After some rather humorous out-takes involving a pair of very unhappy-looking kitties (think bared teeth, body contortions and ears laid right back), we put that idea aside and eventually worked up it, starting with some shots of each individual cat.

Sahara is a two year old Bengal and is a real stunner. I love those leopard spots which are legacy of her wild cat heritage – Bengals are actually hybrids between Asian Leopard Cats and domestic cats, though a few generations removed from a direct cross.

She is alert and playful, always keeping an eye on what’s going on and very inquisitive about everything.

Julius is a four year old Ragdoll and is much more laid back, typical of the breed, very cruisy and cuddly. Except when be is being held and we’re trying to get photos of him, of course!

What a gorgeous fluff ball he is.

Out in the garden it was easy to see Sahara’s wild heritage. She has these amazing wildcat-like stalking and trotting gaits, not like your regular domestic kitty.

Heidi and David’s yard was a great spot for some casual portraits, with the late afternoon sun filtering through the trees. We initially had them lying here with Sahara, but unfortunately Sahara didn’t wish to co-operate and after much wiggling and protesting, regained her freedom and ran off. These shots are the aftermath of this, there was lots of laughing and it just goes to show what a great relaxed fun loving couple these two are!

Julius was a little more co-operative and we managed to get a few shots with him before he had had enough. This is my favourite of these guys.

Sahara was off busy hunting and patrolling her territory, I think she’d spotted a bird here. We managed to stalk her and grab her for one last attempt.

When working with animals, patience is the number one attribute to have. Luckily it paid off towards the end of the session and we managed to capture a number of images with Sahara, this being my favourite.

Despite the fact our feline models were somewhat less than willing at times, I had a fantastic time with these guys and there was much laughter and chats. Thanks for a great afternoon Heidi and David!

I just thought I’d include some praise that Heidi sent through. I love it when clients send me this kind of thing, it does help to know I am on the right track!

“We couldn’t have asked for anyone more professional, lovely and talented to take our photos. Not to mention having a really fun time at the photo shoot. Charlotte has such a natural and amazing style to her photographs that definitely make them stand out. If you are looking or thinking about having some beautiful photographs taken of you and your pets that you will cherish forever, you should definitely get in touch with Charlotte Reeves Photography, you will be so happy with the results.” – Heidi

You can read more praise from my lovely clients on my website.

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.

So, although the family had lost one precious pup in very sad circumstances, the heavens had aligned and sent them two gorgeous girls instead. Meet Lexie (left) and Chloe (right).

We started off our session at a local dog park around mid afternoon. There were a few other dogs around at the time who were very interested in what was going on, espcially when they realised there were treats involved, but we managed to find a lovely little spot down the back on an old log. Getting the girls to stand and balance on the log proved to be somewhat of a mission, but with lots of practice, encouragement, treats and some pretty crazy noises from me, we got there in the end!

The afternoon light coming in from behind really shows off their gorgeous soft hair, framing Lexie with a halo of light. Heaven sent indeed!

I thought this shot deserved some extra special processing to accentuate the late afternoon light and show off the mood of the place. My favourite bit of this image is Lexie’s little back foot in the air, in the middle of taking a step along the log.

When the other dogs at the park became just a bit too distracting, we headed off on a walk around Mawson Lakes to see what we could find.

The perfect little family! How cute are these guys.

Lexie was very interested in the edge of the water and if she wasn’t on a lead, I have no doubt she would have been in there in an instant, splashing about in the reeds.

Not content with just looking, she decided that eating them would be the next best thing!

Chloe was a bit calmer and quite content to stand and have a look around at all the goings on by the edge of the lake.

I love this shot of Lexie with her big tongue!

The boardwalk we found a bit further along provided a great background for some ‘walking on the lead shots’ – love the girls’ expressions – stoked to be out and about!

Soon enough it was time to head back home for some photos in the girls’ backyard. From Carla’s descriptions of the two, I thought Chloe would be the harder one to photograph as she’s a bit of a nature girl, always off chasing bugs and poking around the garden. This wasn’t the case though when there were treats and attention involved, I love her expressions in these shots!

Gorgeous Lexie in the rock garden.

Out of the many, many attempts we made at getting the two girls in a photo together, we managed to get them sitting beautifully next to each other for this shot. It certainly helps to tire them out first!

