Wylie Wagg once again.

Despite having to reschedule our Valentines Day shoot because of the snow, we ended up having a great day and I got a ton of great photographs. I love working with Wylie Wagg! Thank you to everyone for coming out.

Surfing alpaca

I love Peru for so many reasons (I lived there for over two years with the Peace Corps) because it always surprises me and this story is no exception. There is an animal trainer and surfer who has not only trained his dog and cat to surf with him, but now has gotten his pet alpaca "Pisco" to correr tabla (Peruvian slang for surf) with him. Peru has some of the best surfing in the world and is home to some of the worlds finest alpacas but I never imagined that the coast could meet the mountains in this way. Ah, innovation. Click here to see a newcast with live action surf footage but I warn you it's in Spanish

A sweet political moment...

This is Cody, the cocker spaniel puppy of a nice man named Ted who lives over in the Capitol Hill area. He hired me because years ago he took a great picture of his other Cocker Spaniel, Lucky (14 years old), and wanted to have a picture of Cody to put by its side. We concentrated on capturing Cody's boundless energy and cheerful nature and selected the above photograph to share a frame with Lucky's photograph.

A few days after receiving the photography, Ted decided to make a few copies for his neighbors who are friends with Lucky and Cody. One of these neighbors is Senator Dodd from from Connecticut who has a house a few blocks away, whose daughters love these dogs. Upon seeing the photograph, his daughter Grace (age 7) kissed it and her nanny made the promise that she will kiss it every night. How is that for political endorsement? :)

Lucky dogs.

Here is a sampling of portraits I did for a fundraiser for Lucky Dog animal rescue hosted by Wagtime Pets. Everyone at Lucky Dog and Wagtime does a lot for a lot of great pets coming from tough situations and it was awesome to see so many people come out for a good cause. And a lot of cuteness occurred on my studio paper, as evidenced by the above photographs. Thanks to all for coming out!

I want to give a special shout-out for Kuma (the first dog in the set--with the HUGE black, beautiful head) and his owner Karyn. She has created this great little contraption called The Bag Bag, which attaches your plastic bags on your leash. It seems like such a simple thing, but I have spent many walks with plastic bags coming out of my coat pockets (or worse, not having a bag when you need one) and have decided that its quite functional. Karyn and Kuma are also just nice people so it's good to support more of that in our world.

Also, I am doing another portrait session this Sunday at Wylie Wagg in Tysons, VA. It's the make-up for the Valentines Day sessions that were canceled due to the snow. I have about three more slots if anyone is interested in getting a few sweet shots of your pet. Please contact me at houndstoothphotography@gmail.com for more details.

I need one of these in my life.

Sadly, I don't know who took this photo or where I can find this dog but it makes me happy just to look at it. Does anyone out there have a Shar-pei they need photographed? Pretty please?

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.