What lenses would I need for pet photography? Please give me some advice, please?

[cameragirl]

Love to do pet portraits. Flash lights nope, don't think so. 24-70mm F/2.8? Or telephoto zoom? Any ideas?
I was thinking of pet portraits (dogs, cats) indoors and outdoors as well. Also horses. I am hobbying for quite a few years with a D80. All tips and advice are much appreciated.

[OsmosisStudios]

Depends on what kind of look you want.

[cameragirl]

Portraits and action photos. Indoors and outdoors.

[jml79]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Depends on what kind of look you want.

+1. It also depends on what you are doing, small dogs indoors with props, background and lighting would benefit from a totally different lens than an outdoor horse show, say barrel racing or jumping.

Narrow your question and tell us everything you have and your budget. Then people could find the weak points in your current gear and perhaps suggest a systematic upgrade approach. I prefer longer lenses with horses to reduce the distortion. They are big animals and can look funny (distorted proportions) even at 50mm.

[OsmosisStudios]

A dog-groomer friend of mine has a simple 2-light strobe setup in her salon for taking photos of her "clients". She's never had a problem with the dogs or cats not liking the flashes, and nor have I. In fact, the only animals I've had issues with flash is horses, but they're skittish of their own shadows.

For indoor portrait photos, any lens will do if youve got the right lighting.

For outdoor or action photos, it depends on how far the pet will be. A 70-200 f/2.8 VR is likely a great suggestion, but you're looking at $2000+ for that lens alone. THe 24-70 you mentioned would likely be too short.

[cameragirl]

Sorry I was not very clear in my question I guess
Like I said, I like to photograph dogs/cats indoors and outdoors. I also like to take pictures at horse shows. One time I went to a show (jumping) indoor and that was the reason not to use flash so a faster lens would be a better idea. At that moment I had only AF-S 18-70 mm f/3.5-4.5 DX.
Meanwhile I got a Nikon AF-S 70-300 mm VR f/4.5-5.6G ED IF and a 50mm f/1.8
I can spend appr $ 1500-$2000 max.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by cameragirl

Sorry I was not very clear in my question I guess
Like I said, I like to photograph dogs/cats indoors and outdoors. I also like to take pictures at horse shows. One time I went to a show (jumping) indoor and that was the reason not to use flash so a faster lens would be a better idea. At that moment I had only AF-S 18-70 mm f/3.5-4.5 DX.
Meanwhile I got a Nikon AF-S 70-300 mm VR f/4.5-5.6G ED IF and a 50mm f/1.8
I can spend appr $ 1500-$2000 max.

You're still not very clear.

What do you shoot? What are you looking to shoot? Is it dogs? cats? mountain lions?

[cameragirl]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

You're still not very clear.

What do you shoot? What are you looking to shoot? Is it dogs? cats? mountain lions?

[QUOTELike I said, I like to photograph dogs/cats indoors and outdoors. I also like to take pictures at horse shows. [/QUOTE]
I mentioned this already. So why is it not clear?

[zona5101]

the 24-70 f.8 would be an all around good choice.

[OsmosisStudios]

It wasn't clear as you had mentioned two different lists of subjects in two separate posts. I needed to know which was most accurate.

For what you need, you'll need two lenses. FOr the dogs/cats indoors, a small studio with just about any midrange zoom should work fine. For the horse shows, a 70-200 f/2.8 would be ideal.