Probably my most ironic session location yet – “Boo” the Great Dane, photographed in a cemetery! Boo and his Mum live just down the road from the intriguing St Stephens Cemetery and regularly stroll through the broken gravestones and memorials and amazing old trees on their daily walks. I was so excited to shoot there, and although the light didn’t quite cooperate on the day with looming heavy cloud, the atmosphere was still pretty special.
So enough about the location and onto the star of the session – Boo! This lovely boy was 9 months old at the time of our shoot and your typical gangly and exuberant Great Dane teenager. With a tongue that rarely stayed inside his mouth resulting in a constant endearing doggy grin, he obviously enjoys his walks through the cemetery and adjacent park, running through the long grass and sniffing around the old gravestones.
I just love his distinctive white chest blaze.
We managed to persuade Boo to sit down and relax for a while in the long grass an open corner of the walled cemetery enclosure, resulting in some nice quiet shots.
Then it was back to exploring again.
Before settling down to chew a stick, Boo looking at me with a familiar ‘dare you to come and get me!’ attitude.
In the grounds of the cemetery is also St Stevens Anglican Church. Built in 1874, it’s a lovely old church featuring gothic revival architecture and these amazing doors! The light was fading fast by this stage but we had time for just a few shots of Boo featured in the doorway.
If you’d like to know more about this very special place, check out the Wikipedia article on the history of the Camperdown Cemetery and then head over to the offical website of the St Stephens Church in Newtown. Interesting stuff!
