Some time ago Ava’s people entered a draw at the Vitapet stand at The Dog Lovers Show. The prize was a Ruthless Photos voucher and they were lucky enough to win it. Being a busy family it took a few attempts to schedule the shoot and when the time came I was in the middle of shooting my Tails of Sydney book. Since they requested a location that wasn’t scheduled to be included I decided that if Ava gave me the goods I’d feature her in the book. I didn’t tell her until afterwards though, in case she cracked under the pressure!

We met at Rushcutters Bay, which is their local park. I was warned that Ava’s Beagle nose could take over and she’d run away in search of food. Being a lovely warm weekend afternoon there were lots of people picnicing so, even though she was very interested in the food I had to offer, she needed to be tethered to create enough space for my lens to focus. A mere 2ft wasn’t a lot to ask.

Having to exercise some patience was confusing for her …

… and somewhat devastating.

So we unclipped her and let her be free to run around. She doesn’t have a perfect recall but she’s extremely food motivated so we were able to get her to run between two food-holding people to ensure no picnics were ruined in the making of these action shots!

Rushcutters Bay Park has lots of lovely big paperbark trees, which is the natural habitat of the Beagle x Cavalier. I jest, but she did look pretty good amongst all that textured bark.

When she was finished in the tree we took her down to the waterfront for some sunset photos. There were so many dogs in that small space on the jetty I’m amazed that no one fell in (especially me) and even more amazed that devon can trump the amount of distractions that were going on behind me.

These last two images are the ones they chose for wall art – a 16×20″ canvas and a 30×45″ metal print. I only included the drooling shot because I thought it was funny but the whole family loved it and it nearly got voted for the kitchen wall (which I was silently rooting for) but the other one won out in the end and drooly Ava is in the hallway instead.

Here’s the finished piece hanging in their kitchen, it looks SO cool. With all the big windows in the space the metal is a great substrate as there are no reflections interfering with the image.

If you’d like to read more about Rushcutters Bay and Ava (and 84 other locations and 116 other dogs) you can buy a copy of my book Tails of Sydney. It’s packed full of content that took a year to produce and every book that’s sold helps raise funds for three local dog rescue groups. You can order yours today from my online store: https://www.ruthlessphotos.com//shop/