Is your dog wary of strangers? Rufus only allows a very select amount of people into his personal space. I had to tailor my shooting style to make sure he wasn’t pushed out of his comfort zone. With distance, time and some very high value treats I managed to work with him to get these images. Some of my favourites of 2020.

Rufus was found abandoned in a box with his siblings on a Native American reservation in the mountains of New Mexico. He was rescued and subsequently adopted by his person at 8 weeks of age. He moved to Sydney when he was two and a half years old and loves it here! He doesn’t dislike people, he just prefers them to social distance.

At this point I’m going to admit that I actually had two sessions with Rufus. A lot of things went wrong for me at the first one – gear issues and too many people at my location issues – so I offered a reshoot. It was very worthwhile because Rufus liked me more the second time and the quieter spot made him more comfortable. This next half of the post is from the second shoot.

How bloody gorgeous was the light. I struggled to part with the finished artworks!