Bella bounds.

These pictures were taken by my dear friend Emily of her beautiful rescue dog extraordinare Bella. One of my favorite parts of the blizzard was watching all of the dogs in my neighborhood play in the snow. Does anyone else have any pictures? Send them to me and I'll put them up here.  

Wow.

Photo by Matthew S. Gunby/Associated Press

I was so amazed when I heard about Tillamook Cheddar, the dog in NYC that scratches and rips canvases into amazing abstract designs. Then I found this article this morning about all sorts of animals who are expressing themselves artistically and earning good money in the process.  It really helps me to confirm my ideas that animals are creative just like us, yet so few are given the opportunity.  

Dondi & Co

These photos were taken at the beautiful Bethesda home of a very lovely lady and veterinarian named Dondi. The first thing that amazed me about the day is how she can have two adorable rottweilers and have her furniture stay white and beautiful. I also pretty impressed that we got everybody to look at the camera and show off the cuteness. 

Thanks to Amy for her post about Houndstooth on her great wedding blog, The Relentless Bride.

Also, Doga is a very real thing according to this article in the New York Times. The photos made me giggle--a lot. Has anyone tried this before? I have a hard enough time getting dogs to look at the camera and helping humans get into downward facing dog.  But hey, I keep learning that anything is possible.

Happy holidays!

Holiday Loving at Wagtime and Wylie Wagg

Happy start to the holidays! Here are a few selects from some of my pet store portrait sessions at Wagtime in Mount Vernon, DC and Wylie Wagg in Tysons, VA. They are, in my humble, pet-photographing opinion, two of the best pet stores in the DC metro area and I love working with their clients. I wish I could have included a select from each session because there were all great, but here a few of my favorites:

Chance looking just fine in his santa hat.

Photographing Lilu made me want a French Bulldog in my life!

Tasha did so well at her first photo shoot.

Ah, Pensky, you're are just too much wonderfulness in one animal.

This was my second time photographing both Jack & Buttercup. I still can't tell who is cuter.

Brave Autumn & Aubrey were the only cats of my in-store photo sessions.

Knightly & co--cuteness in family form.

Hannibal Mays has quite a name because he is quite a dog.

Cookie is a prince of a little dog--so fun to photograph in his holiday sweater.

Cat massages--caring or creepy?

My vote is creepy. I could actually only watch this one once because her intensity started to scare me.

Also, check out this lovely assortment of hanukkah photographs.  I feel a little Christian-centric in my holiday photographs of late but I would like to world that I photograph all animals, regardless of race, breed or religion. 

Lily the ring bearer.

Lily holds a meeting with the flower girls to go over last minute details...

Game face on...

Success!

I was so happy to photograph the wedding of Polly and Andrew in Little Rock, AR because there were so many cute things about to day! They choose to serve pies instead of cakes, had saw player perform their processional, and even left out a table of board games for all their friends and family to enjoy during the reception. But my favorite was that they got their tree walker coonhound/beagle mix Lily to serve as the ring bearer. She did such a great job of carrying those rings down the aisle and then sitting patiently during the service.  It was a great coming together of my worlds (pet and wedding photography). 

P.s.--Another amazing thing about Lily is that she helped Polly to recover from being very sick two years ago. Polly, who had just come out of a coma, had to recover her muscle strength to walk. Of course, Lily was insistent that she do this and became Polly's cheerleader and coach. So beautiful!

Kenya and Beckett

Family outing.

Rob and Beckett

Kenya strikes a diva pose.

It was great to hang out with Rob and Kyeh and their dogs Kenya and Beckett at their home near Ballston. They live right next to a park where the dogs had a chance to run around for a while and a nice little stream where they could cool off. I had been thinking a lot about Seattle before the shoot (I was paddling in the ocean around San Juan this time last year) and it turns out they just moved from there. They totally have the relaxed West Coast vibe that makes me think that life is really about being outside with the ones you love. If I had to give out awards for the day, I would give sweet Beckett "Best Behaved" and to Kenya "Future Supermodel." She knows how to work it in front of the camera :)