Thanks for visiting my blog! My name is Allison, and I work in San Diego, CA, capturing the personalities of dogs and cats of all sizes & temperaments. I do photo sessions on location and in-studio, and my photography style is natural, playful & soulful.
Here on my blog, I tell the stories of recent sessions and events. You might even find an insight or two into the behind-the-scenes side of my business! You can see my portfolio & session info on my main website, via the link above.
Call: 619-357-6624 // Email: Allison@AllisonShamrell.com // Visit: 11828 Rancho Bernardo Road, Suite 204, San Diego, CA 92128
Officially Voted the Best Pet Photographer in San Diego, 2014-2026.
With some sessions, there is a kind of aligning of the stars. Everyone’s schedules are open on just the right dates and times, we all arrive to the session location at the same moment, and the entire process is smooth, smooth, smooth.
This was not one of those sessions!
Spending last Thursday afternoon at Seville Park with Russell the Jack Russell Terrier (don’t worry, I’ve already given his owner a hard time about his name! haha) was for some reason incredibly difficult to pull off. The universe seemed to be against us getting together – but we finally managed to have our session! Russell is a very special dog to three adorable little girls, so you’ll see more of them together in his full blog post. For now, I just have a few images to share with you of the star of the show. Enjoy!
~ Dog Photography in Pensacola, Florida by Allison Shamrell ~
Jade and Luke, Chesapeake Bay retriever siblings, are basically big five-year-olds with four legs each. These dogs are so fun-loving and always ready to move on to the next game or belly-rub! But even though their attention span is short, the love they have for their parents runs deep. You’d never doubt it after seeing the way they both look up and respond to the calls of mom and dad. Of course, they’re still young, so obedience isn’t Jade’s strong suit (yet). But they were so much fun to work with! Check out the video from their session, as well as a few favorite images below.
~ Dog Photography by Allison Shamrell in Pensacola, Florida ~
If you’re a regular follower of this blog, you might be a little surprised to see today’s post. Because it has pictures of – are you ready for this? – humans!
That’s right, I photographed 2-legged creatures recently, and let me tell you, it was a total change of pace! From a photographer’s standpoint, it was a completely different experience because I’m used to my 4-legged clients doing the opposite of what I ask them to, running to catch up with them and then collapsing onto the ground to be on their level, and plenty of outtakes as the norm. Instead, with this session, I learned that people do what you ask, don’t run away, and actually look at the camera more often than not. Verrrrry interesting.
But let me back up – Nate & Sara are my friends from college, and Nate’s family owns a condo on beautiful Perdido Beach. They came down for a week-long vacation, supposedly to celebrate Sara’s completion of Level One exams in medical school (a very big deal, from what I hear!). And so it was a total surprise when Nate proposed – on the beach at night, where they both had a front row seat to a lightning storm out at sea! :: joke about starting their life together with a BANG! goes here :: (hee hee)
So we just had to get together a few days later, and we spent our time on Perdido Key as well as a few spots in downtown Pensacola. I hope you enjoy this video, and the accompanying images below. For one of my first forays into people photography (haha!) I had a great time, and I think we got them a few good options for their save-the-dates.
I think this one (with the doors) is my favorite!
Look how well they both did with “sit” and “stay”!
…. sorry, couldn’t resist!
Congratulations again, you two. There’s no way I could be happier for you! Enjoy the photos!
~ Engagement Photography by Allison Shamrell in Pensacola, Florida ~
Photographing Josie and Gracie was a Father’s Day gift for one very lucky Dad in the Pensacola area. And while Gracie (the sweet little pomeranian) is her mama’s girl, Josie (the gorgeous golden retriever) is really her father’s favorite, so the session was mostly about her. Since I have a soft spot for goldens, and Josie happened to be fantastic at posing, the shoot was a lot of fun! Guess what: this was the last Father’s Day this family will have with ONLY four-legged children!! They’re about to have a two-legged addition, and I couldn’t be happier for them all.
I had a lot of fun being sneaky about this session! Some of you might remember the Sneak Peek of these two, and I only posted it after their mom said their dad definitely wouldn’t be poking around my site. I guess you could say that’s the advantage of being the only pet photographer around (or at least the only photographer whose business is 90% pets): it’s not incredibly hard to keep secrets like this one, since so many people don’t know I exist! (I’m working on that, of course, since it’s not actually a good thing… but it was in this case!) So I didn’t do many of the things I normally do: tag the owners in photos of the dogs on Facebook, visit the clients’ homes to show them their images after post-processing, send their products directly to their house so they don’t have to wait an extra second to get them… the whole thing was quite surreptitious! But I can promise you this: if you need a birthday/anniversary/any-old-day gift for someone who has a dog they’re crazy about, you’ll have WAY more fun with me than picking up a gift card to Petsmart!
Enjoy the video – and Kari, thank you for allowing me to photograph your beautiful dogs. You had a great gift idea :)
Oh, and here’s an outtake image that was pretty popular on Facebook! I gave it the only caption it could possibly have: “Narf!”
~ Dog Photography in Pensacola, Florida by Allison Shamrell ~
So, I’m not sure about this – you never can be, with these things – but I think Charlie the golden retriever has an old soul. First of all, I’ve never seen a calmer 14-month-old golden. Sure, he gets antsy and excited (like when his dad came home, just before we started our session!) but most of the time, he’s remarkably happy to just be with his family. And second, as his mom warned me, he closes his mouth and looks quite serious when anyone brings out a camera – he practically looks stoic!
So it was a bit of a challenge for me to get Charlie to loosen up and relax – but gosh, you should have seen him when we hit the beach! Here’s a quick sneak peek!
What a handsome dog – and he’s surrounded by love. This was truly a great session.
~ Dog Photography by Allison Shamrell in Pensacola, Florida ~
