Highlights from the Chelsea Hounds Photo Walk in London with The Dogvine
It’s terribly difficult to put into words how much fun walking the streets of Chelsea in London, or more importantly if we use the proper name, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, was. It’s also tricky to describe how much chaos we caused, but I’ll try.
Firstly the owner of this pink house was not amused about having a collection of canines outside her window. Unfortunately this street is one of the top London streets to be photographed on for Instagram, so we were amongst many others who were posing on the street. I can imagine how frustrating it must be to live here, thankfully she left the building just after we arrived, so no altercations ensued.
Long legged Lupin and his mum outside some more gorgeous pastel homes. I’ve been living in South Africa for so long that it’s always totally weird for me to be able to simply walk up to someone’s front door. Thankfully in London (well Chelsea at least) it’s perfectly safe to only have a single door between you and the outside world. The only danger is that you might inadvertently end up on someone’s insta feed.
Astro was a very good boy and wore his Scottish outfit very obligingly whilst we invaded someone’s doorstep. This little guy and his family arrived in London not so long ago all the way from India, so Astro is still getting used to hanging out with other pooches. The only way we could get him to look up at the camera was to enlist the help of another dog to be right behind me, they were all busy when I took this shot, that’s why he looks sad.
Our next stop was the most stunning and very posh street close to St Mark’s Square. I put my super fabulous Nikon Fisheye lens to good use here photographing Parker and his ultra stylish mum. Parker doesn’t care about instagram, or posing, he was far more interested in making friends with the other dogs.
Tiny Daphne (diminutive diva of note) looked very chic in her orange jumper. Here she is looking at her mother with some disdain because a) she was ejected from her bed way earlier than normal to join the walk and b) the treats were not forthcoming fast enough.
Astro’s wardrobe could rival Kim Kardashian’s (let’s face it, Astro is way nicer too) and I continued to be impressed throughout the shoot with the variety of different looks he effortlessly pulled off.
Lupin’s accessories were also very impressive and how amazing are the tiles on this step.
Our halfway point was a small park where baby Boston Poppy posed with the gorgeous cherry blossom. Spring time in London is really lovely and we were blessed with a sunny, albeit cold day for the shoot. The day I left to fly home it got to a balmy 23 degrees C, which of course it would, wouldn’t it.
Fluffy Kiki with the wind blowing (thankfully in the right direction) through her fabulous hair.
From left to right – Clover, Goldie, Claude & Patrocle. I tried my absolute best to get the brown dogs to look at the camera, I probably looked and sounded like I was having a seizure, but despite my best efforts this was what they did. Good boy Clover. Goldie and Patrocle are rescues from Romania (so we’ll let them off) and Claude is the nicest dog in the world, so we’ll also forgive him.
The next stop on our Chelsea carnage tour was the phenomenal floral display outside the Ivy. Double trouble Dave and Herbie grabbed centre stage whilst the rest of the crew congregated around the entrance to the restaurant. Luckily for us, the Ivy staff were entertained by our arrival, as were all the guests watching us whilst they ate lunch. And the people who were trying to get into and out of the restaurant.
Clover was the warmest member of the Chelsea Hounds pack with his fluff. I actually just want to hug him, he’s a very quiet guy in a crowd and with all the chaos going on, the only one who really responded to my magic head tilt creating noises.
I’m not sure what was going on here, so we’ll move on.
Gorgeous Biscuit. I think Biscuit was the youngest member of our squad and she did really well to sit still for this photo when all she wanted to do was play.
Goldie the Wunderdog. Miss Goldie has only been in the UK for a year after being rescued from Romania, so the fact that she joined in the walk and sat beautifully for her portraits amazes me. Like many of her fellow dog models also had several outfit changes on the walk. In fact, her mum brought along a wheelie case of clothes 🙂 That made my day.
The Chelsea Hounds Photo Walk team. Photographed outside the Peggy Porschen shop on the Kings Road.
Our last stop before lunch was the Pink Love Door. During the recce the day before the shoot, Teresa (Dogvine London dog blogger extraordinaire) and I had met the owner of this house. She opened the front door whilst we were trying to surreptitiously take photos on her doorstep and instead of being cross, she asked us for a donation to the breast cancer charity she supports. So the next day when we returned with our posse in tow, she got a whole bunch of donations and some photos of our crazy dog crew for her instagram page.
My thanks to all the dog parents who joined The Dogvine and I for this walk. We all had a lovely time and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it.
If you’d like to get your name on the list for the next London dog walk we organise, please get in touch with me here.