This is Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Recent vacation in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, to recharge artistic batteries and quality tequila levels.

Here are a few photos. You can see the beach, flowers and of course glimpses of magical place that Playa can be at night.

This is a house and palm trees by the ocean.

Playacar beach, Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Vegetation on a tree trunk on the street.

Yucatan vegetation

Close-up of a local species of agave plants.

agave shrubs

Close-up of a purple bougainvillea flower.

purple bougainvillea flower

The view from our rented apartment balcony. You can see the entrance to Playacar on the right.

Playacar

Close-up of a palm leaf of a different species. The color was really a silver-blue.

Playa del Carmen

Close up of a pink and orange bougainvillea flower.

orange and pink bougainvillea flower

The Flamboyan Tree in bloom at dusk.

Yucatan, Mexico

Another view of beach and ocean with a local tree on the right. Not sure what the tree is called.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Playa del Carmen at night. Jardins De Marietta. A lovely inner garden with artist galleries and an incomparable atmosphere. You can see some benches where people can sit and enjoy.

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Several open-air restaurants with lit lanterns of different shapes and sizes in the trees. Two of them are La Piola and La Cueva del Chango. This is common practice in Playa del Carmen.

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Here we can see a selection of Animal bloopers

I’ve been thinking for a while for a way to showcase all those animal photos that I took but never made it into the client’s selection because they were too strange or just plain funny (and inappropriate, sometimes..LOL) . So, I decided to add an “Animal Bloopers” section to my website. While that gets ready, you can enjoy some of the bloopers here in this post. 🙂

cat blooper

cat blooper 2

cat blooper 3

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Beautiful kittens

Of all the cats I’ve ever photographed, ( and I have seen  my fair share of unique), Sphynxes have always been the  most fascinating. I know some people have strong reaction upon seeing them; usually not of the positive kind, but I personally have grown very fond of them. In reality, they are gentle, playful and they love to cuddle with their human.

I want to share with you a few beautiful baby Sphynx that I recently photographed. They are delicate and alien, endearing and soft, real and phantasmagoric at once…

sphynx kitten sphynx kitten Tiny sphynx kitten

Baby Sphynx

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Sam…I am. This is Sam the dog.

This is Sam the dog. The basset hound, lab, german shepherd and love mix. He’s got the eyes and the sass and the softest fur ever! He loves his treats and his human parents. I had fun photographing Sam and his parents a while ago. Sam tried to lick me and he tried to lick the camera and argued with his dad when the session got too long for his taste. Sam made me smile. Sam is adopted. Sam is love.

photography basset hound dog photography basset hound dog photography basset hound dog

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Photographing Atchoum the cat – a local celebrity

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing a very unique looking cat: His name is Atchoum and, yes, he is a cat. Not an owl, not an ewok not a mad scientist, just a lovable persian kitten born with a very hairy condition called Hypertrichosis. Yes, I dare you to say that out loud 3 times in a row! 😛

To make the session even more perfect, the photos were commissioned by none other than the celebrity magazine People. Yes, that People; you can see the link here: http://www.peoplepets.com/people/pets/article/0,,20906351,00.html or you can buy the magazine in print.

He’s like any kitten, a little shy at the beginning, with all the light and cables and strange people in his house, but then he relaxed and actually became very playful and curious, and we were able to get some fantasic poses in, as you can see in our especially dedicated section: https://lifeinfocus.ca/photos-of-atchoum-the-cat/

Well, here’s to being different and having fun with you – way to go Atchoum!

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Why should you photograph your pets professionally?

