Laurel was lucky enough to win the raffle at the 2011 Million Paws Walk at Miami which included a mini session with me. She came up to my stall on the day and was so excited she’d won. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the session ever since.

We originally booked the session in for before Christmas, but due to the weather we had to reschedule so many times I lost count. Patient clients are the best! Eventually though we had a beautiful afternoon to work with and I am so happy with how the light looks in the photos. I can’t stress enough how much of a difference beautiful light makes to the final look of your images.

Some of you might be familiar with this well known dog beach on the Gold Coast – called “the Spit” – it’s popular with locals and probably the least touristy beach on the coast. The ramp up to the kiosk at the start of the jetty is where we started our session.

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about our session beforehand, because what I remember about Geoff was him racing around madly on the the beach with Luna. I had a sneaking suspicion that it would be hard to get him to stay still for more than two seconds! My fears were totally unfounded though, as well as having an active social beachy life, Geoffrey is also very well trained!

I am in love with this shot of Geoffrey with the kiosk in the background.

Geoff goes to obedience classes regularly and his mum Laurel actually volunteers at the Animal Welfare League, teaching kids how to interact with and train dogs. The result is of course, Laurel having a very well behaved boy.

The path behind the dunes heading up the very end of the Spit is one of my favourite places to shoot. I love the colours and the late afternoon sunshine makes the scene come to life.

The dunes are awash with little yellow flowers at this time of year and although Geoff is a big tough man-dog, I couldn’t resist posing him in front of them.

Further down the beach, the last of the afternoon light was just starting to drop behind the dunes. The view down the coastline includes the towers and buildings of Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and beyond, leaving you in no doubt that you’re on the Gold Coast!

Every time we had Geoff “stay” in a particular spot, when we’d finished Laurel would release him and he’d come racing along the dunes towards us, jumping big gaps between the dunes in some very impressive leaps and bounds.

Another aspect I love about shooting at the Spit are the dune trees – their long spindly bare branches make for an interesting background.

I couldn’t resist this shot of Geoffrey, silhouetted against the sky as the sun was setting.

Although he was rather tired (his second trip to the beach that day), Geoffrey was good enough to give me a lovely head tilt to finish off the session. I love this boy! Thanks for a great session Geoff and Laurel, I will have to bring Luna down for a trip to the Spit sometime soon.

To begin with though, meet Biscuit.

The session took place at a park on Mount Tamborine and after scoping out the area and deeming it safe, Biscuit was let off lead. Not 5 minutes into our session, he spotted a rabbit! Luckily with some quick thinking by Mechalle and excellent training, Biscuit was recalled and a crisis averted. Anyone who owns or is familiar with sight hounds will know this is not an easy feat!

After a bit of a shaky start to life, originating from an unplanned litter which could not be registered as racing dogs and with no less than four different homes by the age of 11 weeks, Biscuit found his way into the home of Mechalle and husband Graeme.

At just 3 and a half years old, he’s actually officially known as Biscuit CCD JDX SD SPD ET – which means he has titles in agility, obedience AND endurance. In fact, he holds the honour of being the first Greyhound in Queensland with the ET (endurance) title and the second in Australia!

What a clever boy!

With all this training under his collar, he also makes a fantastic model, staying just where we put him and responding beautifully to treats and toys being tossed around. Of course there were birds in the trees to check out too…

Big sister Checke is had a somewhat different start in life. She raced until she was three and a half, then retired. Mechalle and Graeme fostered her and when it was time to move onto her forever home, she had something to say about it – protesting very loudly – until it was decided that she would stay on with her favourite person in the world, Graeme.

On previous occasions when trying for photos, Checke had been a most unwilling model. She seemed to be a lot more relaxed outdoors though (previous attempts had been in a studio) and my sneaky long lens proved a real advantage.

Mechalle noted that Checke never sits down like this but we figured out it must have been because she was on a steep hill, how funny!

Checke was also quite happy lying down in the grass, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. What a stunning old girl she is at 10 years old.

Towards the end of the session, we managed to get both dogs sitting and laying down in the general vicinity of each other. If there is something I love most about photographing Greyhounds, it’s that they’re usually quite content to stay in the same place for a while, with very little encouragement!

To finish off, how awesome are Checke’s ears! One up, one down.

Checke and Biscuit were both adopted through a great Greyhound rescue organisation called Friends of the Hound. To find out more about adopting a Greyhound of your own, please check out Friends of the Hound Greyhound Adoption Group. They do fantastic work!

