Sophie + Rocket on the loose!

Yesterday we were joined at the studio by Sophie and Rocket - salt and pepper siblings on a mission to strut their respective small dog stuff.

S + R's parents specifically requested black and white images - which is a fun departure from our typical sittings and a welcomed solution to the "black and white dog side-by-side" lighting conundrum.


As you can see Rocket (who is a white schnoodle) and Sophie (a black Scottie) took right to their roles as models and hammed it up for me and their parents and anyone else who was willing to ooh, ahh, feed them treats, or reveal the whereabouts of that rascally squeaky toy that kept disappearing.

Their dad even joined them for a brief moment - clearly the pups were glad to share the spotlight with their papa. ( I just love those paws!! Their mom says she thinks they look like tiny little polar bear paws and I have to agree :)


If Sophie and Rocket were a Hollywood couple, their joint name would be Sprocket. I think it fits, don't you?

Starbucks: Holiday Event #1

Yesterday I had the pleasure of donating my day to the hilarious and hairy task of photographing the pets of Starbucks partners at corporate headquarters (otherwise known as "The Firm") here in Seattle.

This is the second year I have volunteered to spend the day raising money at this Starbucks event, but this year I had a say in which charities we supported. We chose the Doney Memorial Clinic and Old Dog Haven, both under-appreciated, incredibly caring organizations. I am excited to announce that we raised about $650 for each, which Starbucks will then match - making our total effort worth nearly $2,600 for local dog-gooders :) Yeah! A huge thank you to everyone who came out to join in the fun, which this year wasn't even limited to dogs and cats - that's right, we had our first ever fish and turtle join the photo party. Oh yes, I am serious.

We had our regulars like Selena, Bodine and Josephine...





...but we also had surprise visits from a Beta fish and a turtle!



As to be expected there was tea, coffee and spiced pumpkin steamed milk aplenty and lots of wagging, woofing and treat snarfing to boot! Hip hip hooray for the helpful PAWS (Partners for Animal Welfare) volunteers who make this whole production possible, as well as dane + dane studios' own Amelia, who was ready with feathers and jinlgly earrings and keys to help with attempted attention-grabbing of our feline subjects, and of course Carol and Ellen from the Doney Memorial clinic who helped wrangle critters and keep everyone smiling.