Take the Photos Now: A Guide to Photographing Your Older Pet

Almost everyone who loses a pet says the same thing: I don't have enough photos of us together. Not of the pet — of the two of you, and of the ordinary things. This is a ten-minute job you can do this week, with the phone in your hand right now.

1. The paws

Close up, on the floor, at their level. Include the little scar, the worn nail, the tuft between the toes. These are the details that disappear first from memory.

2. The nose and muzzle, filling the frame

Tap to focus on the nose, hold still. Grey muzzles are the whole point — don't try to hide them.

3. The silhouette in a window

Backlit, at the hour when the sun comes in low. Exposure will go dark on the body — that's what you want. Shoot a few; the shape of their head is the thing you'll recognise instantly in ten years.

4. How they actually sleep

The awkward position, the one leg out, the spot on the sofa that's now permanently dented. Not a posed sleeping shot — the real one.

5. The walk

From behind, them pulling (or not pulling anymore). Include the lead, the route, the tree they always stop at.

6. The two of you

This is the shot people are missing. Prop the phone on a shelf, set a 10-second timer, sit on the floor with them. Do it five times. One will be good, and you won't care about the others.

7. Their spot

The chair, the step, the patch of sun on the rug. Photograph the place, not just the animal. Later, the empty version of that place will matter.

8. Thirty seconds of video with sound

This is the one nobody thinks of. Point the phone at them doing nothing and record 30 seconds. You will want the sound of their nails on the floor, the sigh, the collar jingling. Silent photos can't do that.

9. The last good day

Whatever that day turns out to be, take one photo of them in it — in the car, in the grass, eating something they weren't supposed to have. You won't regret it. You will regret not taking it.

Phone settings that matter

• Get low. Kneel or lie on the floor. Photos taken from standing height make pets look small and distant.
• Use window light. Turn the flash off — it flattens fur and gives everyone red-eye, pets included.
• Tap to focus on the eye, then drag the exposure slider down slightly. Fur holds detail better a touch darker.
• Skip portrait mode on pets with long fur; the edge detection eats whiskers.
• Burst mode for anything moving. Keep two frames out of thirty.

Then do the boring part

Back them up. Not "they're on my phone" — actually in the cloud and, better, printed. Choose five or six and print them at 5×7. Nobody frames four hundred photos; everybody frames six.

While you're at it

If you haven't already, take a paw print. It takes three minutes and it's the counterpart to the photographs — the shape of them, not the look. A no-mess kit works on a living, wriggling animal without ink on the fur.

And if it's already too late for the photos — that's not a failure. You have the ones you have, and the memories are not stored in your camera roll. Here's what to collect in the first hours.