When I was little I used to read to Niki, she would just sit next to me and sleep or listen. Niki is my 9 year old purebred brittany spaniel. I am her "human" as we like to call it. She is very loyal and protective of me from my other dog Rori. She is good at comforting me and getting hugged. I love her so much and miss her when I'm gone. The environment around her in the picture is my backyard because she spends a lot of the day patrolling for squirrels out there. The first image is her looking over at what is usually a sound but is a biscuit for the picture. The second image is how she usually looks at Rori playing around but I took it by standing still and letting her look wherever she wanted to. The biggest challenge was getting her to hold her head in one place in good lighting. Another challenge was making both eyes, in the image on the left, to be the same brightness but keeping the full eye the focal point of the picture. The main triumph I feel I have accomplished while taking these portraits is getting a staged photo to look relaxed and interesting.