portrait

About the love of an old dog

old dog with hat photo session

A few weeks ago, a beautiful human being emailed me to book a photo-shoot for herself and her dog. Her old, blind, cancer-ridden rescued dog. A dog that someone abandoned in his old age and that she rescued, to give him the most love possible in his last years of life. A gentle, quiet Boston Terrier named Lucky.

He meandered slowly and patiently through the studio, and allowed us to place him and dress him up with all the wisdom his age provided.

A photo session unlike any other I’ve ever done before.

Boston terrier photoshoot Boston terrier and human mom photoshoot Boston terrier photoshoot

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Lights, camera, dance! An aerialist photo session in studio

I recently had the pleasure ( and challenge) to photograph a beautiful professional aerialist and ballet jazz dancer. It was certainly a novel way to shoot portraits and not entirely dissimilar to photographing acrobatic cats in mid-air, although this cat, I was able to communicate with. Small blessings. 😛

It was both a gruelling and satisfying photo session, while certainly delightful to discover another talented Quebec artist. To see her literally fly through the air was a real treat!

dancer photography Montreal

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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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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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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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