Tag Archives: park

Client Session ~ Lexie and Chloe the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels

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Carla (a fellow photographer) and I had been mutual admirers of each others work for a while, so when she heard I was coming to Adelaide we began discussing the idea of me photographing her two pups. Lexie and Chloe are almost-two year old Cavaliers who are greatly loved by their mum and dad. Carla tragically lost her first Cav, Lucy, when she was hit by a car at only 9 months old. She been due to have a new baby sister (Chloe) arrive in just a month, so when they lost Lucy they started looking into getting another baby to join the family as well so Chloe wouldn’t be all alone. Lexie was found and turned out to be the perfect match, named ‘Heaven Sent’ by her breeder. Chloe was born on Valentines Day which also happens to be Carla’s birthday so another little sign there too!

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!

Client Session ~ Herbie & Bamm Bamm the Havanese

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Continued on from Harry’s post, Herbie and Bamm Bamm are Harry’s two little brothers. Both Havanese, they are gorgeous little dogs. You could say that this breed quite popular with Bec’s family, as I’ve also photographed Mali who belongs to Bec’s mum!

Bamm Bamm is three years old and the most independent of the pack.

He has the most silky, softest fur and I was especially taken with his little white fluffy feet, how cute are they!

While he loves attention from people and is a lovely friendly little boy, he’s also quite happy being off on his own, doing his own thing.

We took a trip to the park for a change of scenery and poor little Bamm Bamm got bitten by a nasty ant on his paw. He was valiantly limping around but with some persuasion in the form of delicious treats still managed to pose beautifully for these shots.

His little brother, the youngest of the three at almost three years of age, is Herbie.

Herbie is Bec’s special boy, in her own words “Herbie is my soul mate dog, he has 100% stolen my heart”. He was a wedding present from her husband, arriving on a plane from Melbourne and straight into Bec’s arms. He went through a lot of pain and health problems when growing and as a result, has bowed front legs that don’t quite function as they should and are still quite painful. Perhaps because of his ordeal or perhaps just because thats’s just the way he is, Herbie doesn’t really feel comfortable with pats and cuddles from anyone other than Bec or her mum.

Luckily for me though, Herbie is quite interested in food and it was no problem to get his attention!

With a bit of patience, we even had him sitting and staying at a distance for some gorgeous photos with his big brother Harry in the background.

I just love his brown eyes against his lily white (super soft and fluffy!) fur.

We ended our session at the park with Herbie looking adoringly up at his mum with the sun sinking down behind the trees in the background. Awwww!

Client Session ~ Cadbury and Jaffa the Poodle x Spaniels (Spoodles)

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Dena was lucky enough to score a session as a birthday present from her family for their two pups, Cadbury and Jaffa. She was also lucky enough to score a free Zig Zag in a giveaway I ran on Facebook! Her favourite colour also just happens to be pink, so a pink Zig Zag is perfect for her. So, onto the pups.

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!

Client Session ~ Zoey the German Shepherd

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Zoey is the perfect example of the family dog. She’s been with them for nearly 10 years now and is just starting to slow down a bit, so her loving human sister Sarah decided now might be a good time to get some shots.

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.

Client Session ~ Scout and Nelle the Labrador Retrievers

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We’d booked Scout and Nelle’s session for daybreak but when I arrived, it was still quite dark! Not being used to the sunrise/sunset times in Melbourne, I’d taken a guess and been just a bit too much on the safe side. Scout and Nelle’s Mum and Dad were good sports though about the early start, so we all packed into the car and headed to their local park. When we arrived, the whole place, which was actually a series of sports fields, was covered in a thick blanket of fog. It was also quite chilly, not at all what I was used to back on the Gold Coast!

It didn’t slow the dogs down in the slightest though. As soon as we were out of the car and on the ovals, they were racing around madly after their beloved tennis balls. The light was a bit dim to get sharp action shots, but this gives you a pretty good picture of the ‘fog dogs’.

With active dogs such as these, it’s always a good idea to let them run off a bit of energy before the serious modelling business begins, so we spent a good half hour playing ball! The sun finally made an appearance and started clearing away the fog, though it hung around for quite some time in pockets. The light was worth waiting for, just beautiful.

Scout is the older of the pair at two years of age. He seems to take the lead in most situations with younger Nelle (10 months) happy to follow.

The morning light didn’t let us down with beautiful golden rays coming through the trees. I’m totally in love with this shot!

And I love this candid of Nelle at the park. Black dogs can sometimes be tricky to get shots of that look good in black and white, but her eyes in this one just make it.

Eventually lots of other dogs started arriving at the park and with Scout being such a social boy and needing to say meet and greet most of them, we decided to pack up and head home for some more relaxed photos. Doesn’t Scout look handsome in this shot in a patch of sunlight?

I thought we might have done too good of a job wearing them out, but with some tasty treats on hand, they soon perked up.

Scout’s happy face was tending to feature in most of the shots.

So we gave him a rest from the camera for  a while and concentrated on the beautiful Nelle for a while. I just loved her on their red bed!

Such a sweet and gentle girl.

Photo sessions can be pretty tiring for the pups – it’s a combination of physical and mental stimulation that tends to make them crash out for the rest of the day, so my clients tell me! Here’s my final shot of Scout, well on his way to having a well-earned rest.