And I couldn’t resist a shot of their gorgeous feathery legs, I just loved Chloe’s little curly chest hair.

What a pair of hams!

Carla thanks for letting me spend the afternoon with you, it was so lovely to meet you guys and your gorgeous pups. I can’t wait to see what you do with the photos!

His owners Gerard and Christie had arrived about half an hour beforehand so they could get the beans out of him in time for my arrival, but there were still a few beans left by the time I turned up! We started off up in the dunes and although the sky was pretty grey, the muted tones of the sand and sky and ocean in the background ended up complimenting Rafe’s colouring beautifully.

With all that running around, it’s inevitable that sands gets EVERYWHERE.

Lucky mum was there to get it out of his eyes.

Rafe was definitely one of the most fun and energetic dogs I’ve photographed. He was completely at home at the beach, racing around in the sand, digging, burying his head, rolling and all manner of fun sand related doggy activities! What a beachy boy he is.

He was also quite curious and was intruiged enough to follow my camera around, trying to work out exactly what game it was that we were playing.

One of the most popular toys I take along to sessions are these little squeaky animals. They are great to hold and make noises with when trying to juggle a heavy camera and get a dog’s attention. Rafe decided that he LOVED it though and was quick to permanently adopt this little red caterpillar I’d brought along!

He really, really loved it, and spent quite a while lying in the sand burying it, unburying it and generally throwing it around. His antics had all three of us in hysterics for quite some time!

I felt a little mean for confiscating it for a while but don’t worry, he got to take it home with him afterwards. Apparently he was still playing with it days later, although he had managed to de-squeak it (probably to the immense relief of his mum and dad).

Rafe was a wonderfully willing model and consented to being placed up on some rocks for modelling duties. Love those fluffy legs!

Gerard had actually organise the session as a birthday present for his fiance Christie, so we set up a few family shots.

Christie spends a lot of time with Rafe, he’s her constant companion, so we had to take some shots with the both of them. We worked out that at 18 months old, Rafe must be going through that teenager phase. While quite happy to hang out in the general vicinity of his parents, when it came time to get up close for cuddles and love he got rather embarrassed and shamed out and decided he didn’t want a bar of it. Typical teen!

To finish our session off we headed around to the rock wall section of the Spit and Rafe did some further exploring. Definitely in mission mode in this one!

But still quite happy to pose on some rocks for us.

I just loved my session with Rafe and his mum and dad! They were so fun to work with and what a rad little dog! If ever I get a small fluffy dog, I’m gonna order one exactly like him (or possibly have him cloned).

These two furry munchkins are sooo alike, so alike in fact that I may have trouble telling the difference here, so I apologise in advance! They are actually brother and sister, though from different litters as it was a repeat breeding. Dena wanted a non-allergenic dog and found a litter of Poodle x Spaniel pups advertised and just fell in love with the puppies and had a to have one, so Cadbury joined the family.

It soon became obvious that one just wasn’t enough, so they contacted the breeder who just happened to have another litter with the same parents available. Jaffa was chosen and brought home and the two became instant best friends.

These guys are just so cuddly and true to their Poodle heritage, they don’t shed hair.

The family had just finished renovating a lovely little BBQ area in their backyard which made for a great backdrop.

I was in love with those Poodly legs! We managed to get them up onto this old bench chair, the textures suited them so well.

How alike are they!

After the serious modelling business in the backyard was over, we headed to the park where the pair had a big run around in all the open space.

Flying tongues and ears were the order of the day!

I can only tell his because of their colour-coded collars, but that’s Jaffa on the left and Cadbury on the right, having a well-earned break from all their running around.

Dena just loves her babies so we had to get a couple of shots of her with them.

What a crazy and fun pair of pups!

They suggested a dog beach about half an hour’s drive away at Pallarenda, north of Townsville city, so we packed up and headed up there for a look. What a great dog beach! The beach stretches almost uninterrupted down to  Townsville city, with a clear view of Castle Hill in the background. What a fantastic location, thanks for the suggestion guys! Here’s Miss Zoe standing with her Dad, with Townsville and Castle Hill in the background.

Being just a young lass, Zoe can be excitable and doesn’t always come back when she’s called, so we kept her on the lead for the beach part of our session. When her owners decide which images they’d like to use, I can remove the lead digitally resulting in some nice clean leash-free shots! I’ve kept them there for now though as to remove them from every shot would take some time.

