Cats. Dogs. The occasional lizard, pig or rock. These are your pets, Gizmodo readers. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge , you photographed them brilliantly.

(Wallpaper-dimension photos are available in on flickr .)

Lead Shot

I have a Canon Rebel EOS Xti DSLR camera. The story of the shot is a fun one. In case you look at the photo you will see that it’s someone sitting on the bathroom with their pants around their ankles….. that person is me. My new little puppy decided she wanted to rest inside my pants while I did my business inside the loo. After I saw her rest he head on my waistband I whispered to my wife to get the camera. I set it up, set the timer, put the camera on the floor and snapped this shot of little Betty relaxing along with her Dad within the toilet. She makes a bit of bed for herself in my pants whenever i’m going to the rest room, she is one brave pup. I like this photo of our little Betty.
[Ed note: a global of no comment.]
-Alex Brooks

Sneak Attack

Nikon D90, Nikon 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX, 1/60, f4. So our tabby cat named Moxie absolutely loves her blue string. We’ve spent probably a hundred dollars on cat toys, but no, she loves this string more than anything. She pulled it out of one of my blue sweatshirts and has been twiddling with it ever since. Accordingly, she burrowed herself under our doormat to hide from her enemy/best friend poised in attack position.
[Ed note: For anyone who's attempted to get the cat peeking from under something while fidgeting with something shot, you know Chris nailed this one, and the blue mirrored within the eyes just heigtens your entire effect.]
-Chris Allen

Stock Trader

Nikon D700, Nikon 24-70 2.8, Aperture priority, f 2.8, 1/30. Had my frenchy, Dakerr lay down on his favorite spot, and put my laptop in front of him. He got scared and ran off in the beginning but eventually he got used to it after sniffing and licking it for an efficient 20 minutes. I put his paw on the keyboard and tried capturing laying in front of him but each time I tried to take his picture he’d seriously look into the camera and not the screen. So I had a treat on my left hand waving it in front of him behind the screen and took pictures with my right.
[Ed note: Probably captured at the 24mm end of the lens, which adds a number of depth/character to the shot.]
-David Jun

Kid Chameleon

This is often Calcifer, our Veiled Chameleon. He’s named after the character in Howl’s Moving Castle. Because of his territorial nature, he can flatten his body like a satellite dish, rock from side to side while curling his tail inside and outside and hiss audibly if he thinks that you simply are approaching in an invasive manner to his space. He’s nothing wanting a mini dinosaur with the powerful claws and can not be handled without leather gloves. He’s 3.5 years old. In this photo I had taken him outside to our backyard for some natural rain drinking, but he was more interested by hating the camera instead. Here’s his angry face.
[Ed note: Color, texture, anger - each of the necessary elements to art and pets are here.]
-Can Ergin

Tail on the Trail

We went on a short hike this weekend at my wife’s parent’s house. We decided to take their dog, who is mostly the laziest dog on the planet. However after we got out onto the trails, she changed into an entire new animal! She would run up ahead and then await us to catch up. As soon as she would see us, she would dart ahead again. It was numerous fun.
[Ed note: Any dog owner knows this view well.]
-Grant Magnuson

Blue Steel

Sasha is a four year old tortoise shell mix who was rescued from a faculty campus. Perhaps grateful for being taken off the streets, she is usually willing to pose for the camera. This was concerned about a Canon 5D with 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro at ISO 400, Shutter Priority mode at 1/160th second & f/2.8.
[Ed note: I assumed I may make it through these critiques without resorting to baby talk, nevertheless it's becoming difwicult.]
-Wesley Duffee-Braun

Canine Ballet

Image of my dog Leo was taken at Pismo Beach with an iPhone 4 with a wide angle lego conversion. Edited some in PS Express for iPhone then finished off on computer.
[Ed note: Remarkable that a cellphone camera was quick enough to freeze the moment.]
-Nar Mihranyan

Dog At Is Sunset

I took my dog Suki to the beach the alternative day after work to aim to get a shot of her for the challenge. It was overcast, and the sun had already gone below the horizon, however, so I had very little natural light to work with. I determined to check out to mimic the look of the directional, golden light of a setting sun using an off-camera speedlight, placed about 20 or 30 ft from our position and gelled orange. I used a wide angle lens, got in near to Suki, and kept the camera low to the ground to provide her a formidable presence within the frame while capturing loads of environment around her. Suki has a really heroic and fearless spirit, which I believe she conveyed well here by her confident stance and sharp gaze. Concerned with a Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 at 11mm f/5.6, 1/125 second ISO200.
[Ed note: Fantastic concept that, though you'd think may be esoteric, comes through inside the shot pre-explanation.]
-Jonathan Fleming

