fatima cat from council bluffs iowa

fatima is a fluffy black cat with a completely mellow and care free attitude. she roams free on this beautiful wooded backyard where many hoofed critters stroll. chasing fluff and fur at any moment-she is the queen of her hood. i want to point out that in this particular shot of her and kay's fancy feet. my inspiration comes from a fabulous photographer from the 50's era named www.elliotterwitt.com/lang/en/index.html. i own a book of his dog portraits named 'dog dogs'. this style of photography with pets or pets feet and human feet is not new but i adore the look of it and am influenced by this classic retro style. there are many photographers out there that use this style to incorporate into their look and i your humble dog photog am one of them-i would not call this copying at all, i simply love the idea of a photo from the pets perspective-this is my take on it and would never claim i invented it ever! so i would like to credit to mr. elliott erwitt who started it all.

stella the rescued yorkie from a puppymill in nebraska

stella was adopted from www.nehumanesociety.org/site/PageServer about a couple of years ago. she was one of several yorkies that were rescued from a puppymill in nebraska. kay could not resist the adorable chewbacca/ewok face that had stolen her heart. still quite shy among most-she gets along with her whole pack at home. they consist of 3 other canines and 4 felines. all a happy 8 pack. update: i discovered the story on the puppy mill rescue in lexington ne back in may of 2007 and here is the linklegacy.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/070604/puppies.shtml that image is of her on the left.

lulu of omaha

this is the portrait series of lulu the very camera shy and timid tiny shihtzu. she was rescued from a puppy mill and adopted by evelyn through a fantastic organization called 'hearts united for animals' www.hua.org/.  how could one resist this precious wittle girl. her future now is so bright!

puddy of leshara nebraska

pretty puddy cat is as free as mandy but kinda camera shy. she sneaks up on ya and is totally curious -those type of shots can be a challenge. you have to let her come to you-and then maybe sneak up on her-carefully. i love the bottom one of her squatting in a perfect ball. i added grain and desaturated it for a old look. puddy cat with a pitiful moustache! she is so precious!

mandy of leshara nebraska

i had the privilege of photographing mandy the beautiful german shepard mix on this fantastic fall day. mandy is as free as a bird on her giant property and follows her mommy (janet is the best boss anyone could have) around everywhere. these two have a serious strong bond-you can see it in her puppydog sad eyes. i love capturing the 'whites' of the eyes-that just makes ya go oooh and aaah with joy. when you live on the outskirts of a city on a grand prpoerty you have many potential backdrops to work with. this place had them all-these three shots are only a few of the many of mandy and her feline besties.

pooka and leia backyard portrait

when leia was 3, her auntie lucy chapman presented us with a precious 5 week old black kitten. he was so tiny that he managed to slip into her dad's shirt pocket and surprise little leia-the name spooky was obvious-we always wanted a black cat cause of our favorite holiday halloween. all these years have been a special connection that leia and spooky have developed. he will be 13 next april and he seems to never age! capturing the strong bond that these two have for each other was what i was looking for-leia is his mama. she was so cooperative and managed to wrangle spooky very well. he's an indoor cat and making him feel calm and relaxed is rather tricky when you NEVER visit the outdoors for an exploration. plus focusing on a black cat for tack sharp images is maddening! but, it IS possible and i am quite pleased with the results!

portly beagle of council bluffs ia

jojo the 'mighty king portly beagle of council bluffs' is quite the ham of the pack. he is in your face all the time and his energy never slows down. when i look at these final images of him-i can't stop myself from chuckling. he is truly a happy go lucky doggie and i love to photograph him!

Outdoor fine living friends!

my dear friend and fellow co-worker evelyn owns 3 very unique and lovable furry friends. i spent an hour at her home with her beautiful pets on a gorgeous autumn afternoon and her next door neighbor bestie was there to wrangle them all(while eve was at work). -and boy did she do a fabulous job. i feel i have to add a title to the pinky chair image of lulu-'don't hate me because i'm beautiful'-seriously, that's what she is thinking! sweet and sensitive lulu truly is camera shy and just at the start-it only takes a while to get to know you. her fuzzy shitzue brother horten is all about hamming it up-easy going and pretty carefree at modeling! last but not least we have jack the full of bouncy energy terrier-he was the most challenging of them all. in the end they all were just simply divine to work with. and i couldn't have done it all without the wonderful help of evelyn's bestie! thanks connie and evelyn!

council bluffs pets shine!

i was so happy to be able to spend some time with my sister kay's pets in council bluffs, iowa. she and her partner own 4 dogs and 4 cats. i spent 2 hours with most of them-a couple kitties stayed hidden indoors. jo jo-the portly beagle was not camera shy at all! stella, the small, yorkie is very shy but listens to her mommy. the image of roy the black and white cat is one of my faves. i took literally 2 snaps-and he was gone in a flash-fatima who is black and fluffy and totally mellow, a perfect halloween cat! peaches, portly beagle #2 is a happy go lucky kinda gal. and finally there is ollie, i truly love the fact that kay brought out her retro chair for a portrait shot of them all-ollie's black and white features-(he is shy) contrast sooo well with that fine piece of furniture! i love that one too. i'm a little obsessed with shoes and will definitely include this as much as possible-the chair idea is perfect too. shooting 6 dogs in under 2 hours? not bad-as long as they all behave-and they did. they shined!!