My doggy models this time were Vash the German Shepherd and Riley the Great Dane cross. Unfortunately this mischievous pair had somehow devoured an entire bag of fertiliser overnight so were both feeling a little worse for wear in the morning, more so Riley who I suspect consumed the majority of it!

For the first hour or so of our session, Riley was not her usual bouncy self and spent most of the time wandering around looking very unwell and feeling sorry for herself.

When Ruth and her partner Nick decided to bring a puppy into their family, Ruth knew that she wanted a Great Dane. She’d done her research and was ready to wait for the right one, until she saw and ad in the paper advertising some Great Dane cross pups and decided to investigate. The mum of the litter was a sweet, gentle harlequin Great Dane and the dad a huge Great Dane x Mastiff. After the long drive out of town to the cane farm where the pups were, Riley ended up choosing Ruth, being the first of her littermates to say hello and sit at her feet, then never leaving her side while she met the others. In Ruth’s words, “I just had to have her so we bundled her into the car and drove the hour and a half back home on a Sunday afternoon with nothing and totally unprepared to have such a little puppy but we managed and spoiled her rotten afterwards. She was so small her head easily fit in the palm of my hand, now both my hands easily fit in her mouth!”

That was two and a half years ago and Riley has had a pretty blessed life so far. Fortunately on the morning of the shoot, after drinking copious amounts of water and making some very weird and growly stomach noises, she was feeling a little better and went and found herself a coconut to play with.

Soon after bringing Riley into the family, Ruth and Nick decided it was time to get another dog. Nick had grown up with German Shepherds and they were also looking for a good guard dog, so a Shepherd was the obvious choice. A breeder in Brisbane was chosen, the litter was born and Vash was picked out for them to take home at 8 weeks. From the day they brought him home, he was instantly the boss of Riley. Although independant when younger, as Ruth says, “I spoiled and cuddled him too much and now he is a sooky little boy who loves people and would walk off with just about anyone who gives him a pat or throws a ball. But he is still our little Prince.” He certainly looks like royalty this shot!

Vash never used to be interested in chasing balls, sticks or toys, much preferring to tackle his big sister while she was playing fetch. One day though it just clicked and now he’s unstoppable. He is so intense and focused while playing fetch that his front leg usually comes up in a “point” while he’s waiting.

I love their shadows in this shot.

When Riley isn’t off destroying coconuts, she joins in with the fun and games too.

These two just love exploring, often with Riley following Vash’s lead.

With the sun rising higher into the brightening sky, we moved into the backyard, literally still right on the beach. The early morning light coming through the palms was amazing and Vash soon proved to be an excellent model.

He did need constant rewarding with a game of fetch though to keep him happy!

Meanwhile, Riley had brought her coconut along and was quite content ripping pieces off the outside in games of tug with whoever would play! The game involves completely stripping the coconut of the husk, then when the husk is off Ruth and Nick drill a hole in it and let her drink the milk. Needless to say, Riley loves it!

As I know myself with Luna (she also has a coconut obsession whenever she can get her paws on them) you need to stay well aware of where they are at all times to avoid being clocked with these rather heavy and hard ‘toys’ that are swung around with great force! Riley seemed to have no qualms about constantly hitting herself in the head with it, along with anyone else who managed to get in the way.

Due to her love of coconuts, the best way to get Riley’s attention proved to be stealing her coconut. If you look closely in her eyes in the image below, you can see me holding the coconut in one hand and camera in the other to get this shot. What an intense look!

Riley is a very ’sniffy’ dog, she loves to check everyone and everything out by thoroughly smelling it. She was constantly pausing to sniff the air, I wonder what she could smell?

Both Riley and her little bro Vash are living the life. Their mum and dad quite obviously love them to bits. I don’t blame them, what a gorgeous pair! To finish off the blog post I just had to include this shot of Miss Riley on one of her many trips to the tap for a drink, displaying her big wet slobbery chops. Lovely!

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.

If you’d love some beautiful, creative and candid photos of your favourite furry friend then let’s book you in for a session while I’m visiting. These will be special Travel Sessions which include all final high resolution photos on disk! The custom printed DVD of images is presented in a gorgeous boxed black buckram presentation folio with your favourite image included on the inside. The session will also have the usual inclusions, such as:

• Photographers time and talent
• On-location photo session for 1-2 subjects
• Shooting time 30 minutes – 2 hours
• Includes 1-2 locations i.e. home, local park, beach and dunes, urban or city, foreshore etc
• The best 30 images (more for extra subjects) are carefully selected and edited to perfection
• A mixture of colour and black & white images

I have the following spots remaining:

• Afternoon session, Thursday July 15th (starting around 3pm)
• Afternoon session, Friday July 16th (starting around 3pm)

If this sounds like just what you’ve been waiting for, get in quick as the opportunity to have your precious pal photographed by an award-winning specialist pet photographer doesn’t happen every day!

Gift certificates are available and remember that although I specialise in dogs, I also love photographing cats, horses and other furry friends. I also really delight in capturing the bond between you and your pet if you wish to be involved in the session as well.

The price for the session will be $595 which really is amazing value. If you’re keen to book a session or even just to find out more, drop me a line at pix@charlottereeves.com.au or call me on 0402 322 973.

Here’s a few favourites from my most recent sessions to get you thinking!

They also warned me that Inca especially was lacking a bit of training, so I was surprised to turn up to two rather well behaved and very cuddly pups! Gus (on the right) is the older of the two at 4 years old (Inca is 3) and the biggest as well. He was almost as tall as Luna, and reminded me of her so much when he greeted me at the front door proudly prancing around with a giant stuffed toy. Definitely a Luna moment, I wished I had my camera out at that stage.

These pair are lucky enough to have a massive backyard that runs down a slope into the valley, offering them wonderful spy-vision over the neighbourhood goings-on. Gus especially was forever racing off down the hill to check up on this or the other and patrol his territory!

Inca is more of a follower but still likes to admire the view over the valley. I just loved her curly Poodle tail!

The pair were kind enough to sit beautifully right next to each other for a photo, I didn’t even have to ask! What a pair of naturals!

With melting eyes like these, it seems like modelling would be a good career choice for them.

After they’d let off a bit of steam running around outside patrolling the yard, we moved inside. Coloured furniture can provide interesting backdrops, this grey outdoor wicker chair sets off Inca’s colouring perfectly.

Inside were some red leather couches that I knew would make fantastic props. Gus was quite happy to lay still and model for me.

Inca however needed a bit more coaching on the ’stay’ aspect, we got there in the end though!

As a reward for co-operating with me inside, we headed back outside for some playtime fun. Gus loves his big red Wahu ball.

As well as rolling around on the grass being attacked by Inca!

The end.

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.