Belle’s Yearbook Photo

Canon T2i, Canon 50mm 1.8 Lens, 5.6 Aperture , Speed 1/1000, ISO 400, 1K light with chimera. All 3 images are were shot with a similar settings, on a green screen. The image of a high school photo shoot. Treats were used to keep the dog focused. For her senior photo, Belle choose ‘The Lasers’ because thats what your entire cool kids were doing. In any case, its 1987, and lasers are radical.
[Ed note: Brilliant cropping seals the faux authenticity.]
-Jay Sansone

I shot this photo with a Nikon D40, ISO speed 1600, F-stop at 4.5, and shutterspeed at 1/25 sec. It’s my bulldog, Dazie. She is a really friendly and well-behaved pet and you may often find her laying like she is in this photo (bulldogs are inclined to enjoy resting). She seems to are getting very fond of the camera over time and plenty of times it almost seems like she poses for it. My technique was fairly simple. I laid down on the floor in directly in front of her and placed the camera on flat on the ground (to capture this precise face-to-face angle and for stabilization as a result low shutterspeed.
[Ed note: Bulldogs have such photogenic character.]
-Joseph Mikos

Pursuit of Happiness

Nikon D3000, 18-55mm Kit lens, ISO 1200 (I needed some grain), Shutter speed 1/640. Every morning, my standard poodle Emmie takes a ” victory lap” around the backyard that she kicks off with an incredible leap over our flowerbed. I laid down within the grass, and gave my wife the thumbs up to let her out. I assumed this shot really captured the joy in her face.
[Ed note: Like a comet!]
-David G

Puppy Dog Eyes

Fascinated with a Canon Rebel T1i, 50mm f/1.8 lens, 1/200 sec exposure, f/1.8 (I used Lightroom to adjust the exposure up by +3), and 400 ISO. This can be Benjamin, our beagle. He was lying down in our bedroom next to a window. I got on the ground in addition to get the camera at his eye level, and pressed the shutter as soon as he looked in a special direction. I deliberately used a fast shutter thinking that an underexposure can be somewhat more compelling and different, but ultimately decided to adjust the exposure as shown.
[Ed note: Of the whole " puppy dog eyes" style shots, this was my fave.]
-David Choi

Wink

Canon 7D, Sigma 30mm f1.4, ISO 1000, 1/25, f 2.0. Here is my cat Grace. She is 5 years old, and just a gigantic mush. She loves to be nearly my wife and I , so she is usually found straddling the back cushion of the couch. This photo not only captures her favorite resting place, but more importantly her trademark wink, which she has been doing since she was a kitten.
[Ed note: Not only is the portrait wonderful, but the lines on the cushion and back wall seem to accentuate the effect.]
-Michael Berndt

WINNER – Fetched

This photo was taken on my Nikon D5000 of my dog Ollie (who is a 1 year old German Shorthaired Pointer for people who care) in a field down the road from me. It was a good looking evening and within the forest area, rays of light just shone in the course of the trees creating an implausible golden spectacle.
My dog was going mental, till stumbling across a stick, he then looked up extremely proud and ok with his find and I just managed to take the snap (Raw and ISO 200 I feel). I got home and edited a few of the colouring on iPhoto to make it look as virtually the $64000 event as possible and all in all quite chuffed
[Ed note: a really perfect portrait, backed by the suitable mise-en-scène. Wonderful photo.]
-Jordan Lebbern

Fantastic job by all in elevating the normal pet photo. And to those with a bit of more time, leaf through the 7 galleries below. There are a number of wonderful submissions that didn’t make it onto our main page.

Gallery 1 ( one page )

Gallery 2 ( one page )

Gallery 3 ( one page )

Gallery 4 ( one page )

Gallery 5 ( one page )

Gallery 6 ( one page )

Gallery 7 ( one page )

If you prefer Shooting Challenges, you might also like my new site: Life, Panoramic. . Within the previous few days, readers have submitted photos of Hong Kong , Pogradec and Ho Chi Minh .

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This post is tagged: Absolutely, adorable, pet, Photography, Wallpapers