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NORTON - Parents have long paid for professional portrait photographs of their children as a way to preserve memories, capturing a moment in time for eternity.

It's no different for pet owners like Tim Ayres.

"She's my baby girl," the Mansfield resident said of his young English bulldog Hazel. Ayres does not have children and Hazel is his first dog; he had her photographed at 9-months-old.

Ayres admits his dog likely has a face "only a mother could love," but added, "it's like babies - you always think yours is the cutest."

People's passion for their pets has created a new breed of photographer, one who only take pictures of pets. Pet photography, and animal photography in general, requires a special set of skills, and it's not for the physically unfit. "With a person you can say stay, or turn like this," said pet photographer Annmarie Collette of Norton, who started her business, Sheepish Grin, a little less than a year ago.

"With an animal, you have to move with them," she said, adding that pet photographers always have to be wary of lens licks.

Collette attended Massachusetts College of Art for photography but worked in graphics until 2008. She returned to photography after volunteering at Winslow Farm in Norton, a sanctuary for abused and neglected animals.

Collette helps Winslow Farm by posting animal photographs on its Web site and attaching photos to brochures used in fundraising and grants. The name Sheepish Grin was inspired by a sheep named Zeb whose photo she took at Winslow Farm.

Collette said she spends time getting her subjects comfortable with her before taking their picture, and always tries to take photos of an animal in its element - a horse in a field, a dog with its toy in its own backyard.

"Like children, animals are not self-conscious and you can catch them in their natural light," she said.

Catching them, by the way, can be another challenge.

"Some are so rambunctious, they're hard to catch," she said. Yet others are so sedentary, Collette added, they need some encouragement to move so she can get an interesting angle.

The animals aren't the only ones getting exercise at photo shoots. On a recent brisk, sunny day at the Stone Dog Inn in Norton, Collette found herself running round the tennis court - camera in one hand, a toy in another - in her photographic pursuit of Cole, a black standard poodle. The dog apparently decided Collette's presence was a game: Keepaway.

As she picked up a tennis ball to entice two other dogs - Toby, a Siberian husky, and Mac, a Wheaton terrier, Collette squatted to their level and held the ball above her head where at least one of the dog's gaze focused. "Good face, good face!" she praised.

Collette then sat on the ground and trained the lens on Cole as Mac the terrier sat in her lap. She doled out affection while the click, click, click of the camera sounded in the background.

Collette has taken pictures of llamas, but perhaps her most unique subject to date was a rooster. She got her photo, but only after chasing the creature - nicknamed Ninja Chicken because he tends to attacks when a person's back is turned - through the woods, over logs and under branches.

Primarily, her subjects are domesticated animals, like Ayres's English bulldog or Heidi Medas's two horses - Beshana, an Arabian, and her daughter's quarterhorse thoroughbred mix Luke. Collette's photo of the horses in their field is displayed in Medas's Norton home.

Collette has also taken photos at Black Feather Horse Rescue, a non-profit Medas is involved in.

"She's very patient and has a good time with them," Medas said of Collette, who charges $150 for a one- to two-hour photo session for a single animal. It includes healthy treats and a toy.

Medas, who has three children, said she hired Collette to take photos of her horses "because no matter how good I think I might be with a camera, I'm not. It's something I could never do."

"Just like kids are kids, animals are animals, and she's extremely quick," Medas said of Collette's photography skills.

And the more pets in a picture, the bigger the challenge, like getting Francine Gordon of Foxboro's five huskies into a single photo.

"It's something I had always wanted - a professional photograph of them," said Gordon, who plans to hire Collette to take more photos of the dogs in her backyard this summer. One of the huskies belongs to her brother and another to her sister, but she babysits them.

"We don't have children," Gordon said. "The dogs are like our babies."

She considers her siblings' huskies her "niece and nephew."

Gordon said she has tried to photograph the huskies herself, but they have blue eyes and that usually translates to "red eye" in the pictures. "And one always moves and it ruins the picture," she added.

"They come out so much nicer" when a pro takes them, Gordon said.

One photo of the five huskies taken by Collette adorns a wall in Gordon's house. "It's awesome," Gordon said.

Collette said a favorite shot of hers is of a horse named Hersey. She photographed him in front of some sunflowers in sunlight, and his eyes are closed in the picture. The light highlighted the sinew in his muscles, she said, adding that the horse "looked noble."

The photo holds special meaning, Collette said, because Hersey died of old age not long after she took the picture.

"A lot of my clients treat their animals like children. They want to keep those memories," she said.

SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.