Hi Dee Dee

A lot of questions with pretty simple solutions. Can you post some examples. Everything on your website is art work and very well done I might add.
1) Table is OK with little dogs but getting big dogs up are a lot of trouble.
2)What is the background light doing? too bright too dark?
3) What do you use a gel for? colored, neutral density?
4)I find white (high key) that hardest background to work with in a limited environment. It requires too much light to illuminate it. I usually have to small lights at right angles, on the floor to illuminate a white background
5)As far as extra bulbs (for strobes?) how about extra lights. "Sync" cords come in a variety of lengths but I find that radio slaves are handier. Most digital SLR's have infrared remotes available instead of cable releases.
6) As far as shadows are concerned I usually have my lights high so as the shadow would be below the subject as much as possible or have the background light (if you use one) eliminate them.
My typical set-up (on location) is (1) one mono light on a light stand with a softbox (or umbrella) with a radio slave. It is usually above the photographers head and pointed down at the animals. I try to have the animals as far away from the background as possible (6 feet).
In my studio I have a main light, a fill light, a hair light(background light). I do have a table for the animal that is usually covered in some soft material. I have my camera on a tripod with a radio slave. If eye color is important I have 2 main lights at 90 degree angles. I do have some recent examples (studio) at bsvirginian.smugmug.com