted Helen Labrie, who hired Wachter to photograph her cat last year. “But anybody that really loves their pet would understand.”

Wachter photographed Cinnamon, Labrie’s purebred Abyssinian, in the family’s greenhouse in Sandpoint.

“He was sitting on a stool, looking very regal and angelic,” said Labrie, who cherishes the framed 5-by-7. The picture was taken just before Cinnamon got sick with kidney cancer. He died last month at age 12. “He was part of our family,” Labrie said. “He sat on my husband’s lap every time Hal sat down.”

Now, she said, they’ll always have a special photo to remember him by.

Mike Brown, a retired police officer in Hayden Lake, Idaho, wants to remember 10 special Rottweilers in a group photo even though three are deceased and the rest don’t get along.

Brown raises the powerful breed and once trained them for law enforcement. He has asked Berger to create a canine family photo.

The wall portrait, framed on canvas, will include his beloved Gretchen; Gretchen’s mother and father; her mate, Broccoli; and their six pups.

Berger will photograph the canines separately in his studio, and he’ll dig out old negatives of the ones who have died. Using the right background and the aid of a computer, he’ll create the desired portrait.

It’s worth the cost, Brown said.

“The dogs are so much a part of our life. If the wife said, ‘Me or the dog,’ the wife would be gone,” he said.

“She feels the same,” Brown quickly added. It boils down to one thing, he said: “I’ve taken several good snapshots myself, but it’s just never the same.”

Kim West, the proud owner of a black Lab named Keiko, has hired a professional photographer twice for exactly that reason.

In most snapshots, the Lab’s expressive eyes and face disappear into a dark shadow. But with the help of a pro and just the right sidelight, the family got a portrait that showed Keiko’s true personality, she said.

West and her husband chose the willow trees on the Gonzaga University campus as a backdrop for their family portrait. With the sun shining on her dark coat, Keiko sat between her adoring owners.

“She’s really photogenic,” West said. “She has a great smile.”

Pet owners are a lot like parents, photographers say.

Wachter does good business at doggie discipline school graduations, where pets don an official-looking mortar board - at least long enough for a photo sitting.

The Christmas season is another boom time. Many animal owners can’t resist a chance to pose their pet with Santa.

For years, Bursell had a client who brought his elderly pooch to the studio each fall for Christmas card photos. The man dressed the dog in a new holiday costume each year and loved showing him off.

Later this fall, Wachter will provide Santa shots at Thunder Mountain Dog Supplies and three Petco locations. Backdrops will vary, although Petco will provide its own Santa.

Wachter will donate a portion of each sale to the Spokane Humane Society.

“It’s getting busier,” said the Valley photographer, who once trained animals in Hungary. She lets her two stout canines accompany her on most assignments.

The recent Clark shoot was no exception.

Dressed in a green T-shirt and baggy gray coveralls, the photographer squeaked her plastic dinosaur toy to get the animals’ attention. She climbed under Whoopies the horse to show the kids how to pose.

Mandi, 4, refused to sit on Whoopies. Her twin sister cried, and demanded a bandage for an owie on her thumb.

Buddy the dog kept wandering off to sun himself on the picnic table.

Wachter just smiled.

“I love the challenge,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 5 color photo