An alpaca's file should let you see the animal twice: as it stands, and as its fleece grows. A standard set of photographs, taken the same way each year and filed under the animal's own identity, does both — and it turns shearing day into the best record-keeping opportunity of the alpaca year.
The standard conformation views
Photograph each alpaca standing square on level ground, ideally against a plain background in even light. Take a side profile showing the whole animal — topline, neck set, legs and head carriage — then a front view for the straightness of the forelegs and a rear view for the hocks and hindquarters. Keep the camera at the same height and distance each year so successive sets compare honestly; a photograph taken looking down on the animal makes every back look dipped. Note anything the camera cannot hold — a slight turn of one foot, a tendency to stand camped behind — as a written line in the same file, because next year's comparison needs the words as well as the pictures.
Fleece close-ups at shearing
Shearing is when the fleece can be judged truthfully, so take the fleece photographs then: part the staple at the midside and photograph the opened fleece showing density, crimp character and lustre; photograph the blanket as it comes off the animal; and take a handful of the staple against a contrasting background. Add a shot of anything that concerns you — coarseness creeping up into the blanket, a colour variation, a patch of damage or tenderness. Label which animal each fleece belongs to before the bags multiply. Fleece photographs detached from their animal are decoration, not records, and shearing day generates them far faster than memory can sort them afterwards.
Labelling and filing discipline
Every photograph goes into the animal's own file, marked with the animal's identity and the date, on the day it is taken. File the set in a fixed order — profile, front, rear, fleece — so that browsing the file reads like turning the pages of the same book each year. Keep the photo file with the alpaca's other permanent records: identification, breeding history and health notes. Resist keeping a separate folder of the flattering shots for showing or selling. A record file with the unflattering photographs quietly removed is a file that will mislead you about your own herd, which is the one audience a record must never deceive.
Using the file across the years
Laid year against year, the sets answer real questions. Is this female's fleece holding its density as she ages, or opening up? Has the young male's leg conformation improved as he matured, in the way you hoped when you kept him? Which matings produced youngsters whose first fleeces photograph like their sire's? The file also travels well beyond the herd: a vet can see how the animal stood before an injury, and a buyer can be shown an honest progression rather than a single posed moment from the animal's best day.
KinsLe's Pet Passport keeps an animal's records together in one portable packet, so each alpaca's photo file lives alongside its identification, breeding and health details as one permanent record.