It’s Throwback Thursday, and I just happened to get a call yesterday from one of my favorite Dog Moms who you will see in some of the photos in this post. When these images were taken, my studio was in Pennsylvania, but she and her dogs live in New York. Since it wasn’t feasible to do multiple sessions because of the distance between us, we planned for a fairly lengthy session where we would do environmental portraits of the dogs, both outside and inside the home. We were hopeful that the dogs wouldn’t be too tired after those portraits, and that we could do some studio work with them as well.
I knew that I was going to be photographing a pit bull and a poodle that day and on the drive to New York, I couldn’t help but wonder about their owner. I’ve photographed a lot of dogs and I’ve met a lot of Dog Moms (Dog Dads too) but I had never met someone with a combination of dogs like this. Not only was this a combination of a pit bull and a poodle, but this was a pit bull and a miniature poodle. How interesting!
I was welcomed into their home and was greeted by Pink (the pit bull) and Ricky (the poodle.) We discussed a plan for where to shoot and got moving. Originally I had planned to photograph the dogs inside first and then take them outside as the sun was setting. Mother Nature had other ideas. She thought that New York needed some rain and sent in some dark gray clouds. We got beautiful images nonetheless.
I have to chuckle at the image above. We had so many great shots from the dogs’ session. We just had to do a book. The image above is from the first page. These fur babies have many, many names — just like yours too, I’ll bet.
We started the session outside “posing” the dogs on the lawn furniture. I just love Ricky’s little pink tongue! He’s ready to catch some raindrops.
After working with the dogs by themselves, we decided to include mom in some of the shots. I think these dogs know how much they are loved by this beautiful lady. Look how happy everyone is!
Inevitably the rain started, so we headed inside. Pinky and Ricky’s home provided for many opportunities for beautiful photographs. We started in the foyer and played on the steps for a while.
We moved into the den for more photos. The color of the dogs’ coats and the furniture complement each other so nicely. I wonder which came first — the dogs or the furniture. 🙂
While the dogs were taking a break, I set up a studio environment in the game room. We went with a neutral tone that would go well with the color of the dogs’ coats and took into consideration the colors in the home. Even though I had been with the dogs for quite a while by now, they still were tolerant of posing for just a few more photos.
This is probably my longest blog to date, but I just wanted to take the time to thank Ricky and Pink’s mom and dad for rescuing Pink. The pit bulls that I have met — and I have met a lot with the shelter work that I do — are such sweet beings. Thankfully I’m seeing many people choose to rescue this breed. We still have a long way to go as the shelters are full of them, but we’re making progress.
