Sit. Stay. Smile. Photography & Art

It was with a very heavy heart that we had to put our 14 year old lab/shepherd mix Wiley to sleep yesterday…He was having alot of health problems which included nerve damage to his hind legs and a tumor behind his right eye that was growing at an alarming rate. We knew we were doing the right thing for him but saying goodbye to a pet you have had for so many years is a really difficult thing. We have had Wiley longer than our daughter…He has been through so much with us and was just a really great dog. I always called him my only “Good Dog” because he was such an easygoing, sweet, lovable boy…He was not leash aggressive, he actually listened to me???, he never peed in the house, his only vise was that he liked to raid the trash can sometimes when we left the house…even then, he always looked so guilty after the fact that it was hard to get too mad at him.

We adopted Wiley from the Baltimore SPCA 14 years ago and he will be greatly missed in our home. We were lucky to have had him as long as we did and I like to think of him in dog heaven with his best buddy Clancy who died two years ago…Here are some of my favorite pictures of Wiley over the years.

Jack and Winnie are best friends….they live down the street from one another and each one looks forward to their daily play sessions. Unfortunately, Winnie the Bassett Hound is moving away and Jack’s owners wanted to give her something to rememeber them by…I went out and photographed one of their get togethers and these are a few of the photos from the photo shoot. Jack’s mom had a beautiful leather pillow made from one of the images to give as a going away present…The artist is Kathy Campbell and her company is called Digital leather. She does not have a website up yet, but you can find her beautiful handcrafted pillows here at In the Company of Dogs catalog.

I met Wiz at the Neptune festival this year and knew I had to photograph him…he has to be the cutest Boxer puppy I have ever seen and the sweetest little dog in the whole wide world. He loves to cheese for the camera, but don’t let that innocent face fool you…he has moments of pure puppy craziness. We went over to Stoney’s and he had a great time checking out the chickens and Rooster’s and snooping around the back lot area. These are a few of my favorite shots from the outing…I hope everyone has a great holiday!

I thought I would post some pix from my holiday pet portrait sessions I held two weeks ago at the VBSPCA and at Two Brothers Dog Wash. I wish I could post all of my favorites but that would be a long post…Thanks to those of you who came out to support the shelter! I am posting a variety of pictures, some of them were taken on my new Orange Peel Backgrounds backdrop that I absolutely fell in love with…They are so easy to set up and the fact that you can roll them up for easy storage is a plus. I will definitely be ordering a few more of these for future events…The shots with the blue door and and wreath are the ones using the new background…Enjoy and Happy Holidays everyone!

I am not sure why, but we had the most beautiful Fall color I have seen in awhile here in Va. Beach this year…I had to get some photos of my sisters Great Dane’s in front of some of the trees in her neighborhood…Theses are a few of my favorites.

Out of all of the Beach Dogs 2011 calendar models, Max had the best deal in town. The only thing he had to do was stand on a table and eat ice cream…He was a bit of a diva though…He would have nothing to do with the peanut butter flavored Frosty Paws I brought for him eat for the photos….apparently, Max only likes real ice cream, so lucky for us, Dairy Queen was right there to fill the bill. After that, Max was all about his vanilla ice cream, licking it right of the table several times. He was a great model and his brother came out for the fun as well…Here are a few shots from the day.