Here’s Hina, chillin’ out on the boat. It was, of course, the quintessential Cape Cod hazy afternoon, but thankfully not the storm and rain of the day before.

Geist is the oldest of the group. She belonged to Dad first, and Monkey belonged to Mom. Together they got Hina and lived happily ever after…

No really – they just got married :-)

One of my most favorite photos ever – Geist at the boat house! She lost her leg in a car accident years ago, but really, there isn’t a single hint of trouble across her face… LOOK AT THAT FACE! She and I spent a lot of quality time nuzzling.

After an hour of romping in the grass and overlooking Vineyard Sound, we meandered back up to the patio. These guys definitely had an incredible summer of celebration and sunshine, splashing in the water and rolling in the grass. The day of our session was the day before they headed back home to life in Atlanta. Congratulations on your wedding and adorable family, guys! Perhaps we’ll meet again next summer!

The center of our attention was Farmer, a 15-year old Sable Border Collie adopted through the New England Border Collie Rescue organization, where mom Leslie is a tireless volunteer. Farmer came to Leslie just a few years ago at age 12, and the two of them have formed an incredible bond. Farmer followed mom around diligently, and loved to gaze into her human eyes.

The property itself was gorgeous, and we just had to ask Farmer to pose among the flowers! Don’t you just love the touch of “eyeliner” around her adorable ears?!

Most recently, little Dru came into Farmer and Leslie’s life! Farmer doesn’t seem to mind too much, and this little four-month old keeps things buzzing on the homefront. PLEASE tell me you can see Dru’s pudgey little cheeks… I couldn’t get enough of them!!

The pudgey! On the right! Nibble nibble nibble….

Leslie, Farmer and Dru, thank you so much for welcoming me into your home and little slice of Vermont heaven! I’m always excited to spend time amidst happy rescue stories and witness all the greatness that can come from them!

Let me introduce you to this sweet little girl – we’re so happy to have her in our extended family!

So you can imagine how excited I was to head into New York’s Greenwich Village this past weekend for a shoot with Chloe! This session was a gift from Sadie & Carmine in Boston – I think it was a gift to Chloe and to me actually!

We started with a little lounging on the fire escape to set the mood.

Then Chloe showed me a few of her favorite spots inside. She’s a rescue, some mix of lab and basset hound is the guess, I believe. Such a lovable and willing model.

This is when the crazy dog photographer lady laid down in the middle of 5th Ave. I remember the NYC cabbies being pretty angry fellas when I was a kid, but I actually got yelled at by a road-biker for this, ha!

We walked over to Washington Square Park as well. When Chloe sees a tree, all she can think about is SQUIRREL. After a few attempts at calling her name and making squeaky noises, I realized I was just going to have to move myself between that solid gaze and whatever she perceived to be happening in the trees. (I’ll be removing the leashes in these final photos, but was feeling a little eager to share this peek with you!)

We walked down this adorable hidden road called Washington Mews, with stucco walls and unique and colorful doors. Though less of the “city” atmosphere, this made for some really fun photos.

I have a feeling I’ll be back with more photos to share from this session! I had such a great time meeting Chloe and wandering the city streets from a dog’s eye perspective. Hopefully this will be the first of many trips (but I’ll definitely need to pack lighter on the photo gear, yikes)! Thanks for a wonderful day, Sue and to Karen & Erik for introducing us!

I met Kate and Eric – and Bella! – on the beach in Fairfield, Connecticut on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. Bella is a lab-pitt mix, adopted by Eric seven years ago. Man, does she love her dad…

It turns out dad loves Kate, and asked her to marry him last month in Grand Central Park! Dad loves Bella, Bella loves dad, Kate loves dad, dad loves Kate, thus Bella loves Kate. Congratulations to all three of you!

We had a great time exploring Penfield Beach. Bella was a very compliant model as we moved from benches to grasses to buoys…

We absolutely made time for some splishing and splashing though!

Being the lady that she is, Bella loved the little spa treatment of being toweled off after her play. I was already walking further down the beach at this time, but turned back just in time to catch a happy little series with my 200mm zoom lens. So much fun running around with you guys, and thanks for being so willing to sit, walk and smooch along with the camera! I hope to visit you in the City for some more Bella rubs soon!

We went into this weekend knowing it was going to be 110% relaxation. I cancelled a shoot in Vermont to be by the side of our eldest pup, Bromley, who was rushed into emergency surgery last week. More on that to come, but right now we’re just enjoying long, lazy afternoons, laying in the grass and soaking up the sun. Bromley’s favorite things :-)

You can bet there will be more photos to come, as I employed my lovely mom to give a hand with our family portraits. But for today I thought I’d share a couple of Brewer, the little brother who is having a wee bit of a hard time relaxing as much as the rest of us. He has been pacing around the yard, picking up sticks, munching on grass, securing the perimeter… Thank goodness for the occasional squeaky fish.

That’s not true… One time I ordered a client album under such a tight deadline that I had it drop-shipped and never even saw it. How SAD!

Anyway, with all the off-season vendor sales that are swimming around in my inbox these days, I decided to go ahead and finally order one. This is 10×10″ with 30 pages.

I upgraded to UV protection paper and hinged pages that lay flat. Learned a couple of things along the way… namely that I hate the glossy UV paper (gah!), and that I need to order one more start page because all the photos I planned to show side-by-side are instead a page off. Oopsie. And this is the back of the book. The text is all chocolate, as is the spine of the book. After a recent trip (read: hours) to Paper Source, I’m really feelin’ the chocolate, gray and cream combo for my branding. Got home that day and realized that my website already had the gray, ha!

I absolutely love the idea of Display Books for my pet clients, because one of the most common things they are faced with when ordering is the idea of not looking like a freak when their friends come over to visit. Somehow it’s okay to have photos of your kids everywhere in the house, but a little more curious when it’s your dog. This is another great reason to cluster your wall prints or canvas together on a wall if you can’t decide on just one to hang.

All in all, I’m glad I have a sample and learned some tweaks. I do have plans to try another vendor this spring, and will likely pick one session to depict as a full story in the album… so stay tuned for a peek!

Woody is a ~one year old Catahoula mix from Louisiana. He’s the softest damned dog… both his fur and his sweet personality. So relaxed (except maybe that time he got bored with the interior of the car). And don’t you just love his different color eyes?

Tim and Alicia have fallen instantly in love, and have been great to take Woody to all their favorite ocean spots as he gets used to this new sandy life. I have a series of these shots that just make my heart melt… and Woody looks so at home.
Woody was adopted through the small volunteer group, Mutts4Rescue, based in the south and in Portsmouth, RI. He made the trek to New England with a group called Rescue Road Trips.

Congratulations once again to Tim, Alicia and Woody! We’re so happy to see your family and hearts grow! XO