TRICK PHOTOGRAPHY

When Patti Gotelli takes her kids to the photographer for a family portrait, they're surprisingly well-behaved.

Sure, the kids -- Sabrina, Cowboy, Hannah, Mia, Lola and Tessa -- sometimes fidget a little, and they aren't always thrilled to put on the outfits Gotelli makes them wear.

But most of the time they enjoy their trips to Portraits by Catherine so much that they wag their tails in glee.

OK, Gotelli's "kids" aren't, technically speaking, children. They're dogs. But she loves them nonetheless.

And when you think of it that way, it's not so odd that Gotelli and other humans who happen to love their pets might succumb to the occasional desire to have them captured on film.

"I would consider it the same as you would a part of your family or a child," says Jacob Andrzejczak, owner of IS Photography. "To these people, their pets are their children."

Las Vegas has a large senior population, adds Catherine Guillotte of Portraits by Catherine. "The kids are gone now, so they have pets (and) that's been their children."

Not that everybody understands.

"We have a book of samples in the studio, and you can always tell if somebody doesn't have pets or aren't attached to their pets," Guillotte says. "They find the sample book strange: Why would anybody photograph their dog?"

Gotelli doesn't merely have her dogs photographed regularly. Her tradition is to dress them up -- it was Easter Bunny outfits one year -- for their sittings with Guillotte.

"It's just amazing how it's grown," Gotelli says. "I've got three big cases of dog clothes."

Friends "think I'm crazy," she admits, laughing. "But everybody goes gaga over them, just how cute they are. I hear, 'You ought to do a calendar.' "

In 2004, Shawna Felli's German shorthair pointer had a litter of eight pups. They were "adorable," she says, so much so that she commissioned a portrait of them.

"I did it just because puppies are just like kids. They don't stay little for very long," Felli explains. "It was just a neat sort of catching-that-moment."

The matted, framed portrait -- it cost about $275 back then -- now hangs in Felli's living room. "It is very much a conversation piece," she says.

About 12 years ago, Nancy Burk received a Christmas present from her daughter, Stephanie: a portrait of Stephanie with their miniature schnauzer, Shotz.

The next year, Stephanie and Shotz posed for another portrait. The following year, another pet, Shasta, joined in. Through the years -- and with various combinations of dogs Shotz, Shasta, Glacier and Lucy, along with Stephanie, and now Burk's granddaughter, Skylar -- taking the portrait has become a holiday tradition.

Each year's photo goes out with Burk's Christmas cards. "My friends and family are far away, and this way they get to watch Skylar, my granddaughter, grow up," she says.

Each year's theme is different. One year, it was a formal portrait of everybody in front of a fireplace. Another year, the dogs, dressed as reindeer, pulled Skylar in a sleigh.

"Our dogs are like family," Burk says. "Most people who love their pets, they're family. At the same time, you watch your dogs grow and you watch your children grow."

Pet portraits are particularly popular around this time of year as pet owners search for the perfect Christmas card.

"We actually do more on average as we get closer to the holidays," Guillotte says. "The last quarter of the year is very busy for us."

Some opt for an annual portrait. But, says Arica Dorff, owner of Pet'ographique, a pet photo studio and luxury pet boutique in Henderson, "I've had people who come in every two weeks when they've gotten their paycheck and ordered another 5-by-7 or 8-by-10."

Some clients are satisfied with the photo package you'd buy for a graduating high school senior. But Dorff also has clients who order 30-by-40-inch photos printed on canvas and framed -- they resemble painted portraits -- that they hang in their living rooms.

"We've even had people who bring in their own throw pillows from the couch," she adds. That way, Dorff can match the background to a room's color scheme.

A 30-by-40-inch portrait on canvas runs about $1,400, Dorff says. "But you get such a variety. I get people who spend thousands and thousands, and others who come in, spend $200 and get wallet (shots) and an 8-by-10 and a 5-by-7 and leave happy."

Photographing pets can be challenging, Andrzejczak notes. "It takes more patience, because it's not like I can just tell a dog to turn."

Dorff says it's sort of the flipside of photographing children.

"With children, you're getting in their face, putting on a circus, jumping up and down to make them laugh," she explains. With pets, "it's the opposite. You sit back and ignore them the whole time and let them get comfortable."

Photographers don't deal with just dogs and cats, either. Dorff says any animal that'll fit through the doors of her studio is welcome. Guillotte has photographed bunnies and ferrets, and says turtles and even "big spiders" are OK.

"Just no snakes or lizards," she adds. "I'll leave the building."

The strangest pet Guillotte has ever photographed was a unicorn -- actually, a goat that toured with a circus who had his horns fused when he was a baby.

"But goats like to butt things and eat stuff," Guillotte says. "So I had a large plant in my studio at the time, and the unicorn decided to eat it. I'm like, 'Um, that's my schefflera. Hello ..."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0280.