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

Posted on 6 January, 2011 by admin

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!

Client Session ~ Frankie the French Bulldog

Posted on 1 October, 2010 by admin

Frankie’s parents were lucky enough to score a gift certificate for their session and when I found out what kind of dog they had, I was delighted! I’ve been wanting to photograph a French Bulldog ever since I saw one in the flesh. They are such cool little dogs, so different looking and with awesomely photogenic features.

Time was of the essence with Frankie as she’s just on 5 months old and her parents wanted to get some shots of her while she’s still little. We had a couple of false starts with the weather, but on the morning of our session the conditions were perfect. We met at a local waterfront park and the light was just beautiful.

One reason why they wanted to have Frankie photographed quickly, is that over time she’s developing more brindle patterning in her glossy black coat. She was almost pure black when they brought her home but over time, the brindle is creeping in.. and we all know brindle is the naughty colour!

That lovable cheekiness is starting to creep in already and makes a lovely mix with the sweetness already so apparent.

Don’t Frenchies just have the best little faces?

Frankie loves running with her dad and checks with one eye to make sure he’s still there running with her.

Her ears which are usually flipped facing forward, get pinned sideways for better aerodynamics while racing flat out. She’s got the most hilarious flat out run, with her bum out to the side and her back half reaching to overtake the front!

Such a good girl at our session, she happily posed up on the picnic table for us.

Our next location was a short drive down the road to a lovely little boardwalk. It was a popular place for people walking their dogs and we had to keep an eye on the ever-curious Frankie as she was quite happy to wander off with whoever passed by.

I thought having a Great Dane was a conversation starter, but Luna has nothing on Frankie! Pretty much everyone who saw her wanted to know what breed she was, many people having never heard of the breed.

And really, if you saw this sweet face looking up at you, would you be able to pass by? (If you look carefully you can see me in her eye reflection, almost doing aerobics moves trying to get her attention)

Growing next to the boardwalk was a lovely bed of bright yellow flowers, and we couldn’t resist the urge to stick her right in the middle for some Anne Geddes inspired shots.

Towards the end of our session Frankie was tiring out, making it a bit easier for me to get far enough back from her for some shots. Like most puppies, as soon as I got down near the ground she’d run over to investigate!

I held out until the end for my very best attention-grabbing squeaking noises, just to get some awesome head tilt action like this. It worked!

Thanks for being such a great little dog Frankie!

Client Session ~ Dallas the Labrador Retriever

Posted on 17 September, 2009 by admin

Now living in Brisbane but still loving the beautiful Gold Coast, Dallas and her Mum were more than happy to come back down the coast for a photo session and agreed to a very early morning shoot on the dog beach at the Spit. We were greeted with amazing light, perfect weather and blue skies, well worth the effort to get up so early!

Dallas the black Labrador is just one and a half, and already she and her Mum have a visible bond.

Wherever her Mum was, Dallas was sure to be found – well except when she was off meeting and greeting other dogs like your typical friendly Labrador!

Sometimes shooting into the light can be as rewarding as shooting with it, and the following couple of shots are no exception, probably my favourites from the session.

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You just can’t beat the crisp clean feel of early morning light at the beach though.

I was warned that Dallas was ‘just a bit obsesssed’ with tennis balls, and she soon found one to bring to us, demanding a game.

Who could resist this look?

As you can probably tell by the sand all over her nose, Dallas was justly rewarded for her patient modelling with lots of ball throwing.

What a beautiful, happy girl. We had such a fun morning, thanks guys!

Great Dane Championship Show Sydney ~ July 2009

Posted on 9 August, 2009 by admin

More dog show photos for the Great Dane lovers out there – these were taken at the Great Dane Club of NSW Championship Show at Erskine Park in Sydney in July. As usual, there were lots of gorgeous fawns.

Two of which ended up taking out Best in Show and Runner Up Best in Show.

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This blue boy is gorgeous and came second out of all the male dogs entered.

Each judge does it their own way and it’s interesting to see how they interact with the dogs as they are examining them.

For the black Great Dane fans out there.

The babies were as cute as ever, this little harlequin girl was more interested in giving the judge kisses than standing still.

And this cute little fawn girl stood beautifully…

… but still wanted kisses from her mum.

Best Head is always a good class to watch, as the judges rank the dogs solely on their structure and shape of their head.

This fawn girl has won this class twice in a row.

Some of the other fun classes are Best Veteran – the dog must be over 7 years of age and are often successfully retired show dogs so their return to the ring is often a cause for celebration. It’s good to see the ‘old grey faces’ out and about strutting their stuff, showing they still have it!

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Another class is Best Parent and Offspring where the aim is to demonstrate an improvement of dogs from generation to generation.

For more information about this show, please see the results here and a gallery of all photos here.

Great Dane Championship Show Brisbane – July 2009

Posted on 30 July, 2009 by admin

I recently attended the Great Dane Society of Queensland Championship Show at Durack in Brisbane to take some photos. They aren’t my usual style of photography but Great Danes are ‘my’ breed so I always enjoy watching them and taking photos so their owners can see how beautiful they are!

For some reason, you don’t often see many brindle coloured Danes, it’s probably about the rarest of the showable colours. This gorgeous guy was the only one in attendance on the day.

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