Some time last year Paxy’s owner booked me to photograph her two dogs. She doesn’t live locally so we had to try and shoot when she was in town and the weather didn’t cooperate the first couple of times (damn summer storms!). Then she told me Mercury was sick and had been shaved for tests so we’d need to wait until he was better. We tried to reschedule a number of other times but he continued to go downhill and eventually, shockingly, he passed away from renal failure. He was only two years old. I’m sad that I never got to meet him, he sounded like a beautiful dog.

A few weeks ago I did get to meet Paxy though (if you’ve ever looked through the Ruthless Leather designs you might recognise the name, she’s the owner of the original Paxy collar) and she was a dream to work with. She’s one of three Koolies I’ve photographed this year and each one has been a legend. Paxy was born with a deformed eye so she was fitted with a prosthetic eyeball and now she has a tendency to look alarmed most of the time, which amused me no end!

Paxy is very well trained so she made me look like a dog whispering pro in this busy dog park!

While she was happy to pose all day in return for treats she really came to life when she got to run around with the new ball I gave her (all my Portrait Session clients get a toy to keep and these Cuz toys are always popular). She had a great time trying to catch it … trying being the operative word for the most part.

With the action shots out of the way we got back to some more posing. I love the giant fig trees in this park, many a dog has been photographed in them by me.

As the sun began to set we made our way over to the water’s edge to include the Anzac Bridge in some photos.

There’s that crazy face again! We ended the shoot laughing at this ridiculous expression.

Her owners came for their viewing session a couple of weeks ago and chose this image to be printed on canvas for their living room.

I’ve also designed a 12×12″ album with all their favourite images from the session. There’s a flip through video on my Instagram account.

Would you like a fun afternoon with me and my camera? The heat and storms will be here before we know it so now is a great time to book a shoot, particularly if you have Christmas presents in mind. You can check out my website for more details.