I am very excited to work with a company that care so much about dog wellness and health.

Silence of Love is about a deaf father’s love for his daughter. For a commercial it’s excellent. The dad is endearing.

Disconnect to Connect reminds us to put down our technological devices once in a while and cherish those around us. With all the smart phones keeping us connected and amused all the time, this commercial presents a refreshing reminder to cherish our loved ones.

Deaf Violinist — not sure how realistic this is, I think you have to be able to partially hear in order to play a violin (unlike a piano). You’d never guess what the commercial was about til the end.. then you’re like “Hmmm she did look pretty good.” I the rhetorical question that the street perfumer asks her when she signs “Why do I have to be different?”

Wanted to share some nice pictures of my little girl Foxy taken recently. Let me know your thoughts!

Here’s a picture of Foxy modeling for the camera. She’s so sassy!

At the shoot we met Deagan the famous surfing dog! He’s had a lot of press, and he is quite a tough cookie, but sweet boy. Here is an image of him surfing that I found on the web.

I asked to take a picture with him. He’s such a funny guy, just look at that face. Isn’t he funny?  His family encouraged me to enroll Foxy in agility courses. I think she will love it!

At the photo shoot I practiced my skills on the other dog models on site. Here is Gracie, a beautiful English bulldog who lives with Deagan. I love this shot of her drinking water. The pictures below are large so you might have to scroll your mouse left and right to see the whole thing.

This is Momo, a very cute pug who makes the silliest faces with her tongue sticking out. Momo is great at posing for the camera because she’s the mascot at P.L.A.Y.   She also gets to test all the firm yet comfy dog beds because she belongs to Will and Deborah.   Amusingly, she barks jealously at other dogs that can jump higher than she can.

I ordered the denim round bed for Foxy because the graphic looks like the Foxy Pet Photos logo!  I debated on getting a light colored one with red trim but knowing how Foxy loves to roll in dirt, decided to get her a dark colored one.

Foxy got her PLAY dog bed in the mail this week. We both love it because it’s comfortable for her to lounge on, and it looks chic in our house. Thanks PLAY, we had a ball!

This is Penelope, a retired racing grey hound.  I don’t necessarily support the racing of dogs, but she was the most calm and elegant dog I’ve photographed thus far.

You might not be able to tell from these shots, but she’s a lanky girl.  When walking on outdoors for part of the shoot, a man came up to us and said “That looks like a horse!”  I’m sure Penelope takes that as a compliment.

She also made lots of funny faces which I will put into a collage later. When you look into her face, it seems like she’s seen a lot in life. Nothing can faze her =)

Last weekend while shopping for groceries I chanced upon a nice lady running an adoption event in front of the market. I had been looking for the right group to volunteer with, but was waiting to hear back from places that had too many volunteers. I introduced myself and told the volunteer that I’m a pet photographer and I want to help! Beagles and Buddies in El Monte is a no kill dog sanctuary that just happened to be looking for someone to help photograph the dogs. The dogs that still hadn’t had a picture taken for the website had almost no chance to be adopted since many people look online before going to the shelters.

I stopped by the dog sanctuary in the middle of the week to check out the facility and introduce myself. It’s not fancy, not particularly well funded, not as comfortable as other shelters/SPCA/rescues I’ve volunteered for, but I saw that as all the more reason why I was needed. The dogs were treated with care. I walked thru the grounds and half way thru had to stop because I was crying. Most dogs were crying out because they wanted and missed human touch. They wanted me to pet them. Two couples were visiting to adopt from a gang of Corgis recently rescued from a backyard Corgi collector.

Here’s a video of my walk thru– it’s what you’d see and hear walking thru one side before I had to stop and compose myself before anyone saw me. I added pictures and a great song about Charity. http://vimeo.com/26660771

The beagles and all their buddies (ranging from terriers to german shepherds, pit bulls to poodles) were behind bars for no fault of their own. They’ve committed no crime. They were either rescued from inhumane living conditions, or given up because their owners couldn’t or didn’t want to care for them anymore. When I actively fostered dogs, I saw that good or bad dog behavior is often a result of good or bad parenting from the human owners. This was what made me so sad. These animals are sweet and loving by nature– we bred them this way. Someone either irresponsibly breed their dog, did not spay/neuter, or think twice before taking a puppy home.

I’ve been reading “How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves” by Sophia Yin, D.V.M. which goes into the science behing the reason that successful pet parents don’t have to scream at their pets. It’s about how to chance the behavior of your dog by changing our own underlying behavior. I only wish that more people realized what it takes to care for another living thing before they take it on.

This weekend my cousin and I went to spend a few hours at Beagles and Buddies. I took some pictures for their website, in hopes that the pictures will let people know that there are sweet doggies of all kinds looking for you. I posted the best takes from my photo shoot on my Flickr stream. Here are a few of the furry friends looking for forever homes. Please consider adopting.

Dog is Good is a brand that markets creative and clever products that celebrate the dog-human relationship.  It’s a brand that many are responding to not just because of the quality of the products, but because there really is a strong emotional relationship between us and our pet! I have two shirts by Dog is Good, and I wear them almost everyday because they are so soft, breathable, form fitting (hey it’s hard to find comfortable clothes that you look good in too) and show that I am proud to be a dog owner!

Foxy and I packed up and spent the morning at the Dog is Good headquarters, then finished the shoot off in sunny Seal Beach. It was a fun filled day and I got to work and hang out with my friend J.Nichole, a famously talented dog photographer originally from Seattle.  J.Nichole and I met thru my roommate recently, but I’d seen her work and admired her from afar before I even realized we were connected by one degree! Thanks Nichole for the inspiration and encouragement. She is also self taught and has found success as a full time pet photographer, and now has the freedom to dabble in the music industry, product design, branding, just to name a few things.

Rarely am I able to get my picture taken WITH Foxy, since I am the one doing the picture taking.  I hope to return the favor for J.Nichole by doing a photo shoot of her cuddling with her french bulldog and great dane soon!

She had this awesome way of being lazy– she’d run, then suddenly stop and sprawl out for five seconds. Then she’d run again, and freeze in place, and lay down like a mop. It looked like she was trying to sneak up on you, thinking she turned invisible when she stopped in place… whatever she was thinking, it was absolutely adorable. The biggest lesson was learning that it took her an hour to exhaust her energy. When she’d finally sit still, we were losing light for capturing the cute expressions she’d make.

Melody’s daddy helped out by holding onto her while she caught her breath so we could get a few nice photographs at sunset. Check out a few of the best shots… thanks for being so fun Melody!