For a series of vignettes of unemployed individuals, I was sent to get a shot of Duane Crouse, who uses the internet for job-seeking. When I got to his home that morning it was just him and the two family dogs.

Since it's nearly always a good idea to include animals and kids-- they're lively and unpredictable, which helps to generate more good situations for photos-- and since these animals are sometimes allowed inside during the day, I requested that they be brought in.

The spot where he uses the computer had a miserably busy, contrasty and bright background, so I added a little bit of lighting: a blue-gelled strobe to the left. Then I shot frames as the animals did their thing.

Predictably, the unpredictable animals generated lots of good shots:

And here's my personal favorite:

During the editing of this assignment, several of us opted for this last shot. People looked at it, they saw that there's a guy at a computer, then after another moment realized that the dog was peeing on the carpet. Everyone laughed.

When choosing which photo to put in the paper, we usually will opt for the funny one. But this guy is unemployed, and he's got a blended family with many kids. He, himself, might see the humor, but to many readers it would look like we were ridiculing him.

So we opted for another shot. Yes it has less humor, but it also has less pathos: