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Rocky, Prince, Homer & Roxy – a Family of Dachshunds & Miniature Schnauzers

Tuesday, October 27th, 2020

I recently had the pleasure of photographing the cutest dog pack! This family includes 2 dachshunds and 2 miniature schnauzers – a lot of little dogs with big personalities. :) Sometimes photographing multiple dogs can be a challenge from the photographer’s perspective, and that wasn’t untrue for us – but you know what? The more the merrier! We were able to created a ton of great portraits and had fun while doing so. We started out at Old Poway Park where we relaxed and played in the grass. We noticed a funny trend, too: if there was another dog that tried to come near our “spot”, these dogs would (loudly) let that dog know that this is obviously our territory! But if there was a dog that we walked by, that had already been in his own “spot”, they were totally cool with that and walked by without a peep. This group kept us on our toes and laughing, that’s for sure! I’d love to introduce you to the crew!


Let’s start with Homer, the elder miniature schnauzer! If the dogs are all outside playing, you can bet on him to be the one chasing a ball. Did you two just meet? Throw him a ball to run after and you might just become his new best friend. :) Might I add that he is super fast – he’s definitely the athlete of the group! He also cracked us up because he’s pretty tough and not afraid to join in on the barking at anyone who passes by.

schnauzer chasing ball


Next up is Roxy. She’s the newest addition to the family, a rescue, and the same breed as Homer. She’s such a sweetheart and even a little bit shy. Taking action shots with her was completely opposite of Homer’s style… she isn’t interested in chasing the ball whatsoever. She would just watch it roll on by… which, in contrast to her brother, was hilarious! But she was willing to run alongside her parents, which was very cute. She is people-oriented and so much fun to work with!

schnauzer running


Prince is the younger of the two dachshunds. He is a guard dog extraordinaire and was constantly on the lookout for anyone who dared to walk in our park. I’m pretty sure that if the dogs were all barking at any point, he was the instigator. If someone started to get close to us at the beach, he was the first one to sound the alarm and the other dogs followed. There is absolutely no sneaking up on this one, haha! Nevertheless, he was a good boy and such a cutie!

dachshund in the park


Lastly, this is Rocky, the old man of the bunch. He’s got some health issues, but when you get older I suppose that’s what happens to all of us. He’s the sweetest senior dog with selective hearing and vision. He does what he wants and that’s okay! No action shots for him – those days of running wild are past him, haha! He keeps the family grounded and reminds them to take their time. There’s no hurrying in his world, and as we walked around the park and the beach we would take regular breaks to let him catch up. He was an all around sweetheart!

dachshund


I really enjoyed this photo session with this amazing motley crew and their parents. It had its fair share of “incidents” – ahem – but I’m so excited to share their photos! Thanks for a great afternoon, Victoria, and I’ll see you soon!

Elliot the Shy Dachshund

Wednesday, October 14th, 2020

I am very happy to introduce you to little miss Elliot! She is the kind of dog who lets her presence be known – but that’s probably not surprising if you’ve ever met a dachshund before, haha! Here’s a fun fact about Elliot: she is named after the character on the TV show, Scrubs. I instantly knew we were going to hit it off because that happens to be one of my favorite TV series! :)

We had a great photo session, starting at San Dieguito County Park where we played a lot of fetch. She also enjoyed barking at other dogs and people, letting them know that she was there, and that this was her park now. (Obviously.) After a bit of running around and getting some of that puppy energy out, we headed to the beach at Del Mar for a gorgeous sunset. It was a slightly hazy due to the recent wildfires in California, but that actually made the sunlight nice & soft, so it turned out to be a really lovely afternoon. We played on the beach and let me tell you: Elliot is fearless when it comes to the water! Go figure; a lot of small dogs are usually a little nervous around the waves, but not her! She charged into the ocean and had a blast, and it was so much fun to see.

When I spoke with Elliot’s parents before the photo session, they mentioned that she’s hesitant & shy around strangers. (Of course, for a dachshund, those emotions get expressed in the form of many, many sassy barks.) I assured them that her nervousness wouldn’t be a problem at all, since I’ve got plenty of tricks up my sleeve to make sure that we capture some amazing images. And we did just that! I’ll be honest, we started the session to a cacophony of barks, so I had to ease into things much slower than normal. But that’s okay! I used my trusty long lens to make her feel like I wasn’t invading her space. We were able to play fetch, run around with her parents, and eventually she even snuggled up with them as if I wasn’t even there. We created & captured a ton of great moments, and Elliot really enjoyed herself! This session just goes to show that it’s 100% possible to have a phenomenal photo session – no matter what quirks your dog has – while making sure that everyone is totally comfortable!


This is Elliot. Who wouldn’t love that silly little face?!

dachshund dog


And this is Elliot – airborne! This girl can HUSTLE! I’m absolutely loving our (many) action photos!

dachshund running


At the beach, Elliot stayed in motion pretty much the whole time – whether it was playing more fetch or walking with her parents at a more leisurely pace.

dachshund beach photo


And as much as I love her fur coloring, I actually love how Elliot looks in black & white too. Such a pretty girl.

dachshund in black and white


Melissa & Ed, thank you so much for introducing me to your gorgeous girl! I can’t wait to get together with you again soon!


Stoney the Shepherd Mix, at Mission Bay & Fiesta Island

Friday, February 28th, 2020

If I had to describe Stoney in one sentence, I’d say that he is an old soul and an explorer at heart. Where’s his happy place? Literally anywhere outdoors – the beach, the park, the backyard – it doesn’t matter! He just wants to be outside, and I think it’s because that’s the best place to let his wild spirit roam free. :) But as much as he loves the outdoors, he doesn’t love strangers – which isn’t a bad thing at all! He absolutely adores his parents and is very sweet with them, but it took time for them to earn his trust. Since he’s a little more timid with people he doesn’t know too well, we decided to have his entire photo session outside where he had plenty of room to roam – and where he’d be happiest, of course! It turned out to be a great decision and we had an amazing afternoon out at Mission Bay Park and then later at Fiesta Island!

Before the photo session, his parents warned me that Stoney would most likely want to spend the entire photo session sniffing the ground, and it might be a struggle to get him to do anything else. Happily that was not the case! They also didn’t think he would care about playing with toys, but all of a sudden he brought out his inner puppy and was playing fetch, chasing a tennis ball and running around! We were a little surprised, since he’s a senior dog and doesn’t kick it into high gear too often… but Stoney was full of cute surprises! (And I’m glad he didn’t spend the whole time with his nose to the ground, haha!)

After our quintessential-San-Diego start to our photo session in Mission Bay Park, we headed across the bay to Fiesta Island to catch the sunset. Stoney had a blast, and in fact maybe he had a little too much fun: at one point we decided to let him off-leash as we had trusted him (mostly!) for a game of fetch. Well… he ended up careening past where the ball stopped and kept running off into the sunset! He was probably going to sniff around and see if he could find any rabbits, but once his parents caught up to him the poor guy lost his freedom and was promptly back on-leash. :) Another fun fact about this sweet, old guy is that he used to have one floppy ear. I guess as he got older it kind of grew straighter, and his mom mentioned that she was hoping his one floppy ear would reappear for photos. Thankfully it came out for a few photos and he looked absolutely adorable! One thing’s for sure – straight ear or floppy ear, he’s a cutie. :)

Stoney was more than happy to just be with his parents during the photo session and it was so nice to see the way he interacted with them. They’ve clearly done a great job with him and have an amazing bond! It was such a wonderful, fun afternoon.

He really does look good with that trademark floppy ear. :)

shepherd mix san diego


Mission Bay Park was a great place to start our session – plenty of grass to run around & lounge in. Stoney took full advantage!

shepherd mix photo


Oh San Diego… you’re so beautiful. But you look even better with this handsome boy.

shepherd mix dog


Cathy and Adam, I can’t wait to share the images we captured with you! See you soon!

Sasha, the Opinionated Yorkie from Fallbrook

Thursday, February 6th, 2020

You’re in for a treat today! Sometimes I have out-of-town clients and I am always so appreciative that they travel quite a distance to have a photo session with me. This time, Sasha the Yorkie and her parents drove all the way down to San Diego from Fallbrook, CA. Sasha’s mom loved the idea of a vintage feel to her photos – so of course we had to go to Old Poway Park!

It’s one of my favorite locations for a rustic, old-fashioned look, so I knew it would be perfect! And as diverse as the various settings in that park are, we were able to strike a pose in all of my favorite spots – because Sasha was such a dream to work with! Honestly, she spoiled me: we would ask her to sit, she sat. We would ask her to stay, she stayed. Seriously – what a dream come true. There were only a couple of things she would express an opinion about: first was whether or not she was tired of running for action photos. We would toss a tennis ball for her to fetch, and after a few times she would just stop and watch it roll away. So then we would toss it again and she would just look at us with a look on her face that said “no, guys”… so we would try again by tossing it much closer to her, and then she finally gave in as if to say “ok well… that’s close enough”. It was too funny – that clever girl was just conserving her energy, I suppose. There were also a couple of times we asked her to lay down in the grass and she pretty much told us no, that wouldn’t be happening. We thought well ok, that’s fine, on to the next thing – but later we wouldn’t even be asking and she would decide to lay down on her own. We asked her seriously Sasha? now!? Haha! She definitely has her opinions on what she will and won’t do, and I think it’s totally fair to let her be in charge of the photo session. :)

yorkie photo


yorkie running photo


But like I said, for the most part she’s happy to do whatever her parents ask her to do. She is a TOTAL daddy’s girl, but her and her mom make a gorgeous pair too! It was so sweet to see the bond between all three of them. After having a good time at the park playing fetch and posing, we headed to Del Mar Beach! She doesn’t go to the beach very often (Fallbrook, remember?) and this was her first time at Del Mar so she was naturally curious. She was also a little concerned about having her parents nearby! She wanted to keep track of them very closely and seemed like she just wanted everyone to stick together. Once again, she let us know if she was in the mood or not to fetch the ball – specifically when the ocean got involved! We threw the ball at one point into the water and she looked at us like you want me to do what?! No way! We tried getting her to walk towards the ocean and a wave came crashing and she just stopped, as if to say “I shall not do this.” It was quite funny!


yorkie with its owner


Another fun fact about Sasha – she’s a bilingual dog and knows commands in both English and Spanish. How cool is that?! Needless to say, I had a blast with her and her parents. Edith, I can’t wait to see you soon and show you the rest of Sasha’s portraits!

A La Mesa Family of Cats and Dogs!

Friday, January 31st, 2020

I recently had the honor of photographing a full house of lovely pets in La Mesa! In particular, three cats and two dogs at their gorgeous home and at a nearby park. We mainly focused on the cats being photographed inside the house even though the dogs, Poppy and Charlie, were super excited to get in on the action! (And I was excited to see them too, haha!)

Two of the cats, Bao and Botas, were ready for their close-up. It might have had to do with a little trick their parents used: fresh salmon! And it worked like a charm. They were more than willing to pose for the camera and get head scratches (and plenty of that salmon) as a reward. Whereas the third cat, Mama Kitty, basically wanted nothing to do with our silly antics. Salmon, head scratches, snuggles, nothing… she wasn’t having it. We did minimal photos with her – and that’s all right! (It happens sometimes! And her family knows she’s not the “jump-in-front-of-the-camera” type.) We were still able to get a few beautiful portraits and move on to our next location… much to Mama Kitty’s relief. :)

la mesa cat


la mesa cat


la mesa cat photography


We went to Briercrest Park in La Mesa, a nearby neighborhood park that I had never been to but immediately fell in love with! It was close to their home and provided an amazing atmosphere for their photo session. The park had little structures, grass, trees, pathways, bridges… I was so impressed by all the picture-perfect opportunities. What made it even better was that it was familiar territory for Poppy and Charlie; it was already their favorite park that they visit on a regular basis. So no need to sniff everything, explore all the nooks & crannies, etc – it’s practically an extension of their yard. This spot is definitely one I will want to keep in mind for future photo sessions!

Poppy and Charlie were very well behaved during their photo session, and were happy to do whatever we asked for treats. My favorite fact about these two fluffers: they are both from China! They were rescued from a terrible fate on the streets, and I have no doubt that their life couldn’t be better than it is today. :)


la mesa dog


la mesa dog photo example


Ellen & family, I cannot wait to show the rest of the images to you soon! Thanks for such a fun photo session!

 

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