Keeping everyone happy and healthy during the holiday season is not limited to you and your family but also to your pet.  Each year 100,000 cases of pet poisoning occurs in the U.S.  Things that are perfectly harmless to us can be harmful to your pet.  Here are a couple of items that you need to make sure you keep away from your dog this holiday season. Chocolate Chocolate who doesn't love chocolate?  Even our pups love it.  Unfortunately, it contains a substance called methylxanthines that can cause vomiting in small doses and death in larger quantities.  The si ..read more

As an artist and pet photographer, I get images in my head and want to create them with my medium, photography. When your subject is a wiggly kid or wild puppy, it can often seem like everything is working against that vision. But every so often, there is a moment when all the stars align and everything comes together. For this shoot I needed two things: A Dalmatian Puppy and a Fire Truck This is my favorite image from session. Cooper being a firehouse dog! My friend Tamela Weese Martin of Tamela Martin Photography had a client with a Dalmatian puppy and she reached out and asked if we could ..read more

What goes into creating the perfect dog portraits?  What I see and what you see is two different things. Dog Photography is part patience, part planning…. And part photoshop magic. One of the major objection to not have people their dogs photographed is… they won’t sit/stay.  Well 90% of the dogs are on a leash.  Owners and leashes are removed from images. This dog portrait on the right is the final image.  But on the left is where it started.  I had Ziva put her front paws on the tree, had her momma stand to the side holding the leash and I pick an angle that works a ..read more

In March I did a model call for multiple dogs of the same breed for dog photography.  The response I received was overwhelming.  So instead of limiting it to one or two sets, I did the crazy dog photographer thing and selected 4 (yes, 4). Mandi had 3 beautiful Australian Shepherds Donna had 4 Great Danes Jenni had 7 German Shepherds Stephanie had 3 German Shepherds I enlisted the help of Mollie Momphard, I had met Mollie through her dad and was excited to start working with her. The photo shoots were scheduled in March in Forest Park, St. Louis by the waterfall.  Mandi had the ..read more

…SO OTHERS MAY LIVE  The second installment of ‘When I Grow Up’:  I met Tracy through a mutual friend.  When I found out that she had a new pup that was going to be trained I thought she would be perfect for the ‘When I Grow Up’ story.  The pet photographer was excited!  We met at Forest Park for our photo shoot. Tracy is owned by Holmes and Watson.  Holmes is a three-month-old German Short Haired Pointer and will be trained as a cadaver dog.  She will train and certify for land, rubble and water along with disaster.  It takes at least 18 months to trai ..read more

Every boy is a super hero and his dog his sidekick:   Batman and Robin.  They are invincible.  With a dog at his side he can go on great adventures, hike great mountains, slay dragons, experience anything.  At the end of the day they cuddle and dream of the adventures of tomorrow.   But what happens when the adventures come to an end?   How is that explained to a young child? That is the great question of all parents when their dog’s time is coming to an end.  How do you explain it?  How to help them understand?  How to help them cope? Ev ..read more