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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

“This is Lupe our 22 month blue boy. He is the center of our world and knows it. He love the dog park and the beach (but not the waves – still cant swim). Poor baby has had a rough time this last year. We nearly lost him earlier this year when he got pneumonia and spent a week in ICU. A few weeks ago he got bit on the hind leg by another dog at the spit (beach) and had to go back to the same hospital for surgery to open the wound up. Thankfully despite being spoilt rotten he’s a trooper.”

I’d actually already been in contact with Lupe’s owner as we were going to organise a play date with our two blue babies, so it was an added bonus to be able to tell her that she’d also won the competition!

I visited Lupe and his devoted Mum and Dad in Brisbane on a fine summer afternoon. They had a fabulous back deck that we spent a while hanging out on.

Being a blue Great Dane, he felt quite similar to photograph to my own Luna, except maybe a tad more photogenic and not so prone to pulling silly faces!

In fact he is a rather serious looking boy most of the time.

Who still manages to be super cute when it’s called for.

And very good at the head tilt! Most dogs have a particular sound they do this to, for Lupe it was a quiet high pitched whistle, very effective!

Lupe has an unusual ridge running down the back of his neck – as someone cleverly pointed out – a mohawk!

Along with at matching little strip of white on his chest, very classy.

After the serious modelling business was over, we took Lupe for a walk to his fabulous local park.

Where he said hello to the equine resident…

Puzzled over his Dad up a tree…

Said goodbye to the horsie…

Then topped it off with a guzzle from the drinking station, in true Great Dane style.

If you want to see more photos from Lupe’s session, visit his gallery on Facebook.

Molly the Staffy is a gorgeous, well behaved little girl who is lucky enough to have a totally devoted owner who obviously loves her to bits.

She gets regular early morning walks to her favourite park where she can run and sniff and cruise around spreading that famous Staffy smile and cheer everywhere she goes. And what an amazing tongue!

And very cute ears.

After we’d finished our walk through the park, we headed back to Molly’s house and chilled out in her backyard. The patio was nice and cool, a good place to stretch out on a hot morning.

It wasn’t long though, and her energy was back again, ready for a game of tug!

I somehow convinced her that modelling was a career path she should seriously consider.

This is probably my favourite shot of the session.

With this one running a close second. I’m so stoked that Molly’s dad is getting this one as a nice big gallery wrap canvas,  I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

All the dogs were brought to a park and I had half an hour each with them to grab a decent shot for one month of the calendar. It was challenging, interesting and fun and I met some great doggy and owner characters.

The calendar will be out in November but until then, I’d like to share a few of my favourite shots.

Jazz is a beautiful young Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a total pleasure to work with. She had all the tricks down pat, sit, down, stay (mostly!) and though very energetic she was very treat motivated which always helps!

Molly is a wonderful old Labrador Retriever who won her place in the calendar by her owners sending in a shot of her holding her lead in her mouth. The park was a bit distracting however and she wasn’t particularly interested in her lead, so we improvised!

Next up was Stubby, a gorgeous little 6 month old Fox Terrier. He was very attached to his Mum and Dad and I had to be quick to get his attention before he scuttled back to them for a cuddle!

Probably my favourite pet of the weekend was actually a cat! Imran is an 11 year old Domestic Short Hair and was just the loveliest old boy. He seemed to love being centre of attention and posed for me readily inside and out.

He’d recently had surgery on his face so wasn’t looking his usual perfect self, but is still such a handsome man.

Another striking looking feline, Razi is a black Domestic Long Hair with virtually the opposite temperament. He was quite happy to hang out in his own little area inside thank you, and didn’t want to pose for photos at all. We did manage to coax him out by the spa for the little while though (cats take some serious convincing when they don’t want to cooperate!), just long enough for me to get a few nice shots of him.

First thing on Sunday morning I had the pleasure of working with litter sisters Cilla and Pinot, six year old black Labrador Retrievers. They were such a well behaved pair of girls and even had a special word that they perked up to – “treats” – worked perfectly every time! Of course they were rewarded with actual treats when they did, gotta keep the models happy.

Benny the Beagle has the sweetest face, but I am only going to share with you his nose because that’s the bit I like best!

Lilly is a gorgeous, happy little 4 year old Maltese, obviously well loved by her owner.

I just loved Clementine! What a great dog, so well behaved and with very chilled out owners, it was no surprise. Gotta love those eyes with natural built-in black eyeliner.

Pasha the Pug is a super energetic little guy with a few issues that he doesn’t let slow him down. In fact, it was hard to get him to stay still, there was so many smells to sniff and people to go and make friends with, he was unstoppable!

Cappuccino the Dalmatian was my last doggy of the weekend and I just couldnt resist a shot of that lovely spotted chest.

I’m getting a copy of the calendar when it comes out so I will be sure to share when I receive it!

Orbit and my Luna are just one day apart in age but since they live in different states (about 10 hours away) they haven’t yet had the opportunity to meet. Though I’m sure if they did, Orbit would be stunned by Luna’s beauty and poise and might look a little bit like this -

What would a doggy post be without some lovable head wrinkles in blue.

Stay tuned, more to come of Orbit soon!

The dogs first – Aspen is a 9 month old Japanese Spitz and his big sister Dakota is a 15 month old Samoyed. Both are bright white, incredibly soft and fluffy with brown eyes, but that’s where the similarities end. These two have very different personalities with Aspen the more outgoing of the two and Dakota with her sweet, laid back temperament.

My favourite shot of the two of them.

Aspen.

Dakota.

Now on to the children! Emilee and Brandon are 11 year old twins and two absolutely gorgeous kids. I can see where they got their looks from their mother and I am assuming dad is pretty handsome too! With quite different personalities, they were a joy to work with. I think this shot sums up the pair of them quite well.

Both of them were very confident kids and made it easy for me to get some fun shots like these.

We had heaps of fun on the play equipment in the park.

Miss Emilee was quite the little professional model.

You can definitely see the twin resemblance in these shots.

Finishing off with a fun shot of Brandon and his buddy Aspen.

This was the first of three sessions I did while in Sydney. Expect to see many more gorgeous doggies (including two Great Danes for the fans out there) over the coming couple of weeks.