Grant’s job takes him away from home quite a bit, so miss Maddie is Ange’s constant faithful companion while he is away. Another reason I was looking forward to this session was the location – these guys are lucky enough to live in beautiful northern NSW, just inland from Tweed Heads and surrounded by green rolling hills, country roads and lakes.

We started off the session on the deck of their house. The light filtering through the surrounding foliage was gorgeous.

Although more than happy to play fetch all day long, Miss Maddie was less than eager for her close ups. We worked out that the focus beep of my camera sounded rather similar to the warning sound her collar made when nearing the boundary fence of their property (as Maddie does love to roam). Also, big professional cameras can be pretty intimidating even without the beeping!

We did end up getting a few cute shots on the deck anyway, the afternoon colours of the filtered sunshine were amazing against her black and white.

To Maddie’s relief, we soon bundled into the car and headed off to a country road nearby where she often enjoys meandering walks with lots of her favourite thing – fetching sticks!

This girl LOVES her sticks and is never far from one!

Maddie was much happier out on the road in familiar territory, and of course sticks make everything in life that much better!

I love this shot of Maddie racing towards her stick, with such an intense look on her face!

With the help of her beloved sticks, we even managed to get some lovely close ups of her out and about enjoying her walk, totally in her element.

Since the session was organised on the sly without Ang knowing, we were able to complete the experience with a surprise viewing and ordering session at their home – we set everything up and when Ang came home from work there was a lovely slideshow of all Maddie’s images on the TV in their lounge room! I love seeing people’s reactions as they view their images for the first time!

The late afternoon light at the beach was just perfect and played up Comet’s lovely thick golden coat when backlit.

Not to be outshone, Sun worked the light too and looked much more alert than her age of 10 years would suggest.

Comet had me in stitches with his upside-down stick chewing antics.

Whereas Sun was quite happy to pose it up in the sunshine near the rocks.

Earlier in the afternoon before heading to the beach we’d had a bonding session in the backyard, and these two proved to be excellent models.

This is one year old Mack – he loved soaking up the early morning sunshine and exploring the beach, so he pretty much stole the show early on in our session.

I love this flying tongue and head-tilt shot all in one!

Mack and his big sister Milly (older by only 6 months) are the best of friends.

Mack loves to chase flying sand and water, and puts on quite a show!

I don’t think Milly really understands the concept, but she’s happy to join in and give the jumping Mack a hard time!

Nothing better than a happy wet sandy dog at the beach!

Later at the dog park, Milly proved to be the more attentive model.

Mack preferred to be intruiged by a tractor at the other end of the park and I managed to capture some very attentive looks from him.

A family portraits was on the cards, luckily the dogs were pretty worn out by the stage and happy to pose with their mum and dad.

You can tell these guys really love their dogs!

Their bond is immediately visible. Like an embarrassed schoolboy, Albert looks shyly away when his mum attacks him with kisses but always goes back for more when she’s done, lavishing her with licks to the face. In some ways he’s still such a curious puppy, but mixed in with that is the wise old man, lying peacefully on the grass under the trees, watching the world go by.

When downloading the photos, the very first shot I took of them was this one and I love it. I’ll leave the rest to speak for themselves. Good luck Albert, you are a special boy and oh so loved.

Angel and Tiger were first up. Tiger at 6 years old has never raced, due to his size. He’s a big goofy boy and has been a loved pet for all of his life.

Early on in the session, after a quick sniff around the yard, he settled himself down and was quite content just lying there looking gorgeous.

Alexis had only had him for 6 weeks when we had our session but he’d settled in well already. I love this shot of him enjoying the sunshine in the yard.

He was certainly the most playful of all of them, happily engaging in a game of tug-o-war with me. This was rather exciting apparently, and resulted in him having a brief zoomie episode around the yard for all of about 2 minutes.

Six year old Angel shared the yard with Tiger, and spent most of time lounging around, tongue lolling out sideways from her mouth. Just like this really.

With a bit of rolling around on her back too for good measure.

Angel hasn’t always had it so good. She never raced but came from an abusive home at 3 years old. She has very few of her teeth left and I shudder to think the kind of life she had before she was rescued.

Greyhounds always seem to have their little ears tucked back, I guess to be as streamlined as possible! They do create some lovely ear folds for me to photograph though.

They can also be very expressive – here’s Tiger looking very alert – what a cutie!

