Client Session ~ Albert the Labrador x Mastiff

Albert and his mum Drene have been together a long time. Twelve years ago, Drene watched Albert being born, at the time not knowing he would end up with her. In the years that have passed since then, they’ve been through so much. Making the move from New Zealand to Australia, spending 8 months in the UK together and now, Albert has been diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer. Surgery isn’t an option but Drene is doing everything she can to try and treat and cure Albert, including alternative medicine treatments, a special diet and endless amounts of love.

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.

Client Session ~ Odin the Golden Retriever and Inara the Labrador Retriever

Odin and Inara’s parents were lucky enough to win a photography session with me in the Golden Retriever Club of Queensland’s Silent Auction a few months ago. These are two of the most chilled out retrievers you’ll ever meet, guaranteed!

We had the session at a family members place they hadn’t visited much before, so they were pretty keen to check out all the new smells. Inara is just 12 months old and definitely the most relaxed Labrador Retriever pup I’ve come across. She has the sweetest face and who couldn’t love the cute little ridge on her nose?

Like one typical of her breed, she loves playing in water, happily digging all the water out of a bucket, before discovering this ornamental fountain! I’m sure she thought it was put there just for her to drink out of and play in.

Odin the Golden Retriever is a rescue, estimated to be about 3 years old, who joined the family after Inara. They instantly became best friends! Something tells me though that the gorgeous Odin would quite happy get along with anyone or any dog he’s introduced to.

The two get on famously and while content to just chill out near each other, when I brought out a squeaky there was a bit more excitement in the air, so they took it up and notch and gave us a demonstration of their play fighting abilities!

The backyard we were in is a lovely location, with a deck, lovely green grass and gardens. It provided some great colours and textures for backgrounds!

Odin really is just a big cuddle bunny.

He loves lying flat out on his back getting belly rubs from his Mum, I swear he’s smiling here!

Being such a chilled out and happy boy, it was hard to get him to look alert for his starring shots! I managed here, but of course the lip caught up in his teeth kind of spoils the effect. It’s a pretty good representation of his character though!

Odin and Inara’s parents were keen to get some pics of the two dogs together, so we set them up and I snapped away and got lucky enough to score this one. I had to save up my most crazy high pitched noise for this and it paid off with the dual head tilt action, awesome!

Thanks for letting me spend the afternoon with you and your lovely dogs! It was a pleasure.

Client Session ~ Odin and Inara {black & white set}

While working on the black & white conversions of the shots of these guys, I was consistently delighted at how they were coming out! So delighted in fact that I’ve decided to create a blog post dedicated just to my favourite black & white images from this session. Their proper ‘story’ blog post will be coming soon in full colour, but in the meantime, please enjoy this set!

Client Session ~ Scout and Nelle the Labrador Retrievers

We’d booked Scout and Nelle’s session for daybreak but when I arrived, it was still quite dark! Not being used to the sunrise/sunset times in Melbourne, I’d taken a guess and been just a bit too much on the safe side. Scout and Nelle’s Mum and Dad were good sports though about the early start, so we all packed into the car and headed to their local park. When we arrived, the whole place, which was actually a series of sports fields, was covered in a thick blanket of fog. It was also quite chilly, not at all what I was used to back on the Gold Coast!

It didn’t slow the dogs down in the slightest though. As soon as we were out of the car and on the ovals, they were racing around madly after their beloved tennis balls. The light was a bit dim to get sharp action shots, but this gives you a pretty good picture of the ‘fog dogs’.

With active dogs such as these, it’s always a good idea to let them run off a bit of energy before the serious modelling business begins, so we spent a good half hour playing ball! The sun finally made an appearance and started clearing away the fog, though it hung around for quite some time in pockets. The light was worth waiting for, just beautiful.

Scout is the older of the pair at two years of age. He seems to take the lead in most situations with younger Nelle (10 months) happy to follow.

The morning light didn’t let us down with beautiful golden rays coming through the trees. I’m totally in love with this shot!

And I love this candid of Nelle at the park. Black dogs can sometimes be tricky to get shots of that look good in black and white, but her eyes in this one just make it.

Eventually lots of other dogs started arriving at the park and with Scout being such a social boy and needing to say meet and greet most of them, we decided to pack up and head home for some more relaxed photos. Doesn’t Scout look handsome in this shot in a patch of sunlight?

I thought we might have done too good of a job wearing them out, but with some tasty treats on hand, they soon perked up.

Scout’s happy face was tending to feature in most of the shots.

So we gave him a rest from the camera for  a while and concentrated on the beautiful Nelle for a while. I just loved her on their red bed!

Such a sweet and gentle girl.

Photo sessions can be pretty tiring for the pups – it’s a combination of physical and mental stimulation that tends to make them crash out for the rest of the day, so my clients tell me! Here’s my final shot of Scout, well on his way to having a well-earned rest.

Client Session ~ Harley the Labrador Retriever

Harley is the second black Labrador Retriever I’ve photographed in the last few months. I love working with Labs as in my experience they are always friendly, happy and willing to please! Harley was no exception to this rule, what a lovely dog.

From the moment I arrived and he greeted me with a wagging tail and lots of enthusiasm, he was always there, willing to pose anywhere we asked and just happy hanging out and being the centre of attention.

He loves to camp out at his favourite spot on the deck, watching for visitors and waiting for his owners and other exciting new people to come up the stairs and say hello to him.

A well behaved boy, he also is happy to hang out in the front yard looking gorgeous.

By the end of the session, he’d completely mastered the ‘how cute am I? now just give me the treat!!’ look.

To finish up we moved to the back deck. I just loved how the blue rails worked in so well with his colouring.

Big paws!