Bubba is a super-sweet old border collie whom I had the honor of meeting on Saturday. We had a great session – he was a patient model, he made us laugh throughout the whole hour, and we scheduled a follow-up session for outdoor photos later this week! At a glance, it was a wonderful time, and a typical experience for my clients. But under the surface, unfortunately, we were working with a very time-sensitive purpose: at 13, Bubba has stopped eating his meals and appears to be in a bit of chronic pain. His mom Kim doesn’t think he has much time left, so we got together as SOON as possible. And while that thought made the session harder than most, it also made it SO important. (Future clients, please know that if your dog is in a similar condition, I make it a policy to drop what I’m doing and come to you immediately. When time is short I don’t want to leave anything to chance, and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure you have beautiful portraits of your dog, even if it’s in his or her last hours.)
Enjoy these photos of Bubba – hopefully I’ll have even more to blog (from a gorgeous farm, with horses!) by the end of the week!
We found a couch to relax on, and that was a bit more comfortable for Bubba…
But mostly he just wanted to be close to mom.
Thank you so much for the privilege of working with your family, Kim. I’ll see you soon!
Here’s just a quick post since I’m out of town (in Portland, Oregon) on a “working vacation”… these pups should look familiar! I suppose you could call this an extended Sneak Peek since their mom has to be so patient before she can see the rest. Enjoy, Lori!
You probably expected to see golden retrievers, labradors, or perhaps setters of some kind upon reading this post title. Those are outdoorsy breeds that probably love kayak trips, right? Well I have a surprise for you: this session features a miniature poodle and a rat terrier! Ha! This is just one of the things I love about dogs: breed “standards” oftentimes don’t matter at all! Each dog is unique, with his or her own likes and dislikes, and you just can’t pigeonhole a dog because of his or her breed. My clients have pups with totally individual personalities and I love capturing that!
Gracie is a ten-year-old miniature poodle that her mom rescued from a puppy mill. This poor, sweet girl has given birth to 149 puppies in her lifetime. Did you hear that? Should I say it again? One hundred and forty nine!!! Some love and TLC is WAY overdue for miss Gracie. Chief, on the other hand, is just ten months old, and he’s a little more wary of strangers than Gracie. But I’m so glad he found such a great family so early in his life! These dogs’ dad, Andrew, will be deploying soon, so we did our best to get him some great photos of his furkids before he leaves!
Gracie is a natural in the kayak!
Chief was… a bit unsure. :)
Don’t they make a cute pair?
I hope you enjoyed their Sneak Peek, Kirsten! I’ll see you soon!
Sunday, June 10th was a big day in the Shamrell household: Bailey turned three! Does this mean she’s no longer a “puppy”? Oh who am I kidding, I’ll always call her my puppy! :) (Side note: she’s 21 in dog years, so we’ve ordered a few age-appropriate beverages for her that’ll hopefully arrive soon!)
We celebrated the occasion with two walks, plenty of treats, a new knuckle bone, and CAKE! I spent the previous day in Ft. Walton Beach at the dog boutique 3 Dogs & A Chick, so really, I had very little choice in the matter. Their cute cake designs were just staring me in the face. I had to get one for her. They let me choose the color scheme, so I asked for the confetti sprinkles (because they’re fun) and pink writing, because Bailey’s a very girly dog. She is! – all her dog-sitters comment on how ladylike she is, and plus she’s so gosh darn pretty, so pink was a natural choice. Oh, and the cake is peanut butter flavored!
Sometimes I love the details so much, that I think about being a product photographer… but then again I think those photographers must have a TREMENDOUS tolerance for boredom, because really, there aren’t any living creatures in their work! Just thinking about spending all day with inanimate objects (instead of dogs) induces a yawn. So I guess product photography is not for me.
Okay, there is a story behind why Bailey looks semi-miserable in this photo. We got her up in the chair, and the cake was in front of her all ready to go, and what do I do? Strike a match to light her candles, of course! But I didn’t even think that it might scare her (which is embarrassing) because she has no reaction to our outdoor tiki torches or any other fire I can think of… but I guess the actual creation of the flame was what spooked her. So she jumped out of the chair in a panic, poor thing. We finally got her back up and slid the cake in front of her, but she looked SO sad – the only way I even got her ears up was by saying “wanna go for a walk?” which of course we weren’t going for at 8:00 at night, so I guess that makes me even MORE of a terrible mom, taunting her with a walk. Sigh… so we took one halfway-decent photo and let her escape the terror of the dining room table.
She also had ice cream, which was the initial favorite – she licked it up quickly!
After cutting the cake into quarters (because it’s HUGE) this is what our freezer looked like. Pretty awesome freezer if you ask me! :) (And yes, those are the TGI Friday frozen dinners in the background… we think they’re delicious so don’t judge!)
Here’s Bailey’s plan of attack for the cake: lick the entire exterior, THEN start nibbling. She didn’t tear into it, as I imagine many dogs would. Here’s a quick video showing the beginning of the process…
And here’s a longer video showing her dainty way of getting into the knuckle bone I wrapped for her… it was her main present because she loves these things, they are her absolute favorite toys, and it’ll last a few months no problem. It was fun to see her discover it so cautiously!
Happy birthday, Bailey – you’re a blessing to our little family and we’re ridiculously happy we found you. Here’s to plenty more birthdays with you!!
These two dogs, although they look similar, couldn’t be more different! Bally and Cuda are sisters (recently-made big sisters to a little two-legger!) and live in Pensacola. Cuda is the older one at 4 (and I think she thinks she’s wiser, as well) and is a black labrador mix. She’s a bit smaller than most labs, and something in her face makes me think she could be a hound mix too… but she’s a low-maintenance, simple dog that just does her own thing. Bally, on the other hand, is 2 and still has a TON of puppy in her! She has tons of energy and is always ready to be the center of attention! I kept laughing when we were working with them, because despite Bally wanting to romp all over the house, she was a bit easier to work with than Cuda: Bally responds to commands very well (I hear she’s doing great in obedience class over at Best Paw Forward!) and will do anything for a treat. And so, counter-intuitively, even though her parents joke about Cuda being the “easy” dog and so calm, especially around the new baby, Cuda definitely has an independent spirit. She wanted to do exactly what she wanted to do, and while we were able to coax her with treats some of the time, it mostly took patience on my end to let Cuda come around to working for the camera. They were a fascinating duo to work with, and while I think my technical skills get a little better with each session, this one was definitely a “push” for me! :)
Bally is on the left, and Cuda is on the right… see what I mean about their different personalities?
We managed to get a few posed photos of the girls together! I like this one :)
I hope you enjoyed your Sneak Peek, Sally & Jackie! I’ll be in touch soon!
