Tag Archives: brisbane

Client Session ~ Ellie and Finn [Part 2]

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We had part one of Ellie and Finn’s photo session at the beach on the Gold Coast. Unfortunately we had to end the session early due to an angry swarm of sandflies that we were totally unprepared for! The next weekend I headed up to Brisbane to capture this gorgeous pair of pups at their home and took up where we left off.

These two girls play together so well! The first half hour of our session was spent running around with the girls as they enjoyed their new toy together. Sharing is caring.

Finn does tend to forget this at times though and runs off, hoarding the toy. Which sometimes means poor Ellie loses interest (and leaves Finn wondering why she’s not playing with her any more).

Finn was definitely the star and camera hog of the session so I made sure I paid special attention to capturing shots of Miss Ellie as well. The hard part with her was managing to capture her before she realised that I was within cuddle/licking/attention distance to her.

Upon which she would rush over and attend to all three tasks at once! Here I am trying to fend her off with my knees (with Finn still totally absorbed in her toy in the background).

Did I mention Finn was a major camera hog? This girl is the perfect combination. Happy to keep her distance but also totally happy to sit there posing it up – whether that be looking directly down the camera lens or staring off into the distance.

What a ham! I love the bit of grass on her nose.

A few times while totally absorbed in photographing the born model, I would lie down to get a good angle…

Only to have the inner reaches of my ear enthusiastically assaulted by a rather affectionate Ellie.

After much playing and hard work (my doggy models work hard for their glamour shots!) Ellie was quite happy to sit at a distance, giving her best blue steel impression.

Interspersed with looks of knowing and humour that can only come from a dog who has been on this earth for ten years.

She had both of these looks well and truly under control, methinks a certain someone had been holding out on me!

Towards the end of our session, it was time to bring out the treats for some focus.

Although these kinds of shots may be seen as cliche, I still love them as they represent a view of our dogs that we are so familiar with.

Bringing out treats however is not without it’s hazards! Among them, spit bubbles and crazy rolling around on the ground kinda reactions, apparently…

As the sun dipped towards the horizon, I played around with some gorgeous late afternoon backlight for these shots of miss supermodel herself, Finn.

I had such a fantastic time with these girls and their family too, thanks for letting me share your home for the afternoon! I stuck around for a while and had lots of lovely Finn cuddles afterwards, while Ellie crashed out on her bed and caught up on some well-deserved rest.

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

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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}

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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 ~ Socks and Beardly the Bearded Dragons

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And now for something a little different! These gorgeous little creatures are commonly called Bearded Dragons, native Australian lizards of the “Pogona” genus. Members of this genus live in the arid, rocky, semi-desert regions and dry open woodlands throughout Australia. They are adept climbers, spending time on branches and in bushes, even found on fence posts when living near human habitation. Pogona bask on rocks and exposed branches in the mornings and afternoons.

This particular type of lizard are popular as pets because of their friendly and calm nature, along with the relative ease of caring for them. To legally be able to own these lizards in Australia you need a Recreational Wildlife Licence issued by the Government. The licence allows you to keep unlimited numbers of live commercial and recreational reptiles, recreational amphibians, and also a maximum of 2 restricted reptiles (with some exclusions).

These little guys are about 8 months old and are still pretty small, however when they’re fully grown they’ll reach about 50cm in length.

This lighter coloured one is a female called Socks. She’s the calmer of the two and also the most willing model!

Her companion is a male called Beardly. He was quite happy hanging out on the floor of the terrarium near the heat lamp most of the time but posed for us for a while on this branch first.

More of the gorgeous Socks.

These two often get to hang out with their owners around the house. When I turned up, Socks was asleep on her Dad’s shoulder! I think she’s a bit of a Daddy’s girl…

If you’re interested in keeping Bearded Dragons as pets, have a read of this article. If you want to know more, there is a wealth of information out there, Google is your friend!

Client Session ~ Buster, Roxsie and Maxsie

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Three dog sessions are always heaps of fun, and this one was no exception. You’d never think to look at them, but two of these pair are the ripe old age of 14. Buster is no spring chicken either at 8 years old! This really is a perfect time to get photos of your doggies if they are getting on a bit and you’d love to have some beautiful photos to remember them at their best.

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!