Penny is a sweet vizsla who’s spent most of her life right next to her dad. And I mean that quite literally – Penny’s family adopted her when she was very young, and her favorite place to be is only a few inches away from her favorite person in the world! Nothing can tempt her away from her dad’s side: not toys, other dogs, or even a treat… she even seems to think treats taste better when they come from his hand, haha!

For our photo session, we visited Mission Trails Regional Park and Lindo Lake County Park. While Mission Trails is already one of my favorite locations, I’d never been to Lindo Park before – so Penny showed me all around! It was a gorgeous sunny day, and we had a great time together!

I love photographing dogs that have close relationships with their humans, and it’s clear to anyone who meets her that Penny is head-over-heels for her dad. But to be totally honest with you, this photo session was a bit challenging for me! Penny was totally disinterested in my silly noises, trigger words (like “walkies!”) and treats. All the antics I typically use to earn a dog’s attention were simply not interesting to this little vizsla, as she preferred to take in her surroundings instead. (Or just look at her dad to see what he was thinking.) So I had a bit of a creative workout during our session, haha! I soon realized that Penny’s ears perked up whenever I threw something – so my treat bag became a toy, and I tossed it (and other random objects) around all afternoon! And at first, I really wanted to figure out the secret of getting her attention, but you know what – Penny wasn’t focused on me because she’s an independent little lady. She has a unique personality and her affection is clearly earned over time, over years of steadfast friendship… so while we don’t have as many photos of her looking at the camera with perked ears (a few of them actually do exist, haha – one is below!) we have plenty more photos of Penny scoping out her environment, perhaps envisioning the next adventure she’ll have with her dad. And I love that about her! So while she was overall unimpressed by me & my camera, her personality still shone through in our session, and I think we created some gorgeous, unique portraits of this sweet girl.

Penny was happy to go for a little walk on the trail with her dad, for a break from “posing”!

Such a sweet little lady.

Lindo Park is Penny’s happy place, and it shows. She was really pleased to be there.

Sandi & Nihil, thank you so much for the chance to meet your beautiful girl! I’ll see you again soon!

Tags: dogs, park, pet photography, pets, photography, San Diego, San Diego Dog Photographer, San Diego pet photography, senior