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A little preview of the not-so-little (but very handsome) Slate:
More soon! (And Happy Friday!!!)
Indie is a sweet Cocker Spaniel puppy that lives in an awesome townhome in downtown Denver. When his mom, Dee, asked me to photograph his birthday party I suspected it would be a pretty fab event. I was right. There were about 15 dogs there, who got along beautifully and played hard, and of course there were two specially made doggie birthday cakes. Everyone – people and dogs – had a blast.
The birthday boy:
Indie’s brother, Clooney was there, too. The boys and their cake:
And a few party shots:
Up next: another lovely Dane!
I’ve mentioned here before that one of the many things I’ve been working on lately is capturing an entire scene or moment as opposed to just a portrait. (Not to devalue a portrait whatsoever). I’ve been inspired lately by Bonnie Berry‘s work + the way she manages to create fluent stories in her shoots.
These photos are from a shoot at the local English Bulldog Playgroup which was nothing but an exercise in capturing a scene. I literally didn’t influence the scene at all – a throwback to my days in photojournalism classes. I just sat by with my camera and captured what came my way. The results are really very different from my usual shoots – and I think it’s kind of a good deviation.
The playgroup was held at Bark!, and Peanut + Mabel were in attendance. Not surprisingly, they were just as much fun to photograph this time as they were the last time.
Peanut likes to attack water:
And Mabel is either guarding her plastic kingdom…
..or taking a few minutes to rest up.
All the dogs there were beyond adorable – hopefully I’ll get a chance to photograph more of them individually.
This little guy is Duke – aren’t his markings remarkable??
And a few other favorites:
The dogs love the playground. Turns out Bulldogs are just the right size to fit in those little kid-sized holes.
LOVE these bum-wrinkles:
You know what they say: a tired dog is a good dog.
Sometimes accidentally getting the wrong part in focus turns out to be a good thing.
*If you were at the playgroup, you can see the rest of the photos here. Contact me for prints: info@rouxby.com
I am a fanatic about Etsy and buy just about everything I possibly can from there. If I need a birthday card? Etsy. If I need jewelry? Etsy. I’d probably buy toilet paper from Etsy if I could. I just think it’s such a fabulous idea and ever since I started my photography business I am that much more respectful of other small business and like to do what I can to support them.
It was during a random jaunt on Etsy that I came across Beantown Handmade. (Check out their blog, too). I loved the shop instantly. I have a long-standing affinity for dogs either balancing things on their heads or wearing hats, and in fact Roux has been amassing her very own hat collection (often times these are ridiculous hats sent from people who feel a particular hat would suit her. Often times they’re right). So when I found these hats actually custom made for dogs I was beside myself. I contacted Anne immediately, got both girls sized, chose colors and ordered them that day. Anne is unbelievably fast at getting them made and they arrived about a week later. I LOVE THEM. Can’t say Roux + Kinley are quite as excited as I am, and I can say with absolute certainty Alex is not at all amused by this, but I’m standing firm on my ardor for dogs in hats.
Roux looks fetching in green:
She tried very hard to stay while I took these photos, but at one point a rogue squirrel strayed into the yard. As official Squirrel Guard Dog, Roux can’t have squirrels in the yard; it’s against protocol. So she was off like a shot. And even then, the hat stayed on. Kind of.
Roux has an especially expressive face and seems to take on the personality of whichever particular hat she happens to be wearing. You’ll see here that she’s in her ‘small-Peruvian-child-circa-1920′ persona:
Kinley looks less like she’s taking on a character and more like she’s completely baffled. Probably having a bunch of knotted yarn tied to the top of her head doesn’t make a lot of sense to her.
She’s a good sport. (And cute as a button).
On the horizon: the Bulldog play group (still), a very special doggie birthday party + more Danes.
The local Great Dane Rescue recently contacted me about putting together a multi-level marketing campaign for their rescue and for the breed in general. I’m super excited about the project for multiple reasons – I have a soft spot for Danes, I love working with breed-specific rescues, and I thrive on overbooking myself. So all in all, a perfect fit. Really, though, I think the project is going to be amazing. I will keep the blog updated as the project progresses.
My first shoot was last weekend, and because I’m arranging so many of these shoots right now, I wasn’t sure what age/breed/color this specific rescue was going to be. Lily turned out to be hands-down one of the most gorgeous puppies I’ve ever met in my life. She came to rescue at just four weeks old and very nearly lost her life to Parvo. Meeting her now, the only sign of this rough start is her size (she’s small for a 9-week-old Dane puppy at just 18 pounds). In every other way she is 100% a puppy – and like any other puppy is either on the go or dead asleep. We got some photos of busy Lily, but the best ones were at the end of the shoot, when she was sleepy + cuddly.
She’s had a rough start, but I think it’s safe to say that Lily is going to be well-loved for the rest of her life.
