Buster's goodbye.

Ah, it is with a lot of emotion that I post these pictures. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a woman named Victoria who told me about her friends Anita & George and their 3 year-old boxer, Buster. Buster had been fighting for a cancer for a while and the latest round of chemotherapy had not been effective. The cancer had spread to his lymph nodes. They predicted he would only live a few more weeks and Victoria wanted to give her friends a photo session.

When I went to meet with them, I was nervous that Buster would be frail or tire easily during the shoot, but instead I was greeted by this loving, energetic dog. We spent a lovely hour together and he was a perfect model. I could really feel his sweet energy coming through into the pictures. Also, the connection between him and George & Anita was so apparent. They told me about spending Buster's last weeks on the beach in Maryland--one of his favorite places--and took me down to the dog park so I could meet all of Buster's friends.

I received an email a few days ago from Anita telling me with great sadness that Buster had passed. To commemorate him, they are taking his ashes to spread on the beach that he loved so much. From seeing the dedicated and love they shared, I know how difficult this time must be for them, and I wish them the best during this transition. Although he is gone, I know that this sweet dog will live on for a very long times in all of our hearts. I am honored to have shared one of Buster's last afternoons with him.

scoopy the dog.

oh man, things have been so busy these past sixth months and i admit that i have fallen behind in my menagerie blogging. i have been remiss in leaving out photos of all these great sessions i've been having and i want to remedy that. my goal is to go back through and post a few photos from each shoot and give a shout out the the great pets and people i get to meet through this funny job of mine.

today it's scoopy!

Tank the tank.

oh how i love a bulldog puppy! (photos taken in and around the awesome shirlington dog park.)

Breathtaking baby giraffe.

Everyone has someone they want to be when they grow up and I think that person for me is Sharon Montrose. She's an animal photographer based out of LA and her work is beautiful and stylized and full of wonderful animal expressions and moments, with some very exotic animals. In this video she photographs a precious 3-month-old giraffe and talks about how photographing animals helped her to reclaim her love for photography.

She expresses a lot of how I feel about my work with Houndstooth. I've also taken pictures since I was 15, and have gone through so many phases with my work. It's a true passion for me because I have struggled with it. Sometimes when I am shooting, I am so completely in the moment and feel unbelievably powerful, and then other times I've been so frustrated that I can't find the inspiration to capture something the way I know it can be captured.

I had also resigned myself just to have photography as a hobby, but then my life took a shift and and Lara and I decided to start Houndstooth. Although I knew I loved animals and I loved photography, I was unprepared for how much I was going to love photographing animals. In our sessions, these animals exude so much postivity which makes me happy and makes the owners happy. The photographs always show me a bit more than I can see with my own eye about how uniqueness and beauty of each animal.

Now it's almost been a year since Lara moved back to the midwest and I've been running Houndstooth on my own. So many of the administrative structures have already been established, so I am much freer to just enjoy the photo shoots and the work that results. I feel lucky that I have such fun work and I know that this feeling will keep bringing Houndstooth new opportunities...maybe even opportunities that involve a baby giraffe.

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? :)