Agility training for dogs

This article will start a short series on Agility training for dogs in cooperation with Alpha Dog Training in Vancouver. Nina Houghton of Alpha Dog Training teaches basic obedience as well as Agility and she asked me to help create a photo series to demonstrate what dogs (and owners) learn in Agility Training.

In the next few days there will be a new gallery on my website with more images of the training session which will show a number of the exercises uses. And together with Nina I will create a few blog entries where the exercises will also be explained.

Most importantly, the exercises are FUN!

Harley is showing a perfect smile during this loop exercise!

You can see how Harley enjoys this obstacle course. If you want a big smile from your dog, you may want to try Agility Classes with nina at Alpha Dog Training.

Watch this space for entries from Nina to learn about Agility or contact her at any time for class schedules.

What's in an album

I recently delivered an album to my cat-owning customers Kylee, her mother Lori and uncle Larry. The family owns two Siamese cross cats, Poppy and Willow. One very large and ginger in colour with a striking resemblance to Garfield, the other small and slim, almost white with some patches in her face and the tail. Willow is still a young kitten and colour changes are apparent even between the original shooting date and now.

An album is a fully customized book, based on 10 double spreads. The book is constructed so that there are no folds in the centre so that images can be placed across the full double spread. I produce these albums in 12"x12" and it usually includes 25 to 30 images from the shoot. 

Here are Larry and Kylee as they receive their customized album "Poppy and Willow".

Poppy has a good look too. She is almost life size in this double spread image.

I was so happy to see how pleased Larry and Kylee were with the production. To get your own album of your cat, dog, horse, rabbit or your whole family - contact me!

Creating lasting memories

Recently I had the opportunity to meet Darlene C. and her yellow lab, Jessie, in North Vancouver for their own personal photo session. Darlene was my newsletter prize winner from summer 2011 and this was her photo shoot. Jessie is a very sweet 11 year old labrador. As you can see from the photos she still has spark in her but she is also a real lounger. Jessie was so cooperative during the shoot - despite the fact that she did find it rather boring and she had no idea why she was suddenly allowed on the sofa and in the flower bed.

I think she much preferred the outdoor part of the shoot, which took place at the Lynn Valley head waters. Running through the water and the woods was much more her taste.

Ultimately she was glad when she could retire to a sunny spot on the deck to rest from all the exertion.

For Darlene it means that she now has a nice variety of images to pick from.

If you want to create your lasting memories of your special pooch or kitty or horse - get in touch. No better time than now!

So how come I am allowed on the sofa?

OK, I'll relax if you say so!

A  bit more action, please! 

So this is the favourite look?

I said "action"!

Oh, much better!

Yes, I can handle this!

and this...

But this is the best!

Thanks Jessie! And thanks Darlene for letting me photograph the two of you.

Like a family picnic - well of a very large and dog loving family

On Sunday 11 September 2011 the SPCA held its annual Paws for a Cause event in Stanley Park, Vancouver. It was a lovely day and had the feeling of a big family picnic.  People of all ages with their dogs of all sizes came to Lumberman's Arch to have a good time, chat with vendors and other animal lovers and show off their dog's good looks and talents - OK, also their own good looks and talents.

At 11.30 the sporty crowd went for a run, while at 12.00 the fun-loving crowd got their dogs in a row, ready for a 3km walk in the park. Dogs of all sizes and abilities participated!

I had a table at the Community tent and sponsored the prize for the popular look-alike contest. Glad I was not the judge with all those good looking look-alike teams....

The jury - read the audience - had a hard time to select between these talented participants. Susannah and her Papillon Gergie were just too sporty to ignore and walked away with the prize of a photo shoot and an exclusive album from PPP-Photography. With such a pretty and well trained dog it should be fun to create this keepsake for Susannah.

As per the SPCA website, they raised $740,000 during this event. Thanks for coming out and stopping by my table too. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to keep informed about upcoming events and special offers from PPP-Photography.

West End Dog Show 2011 in Vancouver

The West End Dog Show in Vancouver on 20 August 2011 was a great success. In fabulous summer weather many two- and four-legged friends of the BC Guide Dog Services came to get entertained by the organisers and their fun dog competitions and informed by the vendors at their tables promoting healthy dog food, art, dog services and dog health care services.

Dogs could get a 10 minutes massage benefiting the BC Guide Dog Services and their owners could be taken on a guided tour through the obstacle course by one of the working dogs.

Of course I could not ignore this opportunity 

For me as a photographer I have to say the fashion show was the highlight of the day.

In addition, there were many true doggy characters abound:

See all images from this great neighbourhood day with the dogs

The West End Dog Show by PPP-Photographyhttp://www.flickr.com//photos/58299064@N04/sets/72157627513244656/show/

Making a portrait session fun!

A portrait session of your dog can be a lot of fun, if you are participating. This is what I found out on a recent portrait session with Caroline and her Doberman Resi and horse Comet.

Caroline wanted action photos of her dog at a local creek. She also was after nice portraits of herself and Resi as well as Comet that she could frame.

We started at the creek and admittedly I was a little worried about lighting. We chose the mid-afternoon when I was expecting the sun to shine onto the creek as I was hoping for fast shutter speeds. It worked!

A Doberman as retriever!

What I had not expected is that Caroline was up for the challenge and wanted to participate in the shoot to the extend as she did. This made the shoot so much fun and the image selection extremely large.

A great team!

Now Caroline has the difficult task to select her favourite images from the great variety.

But the funny part is to catch the many mimics that keep making me laugh as I look at the images and work in post-production. Priceless!

Who is kissing whom?

And again?

What to learn from this - be open on a photo shoot and you end up having a great number of wonderful images to choose from and lots of fun memories!

Contact us for your personal consultation!

Family portraiture

I recently had the opportunity to photograph a family of four. A rather sophisticated gentleman, an exuberant lady and two little ones, both girls. A wonderful portrait opportunity!

The Lechner dog family!

Every time I show this picture I am asked - how did you get them to sit still? Did you glue them down? Of course not!!! I worked with these dogs for about 2 hours and there was a constant change of the primary subjects. I created beautiful portraits of the individual dogs but also many funny group shots. As you can see, the dogs were very cooperative!
My recipe is to work with the dogs and not to expect of them to work with me. Then things seem to fall in place. If the dogs are calmer in demeanour it usually is easier to achieve but usually most dogs at one stage seem to just be natural models.

Fany - my secret favourite!

Spike - only adopted the day before the shoot!

Bambi - the big baby

Paula - the boss!

Working with four dogs at the same time gave me the opportunity to create many different images. An ideal situation for creating an album or wall display. The individual portraits are wonderful in full colour or monochrome and I think Sabine found it hard to choose.

Three dogs comfortable with each other

Capture the moment!

I wonder what he is telling her!

If you want to have an offer for a photo shoot of your family - let us know! Fun families like this one will always get preferential treatment!