Zoe has a pretty crazy set of ears that don’t quite sit flat, so at the slightest breeze they were flying all over the place!

Reuben and Tenielle decided to get a Doberman after they both fell in love with a very sweet black and tan boy owned by Reuben’s parents. After doing some research they stumbled across a young red and tan female advertised in Brisbane. At five and a half months old, she was being rehomed due to the family just not having enough time for her. After a plane ride from Brisbane to Townsville, Zoe was theirs. In Tenielle’s words “We were so happy to have her!  She came off the plane quite afraid, and on the way home I rode in the back seat with her and she layed with her head in my lap all the way.  I was totally smitten!”

Tenielle says about Zoe’s early training, “I took Zoe to Obedience training, though neither of us were the perfect pupil.  One night, when we were repeating a grade, the instructor was going through the paces with the new students, and told the ‘oldies’ to have a chat for a bit.  Whilst I was chatting with one of the other owners, Zoe chewed through her Halti lead and took off on a lap around the park.  Luckily, she just did a big loop, prancing goofily all the way around the park, and came back when I called.  I was so surprised she came back, but also totally relieved!”

While we were at the beach, Zoe’s best mate Khan just happened to turn up. Zoe just loves Khan and will happily follow his lead at the beach, even following him into the water in play (with some coaxing with her favourite red ball as well). Not bad as Zoe is quite afraid of water! Unfortunately there was no time to play with Khan on the day of the shoot, so Zoe had to be content with watching from a distance.

With the sun dipping lower in the sky, we had just enough time for a family portrait or two in the gorgeous beachy backlight.

Before heading back up the beach to the car to drive back home (and a bit of playing on the walk).

Back at home, out came the ball, and Zoe switched modes! This girl is obsessed with her red bouncy ball and would probably quite happy play with it all day.

It was certainly the easiest way to get her focused, her eyes never left it the whole time!

A better view of those crazy ears I mentioned…

If there is one surefire way of keeping this energetic girl happy, it’s endless playing!

After the coffee kicked in, we headed out to the front yard to get some shots before the sun flooded in. Meet Lily and Greta!

Lily is four years old and an awesome mix of Dogue de Bordeaux (aka French mastiff) and Bandog. About a year ago, Lily was rescued from a small town right in the centre of Queensland called Muttaburra. Judy’s daughter was going to foster and rehome her, so Judy and her husband Derek helped out by travelling to Torrens Creek (halfway between Townsville and Muttaburra) to meet up with her former owner and collect her. Once they had her home though, she never left and ended up being adopted permanently.

It’s pretty easy to see why. Aside from her killer head wrinkles and fantastic expressions, Lily is a lovely big cuddly girl who just adores people and pats and is under the mistaken impression that she’s a lap dog. She has also been very good with  some foster puppies. She used to view an open gate as an opportunity but now it’s either “happy, happy – they’re home!” or “awwww – will you be long?” – and seriously, how could you stay away very long when she’s pulling the face on the left?

If you can’t yet had enough of her luscious wrinkles, this should do the trick!

Four year old Greta has a rather more dramatic story. She was found in someone’s yard in Townsville, alone and terrified.  It took four days to catch her and get her to the pound. When she went to her first foster family she had to be carried from the pen to the carpark on her bed as she wouldn’t get up.  The first time Judy saw her she was lying on her bed in a pen at the pound visibly shaking in fear. Judy took her home, only for her to escape from their yard (complete with very high fences) in just a few hours.  She had crossed the busy main road at the front of the property and gone to ground on the river bank on the other side, spending the night there before being discovered in the morning and having to be slowly coaxed out of her hiding spot.

In the year that she’s been with Derek and Judy, she’s come along in leaps and bounds. No longer immediately running and hiding from visitors, she is still cautious, but was coming up to me for pats within a few minutes of my arrival. What a difference! While initially a little less confident around Derek she bonded closely to him when he had time off work with a back injury. He has become her “safe place” when she is in unfamiliar situations.

Obviously Greta has a fair proportion of Great Dane in her breeding, with her gorgeous ‘merlequin’ colouring, blue eyes and sweet little pink and black nose. Her tail however is something else – long, thick and almost kangaroo-like!