This post is going to be a little odd perhaps, a little off-kilter. “Why would I photograph my pets” someone asked me recently. I guess the underlying question would be “why hire a professional to photograph my dog/cat/ferret..etc..? ”

The blunt answer is: because they will (probably) die before you and all you will have to remember them is a dark, blurry, red-eyed photo of them. Or maybe not, maybe you got some decent shots of them with your phone playing outside, because the built-in camera metered nicely for a summer’s late afternoon. Maybe you were lucky that way. Maybe…

The truth is, however, most of your phone shots are just fleeting digital moments that will never see it to the light of print. The truth is, you love your pet like your child and yet your memory of them will fade slowly over time. I know because I’ve been there, like many of you reading this post. I know because I have 1000 amateur shots of my first dog and none of them is technically good enough to be printed bigger than a 4×6. If it were, I’d most probably have a nice 20 x 24 print on my wall. Because I shared 13 years of my life with that dog and he was my furry brother. Because I had crying fits for 2 years after he died. Because he shaped my life in ways I am still discovering. Because he made me love dogs and thus made me rescue my GSD baby in the nick of time (she was 5 minutes away from euthanasia).

Knowing all this, in retrospect, what is one hour of your time and a couple hundred dollars so you can have THE larger-than-life photo to print, frame and hang on your wall, to be able to look at the heart of your past, immortalized into image forever?

photo of old dog

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Advertising Campaign by the best Montreal pet photographer

There comes a time in every professional photographer’s career, when they see their work published in a major advertising campaign. Well for me, this is one of those moments. And it feels very, very, nice. 🙂

This particular project was commissioned by the (really nice) folks at Pets Plus Us insurance company – with campaign ads running in the winter edition of Modern Dog Magazine and Canadian Dogs Annual.

The lovely spotted gentleman in the middle is Jack, a very spirited and photogenic Jack Russell Terrier. The two humans are his very caring parents.

Now I know that some of you might wonder why so many people treat their pets as their “kids” even going as far as buying health insurance for them? Well, the truth is adding a pet to your family can have numerous health benefits, physical as well as mental. Here’s more about that from the folks at Positive Health Wellness Blog. Meanwhile, enjoy life with your four-legged friend! 🙂

Pets Plus Us - Published - 2 Canadian Dogs Annual_petsplusus_published

 

 

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Valentine’s Day event in Montreal.

#Montreal We are thinking about doing some Valentine’s day mini-sessions (20 minutes), in collaboration with a pet-related business (in their space). This would be by appointment only (ahead of time). Session cost is $48 with two complementary hi-res digitals. If this appeals to you, contact me in PV to set up a date, a time and a booking schedule. 🙂

cute kitten photo

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Copyright law for your images

So I stumbled upon a very interesting blog post about how your images/ photos are actually protected on the vast expanses of the internets. This is proof that you CAN protect your work.

Excerpt from Sassy Design‘s blog post:

Sharing digital copyright protected files, whether it is design templates, digital papers, Photoshop actions, business contracts or something else is illegal and is punishable in a court of law. It does not matter if you live in a different state than the copyright owner or; if you shared with one person or thousands. It also does not matter if you are sharing them in an “underground” message board, a “private” Facebook group, a “members only” forum, or somewhere else. Sharing digital copyright protected files is illegal.”

You can read the rest of the article here: http://sassy-designs.net/blog/?p=443

Fellow photographers and artists, please feel free to share your experiences on the subject, as I am sure they are many and probably not pleasant…

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The stray dogs of Moscow

So, you all have heard by now of the stray dogs of Sochi, in Russia. Well, this is the story of Petrovich, a stray dog from Moscow. That doesn’t make it any less interesting.

You can see him here posing by himself, a wise old gentleman as well as with his sisters. Literally his sisters, his actual littermates.

His story begins some 11 years ago. His human mom travels often because of her job and one of her many travels brought her to the far reaches of Europe, Moscow. There, a stray dog had given birth to her puppies a few months before somewhere on a construction site. As luck would have it, Petrovich’s future human mom couldn’t resist the bundles of fur and she went to great lengths to bring two of the three pups with her to Montreal, Canada. Petrovich was “adopted” by the construction crew so he stayed behind for three more years, period during which his future human mom passed to visit a few times and brought food and cuddles. In the end, the connection that formed between them was too strong so she decided to bring him back to Canada as well. He was successfully adopted and now lives with his two sisters in a beautiful house next to a park. He is loved and has domain over plush couches and comfy rugs. He has also beat cancer. If he remembers anything from his distant past, you couldn’t tell about it when he asks for belly rubs or comes to investigate the treat in your hand. Perhaps only his wise eyes hold a reminder of how far he’s come.

three dog brothers

 

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Good pet sitters and daycare in Montreal

Photo of Dog playing in the snow in Montreal

 

 

Since I am a pet parent myself, I figured it’s a good idea to give a shout-out to a few doggie day care and kennel services in the Montreal area that I have already tried and I am very happy with.

