A Spotty Doxie in Petaluma

I love working with dog photography clients in San Francisco, but when I’m in the city I always end up driving all around the Bay Area. One of my favorite directions to drive from San Francisco is North - up to Petaluma and Napa and Sonoma and the Russian River etc. All such beautiful places to photograph. Great dog communities up north, great art communities. Great all around.

This session features my good friend Sarah Deragon (of Portraits to the People, and The Identity Project fame). She is an incredible portrait photographer that is just killing it these days with head shot photography, branding photography, ad and commercial work, huge campaigns etc. I was very excited when she commissioned me to photograph her beloved dappled Doxin, Bear.

Sarah and Bear live in a beautiful little studio, right behind a horse farm so we had lots of great fields and dirt roads and dappled sunlight to play with for our dog photography session. Bear is such a squirmy little guy, I wanted to make sure I got to see him running around and playing and being himself. That involved grabbing every enormous stick on the ground that was twice his size and attempting to drag it over to me (in typical Doxin fashion). The dirt road right beside the house was perfect - dapped sunlight, great texture from the drooping tree branches, rutted tire tracks all leading toward the horizon. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful scenario in which to create some portraits, so I had Sarah and Bear walk up and down the path a bit while I photographed. Above is the winning image from that moment - totally worth the back and forth and backwards walking and kneeling on acorns etc.

Thanks for a great session, Bear. You’re a very good dog.