The next pair, Kane and Heli, were rather shocked at being asked to hang around in the back yard when there were comfy beds on offer elsewhere, so we relocated to the patio area and set up some plush beds for them there which were much more to their taste.

At 11 1/2 years old, Heli is a beautiful old girl. Due to a shocking injury sustained while racing, she was retired at 3 1/2 years old. She had one litter which didn’t turn out as hoped, so was desexed and rehomed with Alexis’ grandma.

With all the responsibility of having a dog around the place, Heli helped to extend her life at home by another 12 months before she needed to go into a nursing home. Greyhounds are amazing therapy dogs and this is just one of the many cases where they have been beneficial for elderly or sick people. With faces like these, it’s no wonder they give people a new lease on life.

Alexis regularly visits the hospital with her dogs, in fact Kane was adopted specifically with that purpose in mind.

When he retired from racing at 4 1/2 years old, Alexis adopted him and he has spent the last 5 or so years as a therapy dog.

Having photographed this gorgeous foursome, I’ve fallen in love with Greyhounds all over again!

As well as working with her dogs as therapy dogs, Alexis is also a fully qualified canine massage therapist. Kane was a willing model as Alexis did a quick demonstration. These images, along with some of the portraits above, will be used on her upcoming website. I’ll be sure to post a link to it from my Facebook page when it’s live for those of you who might be interested in her massage services.

Alexis also works with ‘Friends of the Hound’ which is a volunteer-based, not-for-profit Greyhound adoption program covering from the Northern Rivers area of NSW through to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. These guys do a great job of matching Greyhounds that are surplus from the racing industry (and there are a lot of them) with suitable and loving homes.

If you’d like to find out more about adopting a Greyhound through Friends of the Hound, please visit their website www.friendsofthehound.org.au. Make sure you check out their Facebook page too – www.facebook.com/friendsofthehound

Now who was waiting for me there you ask?

Meet the first of my two gorgeous subjects. Gus the Great Dane is gangly teenager of 18 months old. Even for a Great Dane and even not being fully grown yet, this boy is one of the tallest I’ve met (and I’ve met a lot!).

Gus is the king of his backyard and demonstrated how well he uses the small space by racing down the stairs from the deck, then back up the rock garden beds to the level of the house, which is about 2 metres high, in two huge leaps, making it look very easy in the process!

Unfortunately due to the low light, small space and sheer athleticism of Gus, I didn’t manage to get a photo of this feat but trust me, it was nothing short of spectacular. This is the aftermath of one of these demonstrations, ears fashionably cast back (Luna would be impressed) and big pink tongue poking out at me. Nice look, Gus!

When the rain finally gave us a break, Gus was up for some serious modelling in the backyard.

We even decided to push our luck and go for a quick walk to the local park around the corner. There were lots of interesting things to look at with people moving around in their yards and bins being put out for the night, so we managed some very alert looking shots of Gus showing off his handsome head.

This is a personal favourite, what a stunning boy!

We got back to the house just as the next shower came over so it was back under the shelter of the deck for us and time to focus on my next subject, Ollie.

Ollie is a four year old Silky Terrier cross Maltese. Gotta love those bottom teeth making an appearance!

Ollie and Gus are quite the pair, definitely the tall and the short of it.

I’ll finish with one of my favourite shots from the session!

Thanks for having me for the afternoon Michelle, it was great fun hanging out with you and your gorgeous pups!

Meet Red. He’s a striking looking Wolfhound with the most amazing eyes.

And Darrah, who is a Kangaroo Dog. They’re a type rather than an official breed and come from Greyhound and Scottish Deerhound origins, with the rough coated versions referred to as Staghounds. They were specially bred in Australia to hunt game such as kangaroo and later to help control the feral fox, rabbit and pig population. They were also used to protect livestock.

For more information about this breed, see the Australian Kangaroo Dog website.

Darrah was brought home as an 8 week old pup. She has the sweetest nature and just wants cuddles and pats from whoever she can get them from!

Her big bro Red was rescued from an abusive home at 12 months old. He is very sweet but is still afraid of some people when he meets them, especially men. It took a couple of days for him to trust my partner enough to let him close enough to pat him.

The scenery there was gorgeous. We took the dogs for a run in the field next to the house and they were at home in the long grass, their colouring blending almost perfectly with the tall fronds.

This is the view seen the most, head down, tail up.

Both dogs are much loved members of a family.

Red absolutely adores his Mum!

Thanks for having us stay Elaine!