Charlotte Reeves Photography

Looking at Holly, you wouldn’t guess she’s close to 16 years old! I just love the older dogs as they always seem so wise and in tune with the ways of the world.

They seem to have everything sorted and know their place in the world, spending their days relaxing and enjoying what life has to offer.

Still obviously enjoying her time with her devoted family and little bro Russell, she cruises around checking stuff out and is always up for a cuddle!

I just loved her beautiful thick coat, discovered while giving her many pats and scratches throughout the session. Cattle dogs have a rain-resistant outer coat with harsh long guard hairs, then a short dense undercoat. They really are a hardy dog – bred to withstand harsh and varied weather conditions of this country as well as the rigours of working cattle in the scrub.

Though she’s a bit slower these days, she still gets around fine on those sturdy Cattle Dog legs.

Always accompanied by a wide doggy grin!

Holly has a wonderful acreage property to roam around on and enjoys little trips down to the paddock where there are lots of things to sniff and take in. Here she is by the pool, checking out the goings on in the paddock further down.

I love how alert she looks in this one!

Although Holly was meant to the be main subject on the day, I just couldn’t ignore her ‘little brother’, Russell who was insistent that he should also be recieving treats and getting lots of attention.

Another Australian Cattle Dog, Russell is no spring chicken either at 10 years old. What a gorgeous smiley matching pair they make!

We concentrated on Holly for a bit longer before letting Russell have his moment in the limelight. Our session was quite slow paced but I do tend to ask a lot of my doggy models in terms of attention, so I’d say she slept well for the rest of the day! Here she is getting a head start on the resting, looking regal and totally the boss of ‘her’ backyard.

Just like his big sis, Russell is a lovely happy cuddly boy.

He was very attentive to treats and made my job so easy.

Just one more of the two of them. What a lucky family to have two beautiful dogs like these!

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!