At Lake Ontario Park with Lola | A Candid Photo Session With A Sweet Pup
/Lola is a beautiful and playful brown mastiff. She is eight years old now, and I photographed her when she was a three year old as well. So I got to see how much she has changed in that time.
Which is not really all that much, haha.
She’s still curious and inquisitive, but she’s become a little bit more cautious around bodies of water.
Why?
Because during the first session, she jumped in the water at Kingston Mills Locks, and Dallas (Lola’s best human) had to dive-in to rescue her!
That’s a story (and blog) for another day! I must remember to show you as it was in the fall, and the colours are spectacular.
Anyway, fast forward to 2021, which is when this session took place…We met up at Lake Ontario Park, which is a fantastic places with lots of trails and access to the water. There’s something for everyone there - kids, dogs, you name it…
I was naturally curious how Lola would approach the water this time, and I was really happy to see her dipping her big paws in the water, but not venturing in any further.
Smart girl!
It's like she grew up, matured and learned that water is best when shallow. Especially when you're a big mastiff.
When photographing dogs in an organic and candid way, my first priority is to capture their natural behaviour. Lola has so much personality. That needs to come out in the photographs. Because I can’t stop and pose animals, the onus is on me to make sure I can run around and keep up with them :)
And I love the chase! Trying to get a good photo of a dog (or a kid) running through the park - is great fun, and exercise too 😜
I tried to get shots of Lola from down low, up high, and every angle in between.
I also wanted to get some shots of her and her Mom, Dallas, snuggling together.
I wanted to see Lola's curious side as well. I think this little snippet from the park last October was a perfect way to create meaningful memories of Lola.
And best of all, we ended up printing a photo album of all of the best photographs, from both her first session and this one. “Lola: before and after” or “Lola: the early years and the later years”.
This cute photo session with Lola and Dallas was amazing in every way, except one. Halfway through the session, I was trying to kneel on the ground and take a photograph of Lola from down low, when I inadvertently kneeled in dog poop!
No, it wasn't Lola's poop. It was someone else in the park, who had not picked up after their dog.
Like a trooper, I wiped off as much of the poop as I could with some nearby leaves, and continued the session with poopy jeans. Luckily, I had a spare pair of jeans in the car. Phew. But I had to smell the whole time I was chasing Lola around haha. I think she probably thought I was the worst kind of pack-mate.
Oh, and just check out this awesome photo Lola’s mom sent me of Lola, admiring herself in her photo album!! 😍
This is what pet photography should be all about!!
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