Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of meeting George and Gracie and their wonderful parents for a beautiful evening at Brooksvale Park in Hamden. We’d had to postpone our session three times for rain and thunderstorms, so I was so happy to finally meet all of them and get to play around with sweet George and Gracie. They were such a fun family and I loved the personalities of these two lovebugs.
(See the end of this blog post for a before and after collage of how I made this image happen)
These pups were so wonderful and sweet and had such stunning fur coloring! Gracie is serious and ladylike and George is a silly, free spirit who eyes every movement in the distance, hoping there’s a person he can go say hello to.
George really seemed to enjoy hamming it up for the camera and being a goofball.
Gracie was a little more more hesitant with her smiles at first, but I won her over with the treats and got some fun, joyful ones of her too!
We took some lovely family photos as well. I always try to convince all my doggy parents to get in some of the images, because someday you may really enjoy having photos of you and your dogs together.
We were able to get four different “location” looks from one small park. We started in an open field, then found a great barn for a backdrop, and then headed over to the little pond area, where we did some portraits with the water in the background and some on the bridge. This was such a great little park in Hamden.
I ended up with a lot of wonderful images of George and Gracie together, but this one was my favorite. They’re a little off center (perfectionist eye) but I kind of love the quirkiness and sweetness of it. Part of the fun of dog photography is capturing them being themselves, and these two were just having a grand old time running around the park and hanging out with their humans. We did put them on this bridge for photographs, but I never force dogs into a particular position. I just let them have fun and let their personalities come through. I love their smiles in this image, so to me it’s perfect.
(See the end of this blog post for a before and after collage of how I made this image happen)
This was such a fun session and we ended up with so many beautiful images! George and Gracie’s parents ordered a beautiful album and several prints to remember our session and see their sweet pups in print every day. Check out a sneak peak of their album (click on the video link below)! Albums are consistently a favorite client product and are wonderful for truly capturing the story of the day and enjoying a large variety of images.
Thank you Ed, Tami, George and Gracie for choosing me to be your dog photographer! I had such a great time working with all of you!
The Making of Art Worthy Images: Before & Afters
In almost every session with multiple dogs, the owners ask me to capture both dogs together. This makes perfect sense, because it’s often difficult to capture this yourself with a phone camera. Dogs are usually moving around, and typically don’t want to sit perfectly next to each other. I always aim to get the dogs together naturally, but I also want them to enjoy themselves during our sessions, so their true personalities shine. Excessive posing and forcing them into positions can make a lot of dogs anxious. So if they won’t sit perfectly together, no problem. I tell clients that this is where a little Photoshop magic (and strong editing skills) come into play. As long as I can get your dogs to be in the same area, and I capture the images from the same place, I can make this wonderful magic happen in post-processing. This is one of the differences between “art worthy images” and simple snapshots. And this is how I maintain the relaxed, fun environment I work hard to create at my sessions - by letting the hard work fall on me, not my sweet doggy subjects.
Not only did I take the best two images of the dogs separately and composite them together, but I did major leash removal work in these images. Your dog’s safety at our sessions is always my #1 priority, so if your dog can’t be off leash, I use more Photoshop magic (and again, well-oiled editing skills) to make gorgeous images without those pesky leashes.
Let me know what you think! Do you like seeing before and after collages? Do you have two (or more) dogs that won’t sit together, or dogs that must be on leash? Please don’t let those things stop you from reaching out to book a session. I take pride in capturing your beautiful dogs just as they are, and then working to create magic later. That’s why it’s called ART :)
Interested in booking your own outdoor session? We can go on a hiking adventure, to a park, to your home, to the beach…the possibilities are endless! Contact me today and let’s chat about your dogs and how I can capture them in photographs that you can cherish forever.