After some getting to know you time at their house, we loaded the girls into the car and headed off to their favourite place, a beautiful fenced dog park amid landscaped parkland on the river. Luckily it was early in the morning and we had the park to ourselves. Although Lily is fantastic and gentle with people, she does still have some issues to work through with dogs other than her best friend Greta.

The girls absolutely love going to the park, especially Greta who really comes out of her shell running around, playing and exploring with her beloved sister. With all the space afforded by the dog park she doesn’t feel trapped by people and can relax and play and run to her hearts content.

Although from completely different breeding, the girls are very well matched in size and strength so have an absolute ball together!

For two rescue dogs who didn’t have the best start in life, they play so beautifully together and are very good at sharing!

I love this black and white of the two of them, tongues out, having a rest before racing off to further fun and adventure.

Their best trick at the park is getting up on the dog agility ramp. Usually only because it means they are at head level with their Mum and Dad and are guaranteed get lots of pats and cuddles, but we managed to convince them to stay there for this shot!

After a good run around and lots of playing, the girls were nice and relaxed and treated us to some great doggy expressions.

Greta had been taught by her previous owner this little trick of putting her paws up, very gently luckily. I love the way she gazes into her Mum’s eyes, how sweet!

It was lovely to see Greta so relaxed and happy, quite a different dog than the one I’d first met at her home.

How lucky were these girls to have found their new home and each other! It’s great to know there are stories with happy endings out there, and I’m so glad to have discovered this one.

Zoey’s favourite family member is her human brother, Paul.

Paul lives a long way away from the family home now, but we managed to squeeze in the shoot on one of his visits back home.

Zoey just loves Paul.

We headed to the Botanic Gardens for some different scenery and were greeted with some lovely late afternoon light.

Zoey had a great time pottering around, checking out the ducks in the pond.

She must have thought we were a bit mad when we led her into the garden bed to pose among the flowers, but sat beautifully and posed for us anyway!

Allowing some quiet time for a few detail shots as well.

We found a nice little mini pine forest with a path through the middle that was just begging for more photos of Zoey and Paul together.

Further exploration led us up the garden path to some long reeds and garden beds, making yet another beautiful backdrop!

I just love this one of Zoey on the path, looking at me wondering what on earth I was doing lying on the ground!

One last favourite to finish off.

Wow do these dogs have the life. Living near the bay in Brisbane, they reside in a beautiful old Queenslander house with a lovely back deck, complete with lots of doggy beds to lounge around on. Kathy, their devoted Mum, just loves her babies and it really shows. This is Buster. The shot on the left was the head tilt I managed to get just as he decided that the squeaky noise I made to elicit it was actually quite scary and needed to be barked at! Repeatedly! Until the treats came out and all was forgiven.

Roxsie is the shyest of the bunch and was quite happy to let the other two hog the limelight. She was definitely up for cuddles from her Mum though!

The star of the show and most definitely the most willing model was gorgeous West Highland White Terrier, Maxsie. I’ve decided that if I ever get a little dog, these guys will be first on the list! I love their alert little faces and pointy ears. Maximum cuteness!

Though in the cute stakes, Roxsie is definitely up there too.

Kathy told me that the three pups like to sit on the top step at the front of the house, so we headed there to see what we could do. We even managed to get one dog sitting, one standing and one lying down. How’s that for talented pups! I thought these photos would suit a bit of an antique look so created a cinnamon-toned version which I love.

Their little legs all lined up were adorable and deserved a feature of their own.

Kathy was wearing a beautiful crisp white top, but didn’t hesitate to lie down on the floor for these shots for me. What a champ!

Such great models to work with, human and canine alike!

After a quick change of shirts (sorry Kathy!) we packed the dogs into the car and headed off on a short drive to the bayside for some more shots. The dogs were sooo excited, so good to see they love getting out and socialising.

Buster is quite the explorer.

As is Maxsie!

After a run around and a good sniff of all the good scents, we set up for some more posed shots of Kathy and her pups. I’d have to say this one is my favourite.

With this one running a close second!

All the dogs were lavished with some individual attention from their Mum.

Then it was time for a quick stroll back along the beach.

To finish off we went back up onto the grassy area to catch the very last light of the afternoon – my favourite light! Maxsie was looking gorgeous as usual.

With Roxsie quite content to hang out with her Mum.

Thanks for a wonderful afternoon Kathy and pups!