This session was another birthday present from a husband to his wife. I send out a questionnaire prior to every session and from their answers I saw that all three dogs were under two, had only done puppy school level obedience training and one was camera shy. I had my work cut out for me! I lined up an assistant for the shoot and allowed extra time for the dogs to learn the ropes. I started with Abbie, the supposedly camera shy one.

Well that was a pleasant surprise! She was a little timid but she did really well at overcoming it.

Next up was Floyd. The middle child. Head tilt level: expert.

He wasn’t terribly comfortable in front of the camera but I took my time and used every trick in my arsenal. We got there in the end.

Archie is the baby of the family. Feeling left out that her daughter and husband both had dogs, Michelle decided that she wanted one too.

He turned out to be the most challenging, but I probably shouldn’t tell you that because I worked all kinds of voodoo and looking at the photos you’d never guess he was anything but perfect!

None of the dogs could be off-lead so I had this marvellous idea to get two people behind the door holding the leashes and one behind me to keep their attention in my direction and do a family shot. Even with my assistant helping as well it just couldn’t be done. Some dogs just don’t share my vision. So I kept Allie and fired the other two. I’m not called Ruthless for nothin’!

That wasn’t the only unsuccessful group shot. There were quite a few suggestions that none of the dogs were feeling so, knowing that I had plenty of individual photos, I called it a day. And then this happened …

… it’s fair to say that everyone was in need of a hug by the time we were done – me included!

Mark pre-paid for my Premium Collection so Michelle wouldn’t have to make any big decisions about what to order. I like his way of thinking. Here’s a quick snap of their products before I wrapped everything ready for collection tomorrow. As with all my product photos, these all look much better in real life!