Category Archives: Dogs

Client Session ~ Milly and Mack the Rottweilers

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We actually arrived before sunrise for this very early morning beach session and in a short time were greeted by this beautiful sight. Getting up early for these sessions is so worth it, especially with a perfect clear sky like this!

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!

Client Session ~ Albert the Labrador x Mastiff

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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 ~ Kane, Heli, Angel and Tiger the Greyhounds

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I just love Greyhounds. When deciding what breed of dog to get originally, I’d seriously considered adopting one of these beautiful dogs, however they were pipped at the post eventually by my love of Great Danes. There are a lot of misconceptions about the sort of pets that Greyhounds make, mainly due to people mistakenly thinking they have boundless energy and need lots of exercise and a big yard. I’ll put that theory to rest right now by saying, this foursome were the. laziest. dogs. I have ever had the pleasure of working with.

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

Client Session ~ Gus the Great Dane and Ollie the Silky Terrier x Maltese

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For the second of my Adelaide sessions, the weather was not nearly as cooperative. As I was driving to the session, I went through periods of thinking ‘oh no, it’s gonna be raining the whole time!’ to ‘oh look there’s the sun out again, it’ll be fine!’ Arriving at the house, I found a lovely big undercover area out the back so we were pretty much set regardless!

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!

Photo Session ~ Red and Darrah

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After my recent trip to Adelaide, photographing the gorgeous Lexie and Chloe and also Gus and Ollie (blog post to come!), we embarked on a road trip heading home to Queensland via a couple of stops. We stopped in for a couple of days in Millicent, a little town on the South Australian coast, and stayed with a family friend and her two gorgeous dogs.

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!