One of them is : Joelle Hamelin – she is a also certified positive reinforcement trainer (R+). Her kennel is situated in the quiet country side in the town of Mont-Saint-Grégoire – this is their website: http://www.joellehamelin.com/. They have organized outings in a large secured fenced area (outdoors), with supervision, as well as an indoors play area. What is really neat is the fact that the dogs get grouped up by temperament so they can get the best playmates possible.

I left my pooch with her for 3 weeks ( yes, that was a vacation length necessary for my sanity..LOL) and I got email and photo updates every 4 days; the beast gave kisses to the daycare lady when we came to pick her up and seems a tad better socialized than when we put her there. So I will definitely be using her pension services again.

Another one is Bark Avenue – this is their website: http://barkavemtl.com/

I used them for daycare and was very happy with the services. The dogs have an indoors free range area and an outdoors one. It’s very clean and there is someone with them on site 24 hours a day and the owners are certified dog trainers. Coincidentally one of them was instrumental in the troubled rescue of my little diva, so I knew she would be in good hands there. Since they are in Montreal, they are a better option if you just need day care services but they also offer kenneling. Oh, and if your fur-baby was adopted from a rescue or shelter you get a discount.

Please feel free to chime in with your own suggestions about doggie daycare and kennel options in and around Montreal!

 

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Meet the bulldog – the charm offensive

I had a very busy weekend, photographing dogs…and a gangster. Yes, you read me right. Right here in Montreal! Allow me to introduce Mik3y the gangster, ready to receive you in his “office”. This is the first time I had the opportunity to photograph such a charming and well-trained bulldog. He, very patiently, allowed me and his owner to dress him up (more photos to come later in the week – stay tuned).

Although I have had moments during this photo-shoot when I had to dodge a rapidly approaching pooch barrelling towards the camera (and me, by extension) as only a bulldog can; I will admit I enjoyed Mick3y very much. He gave us adorable piggy snorts and butt wiggles and generally made the afternoon a lot of fun!

The hobbies of Mik3y the English bulldog are: smoking cigars, drinking coffee and generally being dapper. His pictures will particularly demonstrate to what extent. I hope you enjoy them.

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A Christmas Photo-shoot at the Montreal SPCA Annex

This past Saturday, we did a pet photography session at the Montreal SPCA Annex animal shelter.

All the proceeds from the photo-shoot went to their fundraising effort and we got some great photos and many laughs!

Let me tell you, we got many proud pet parents and many unique rescued pooches.

It was a fun event for the whole family!  Especially now with the Holidays approaching, it’s  good reminder to adopt not shop!

Here are some of my favourites!

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Montreal SPCA Fundraising Photo Event!

What is it? It’s a fundraiser for the Annex of the Montreal SPCA. When is it? This Saturday November 9.

Come and get your pet photographed by Life in Focus Pet Photography. All the proceeds go to the animal shelter and you get some very nice photos of you and your pooch to send as Christmas cards.

The address is: 7314, rue Mountain Sights, Montréal. You also get free coffee and the pooch gets free treats! What’s not to like??

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Christmas kittens!

We know you like cats and especially kittens! We also know that some of you have the elusive DIY gene and are quite successful at it. So, if you want to make your own Christmas Greeting Cards this year and send you family a trully unique gift, here’s a link where you can acquire one of our kitten photos!

Enjoy!

http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/photo/christmas-kittens-royalty-free-image/523871189

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Dog photo in fall scenery

Doing a photo shoot with your pet outside is always fun. Probably more for him ( or her) because of all the squirrels, cats, other dogs, but I digress.

Luckily when the dog is a golden retriever and the backdrop is the beautiful Montreal autumn you get a (literally) golden photograph!

Hoping you took the time to enjoy these past few days outdoors in the park along with your favorite pooch!

 

 

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