I had the great pleasure of photographing a selection of Pug Rescue’s resident pooches for their 2024 find raising calendar last year and my oh my, was this a fun shoot!
It was, however, not an easy shoot. Despite how it looks with the photo selection I’m sharing here, the pugs were a little on the non-cooperative side.
Alfie (exhibit a featured above) was particularly naughty and needed lots of extra treats to sit still long enough for me to capture this rather defiant looking portrait.
I suspect the pugs had a pre-shoot meeting where they agreed to keep compliance levels to a minimum so treats were produced at maximum speed. It’s hard not to hand out treats to cute faces like these.
Pug Rescue South Africa do amazing work rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming unwanted pugs across the country. At any given time they have over 200 pugs and a collection of honourary pugs in their care, some of whom can’t be rehomed.
The funds raised from their annual calendar sales help pugs like Bruno get the necessary care they need to live a wonderful life at the sanctuary.
You can support Pug Rescue’s ongoing work by donating money, attending one of their events, adopting a pug or buying a calendar or some of their pug merchandise.
The best place to find out all the latest news and upcoming events is the Pug Rescue Facebook page here.
If you like these studio pug portraits, you can commission photographs of your own dog by getting in touch with me here.