A fun family photography session including the dogs

Edgar and his furry friends kept me very entertained throughout their portrait shoot at home in Pretoria. We all know that I love dogs, so a family shoot including five of them was right up my alley.

Chloe is getting on in years, so after supervising for the first half of the shoot, she took a nap. Poor Chloe had to share the limelight with Edgar when it was time for her solo portraits, he kept inserting himself into the background of all her pictures, apart from this one.

Banned from the pool for the whole day to keep him dry and looking fabulous, Blue pulled a gap whilst his Mom and Dad were busy letting me in and took a dip before anyone could stop him. This is a head shot because his bottom half was no longer presentable.

Disinterested in being photographed and hanging out with the rest of the pack until, that is, the snacks were produced, Zero was the most nonchalant of the bunch. He refused to sit where he was asked (despite the snacks), so we waited for him to choose a spot and get into position. Luckily he chose a spot with good light.

Luna, sister to Blue and also a keen swimmer had to be dried off at least five times during the shoot. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen so many towels used in 90 minutes, but apparently excessive towel use is normal with two Golden Retrievers.

I think this is what happiness looks like. Several attempts were made to get the dogs to face forwards, but, alas the snacks won the battle for focus.

Blue and Luna waiting tentatively for the humans to drop their guard so they could swim again. I discovered that Golden Retrievers hold an absurd amount of water once they have been fully submerged and can spray it quite a distance when they shake off.

As demonstrated above by Luna.

Holding onto the dogs was a good way to get them to face forwards for a picture. If only I’d been working with a couple of dog owning octopi, we’d have managed to get all five facing forwards at the this spot in the garden.

We got there in the end. I won’t reveal how many attempts this shot took, needless to say there’s a glass of wine on the table in the background which should give you a good indication ;).
If you’ve got dogs you’d love portraits of and with, please get in touch with me via the contact form here.