Long time followers might remember when I shared the photos from Hamilton and Thumbelina’s first “Puppy’s First Year” session with me, last February. I’ve photographed them twice since then. The first time was for my my Tails of Sydney book, at Nurragingy Reserve. They were five months older and had forgotten everything I taught them about keeping the nice camera-lady happy. Many deep breaths were taken that afternoon!
We met up again recently for their final shoot. They’d had quite a few outings and training sessions since we’d last met but I still chose an extremely quiet location with almost no distractions to set us all up to win.
Ridiculous faces are a Hamilton specialty.
While taking those first photos I noticed a lovely spot where the sun was streaming through the bushes with a log in front for the dogs to sit on. I think I’ve gotten a bit used to photographing small dogs and puppies because there was no way these two were going to balance on there for me. We tried and failed and then decided to go with just paws up instead.
Both dogs needed to be kept onlead for the whole shoot and didn’t like being tied to things so the logs became a good way for their owner to hold onto them while staying out of the shot. She got a good workout!
When I was doing a reccy for the shoot I saw all these beautiful yellow trees that were begging to be used as a backdrop. Autumn in Sydney is no Autumn in Canberra but we do get a little bit of colour, if you know where to look for it.
This image was chosen to be blown up and framed. It’s going to look awesome alongside the rest of the photos in Kirsten’s private Ruthless Photos gallery!
I shared a digital page-turn of the big album, with images from all their sessions, on my Instagram if you want to check it out.
Did you or someone you know just get a puppy? Please tell them about my Puppy’s First Year package. They grow up so fast. With this package you can record all that cuteness for posterity with gorgeous, archive quality products, that you can keep and look back on forever. Send me an email for more info.
