Below are some tips and tricks to take the best photos of your Pomsky. We love seeing great-quality Pomsky photos!

There are also a few calendar contest tips in the list as well. Happy reading!

QUICK SUMMARY:

  1. Photos are 1:1 - Square-shaped

  2. Photos are not cropped tightly

  3. Photos are high quality, in-focus, even when zoomed in

  4. No people in the image

  5. Uncluttered background

  6. Good lighting

  7. Dogs doing something fun or showing their personality

  8. Name the Picture with the dog’s name.

Photos entered in our annual calendar contest should be high resolution, in focus, and not fuzzy.

Example 1: This photo initially looks good. However, when you expand on it, you’ll see that it’s too out of focus to be usable for the calendar.

FUZZY / Out of Focus

Try this instead! Take a few steps back and have your camera set to Portrait Mode.

The photos should be well-lit and free of shadows. Avoid harsh, direct light. Shortly after sunrise or before sunset is a great time to take pictures.

Example 2: This shows a poorly lit, heavily shadowed image. It also was taken from the top down, which is not nearly as flattering to most dogs. Eye level is the most flattering angle for most dogs.

Try this instead! The light source should be behind the photographer. Don’t photograph directly in the sunshine and opt for natural light instead of flash.

Be thoughtful of what is behind your Pomskies for pictures. Some have found it really successful to use woods, autumn leaves, snow, spring flowers, ponds/lakes, and holiday props as a way to theme the image but still let the puppy be the star of the show. Avoid busy/cluttered backgrounds or unsightly things like trashcans.

Example 3: The dog looks great but the background is cluttered and unappealing, making this unusable for the calendar.

Try this instead! A clean and simple background can really make a difference in the overall quality of your photo.

Cropping: We have noticed a trend of cropped photos. Overly cropped photos do not format correctly into the calendar’s squares.

Ensuring your photos are square (1:1), or close to square, when submitted, allows us to more easily place them in the calendar. Having images cropped too close (just a face in the image) or too far (long expanse of grass/driveway) with the dog in the background, causes the image to not be usable for the calendar due to alignment issues. There have been some gorgeous photos that we could not place in the calendar simply due to being too closely cropped, thus making them unusable for this purpose.

We have loved the excitement that the calendar contest has created and we hope the suggestions above will help pet owners take better pictures so to be featured in our future calendars.

Some of the star photos have been outdoors. Too many photos in snow or autumn leaves makes it tricky to add them to the calendar, so try to focus on non-seasonal photos. Your Pomsky showing its vivid personality, with the ears pricked upwards also helps to make them winners.

We are unpaid volunteers. 100% of the calendar proceeds are dedicated to the APKC Rescue Fund.

If you would like to donate separately to help offset the change in prices to help Pomskies in shelters, you can do so by this LINK.