The third of my Townsville sessions and the only afternoon session out of them all, I mis-judged the sunset time and arrived when the sun was still quite high in the sky. The best light is when the sun is lower towards the horizon, so we had some time to play with. I suggested to Zoe’s mum and dad, Tenielle and Reuben, that we take advantage of our extra time and take Zoe somewhere picturesque to begin the session.

They suggested a dog beach about half an hour’s drive away at Pallarenda, north of Townsville city, so we packed up and headed up there for a look. What a great dog beach! The beach stretches almost uninterrupted down to Townsville city, with a clear view of Castle Hill in the background. What a fantastic location, thanks for the suggestion guys! Here’s Miss Zoe standing with her Dad, with Townsville and Castle Hill in the background.

Being just a young lass, Zoe can be excitable and doesn’t always come back when she’s called, so we kept her on the lead for the beach part of our session. When her owners decide which images they’d like to use, I can remove the lead digitally resulting in some nice clean leash-free shots! I’ve kept them there for now though as to remove them from every shot would take some time.

Zoe has a pretty crazy set of ears that don’t quite sit flat, so at the slightest breeze they were flying all over the place!

Reuben and Tenielle decided to get a Doberman after they both fell in love with a very sweet black and tan boy owned by Reuben’s parents. After doing some research they stumbled across a young red and tan female advertised in Brisbane. At five and a half months old, she was being rehomed due to the family just not having enough time for her. After a plane ride from Brisbane to Townsville, Zoe was theirs. In Tenielle’s words “We were so happy to have her! She came off the plane quite afraid, and on the way home I rode in the back seat with her and she layed with her head in my lap all the way. I was totally smitten!”

Tenielle says about Zoe’s early training, “I took Zoe to Obedience training, though neither of us were the perfect pupil. One night, when we were repeating a grade, the instructor was going through the paces with the new students, and told the ‘oldies’ to have a chat for a bit. Whilst I was chatting with one of the other owners, Zoe chewed through her Halti lead and took off on a lap around the park. Luckily, she just did a big loop, prancing goofily all the way around the park, and came back when I called. I was so surprised she came back, but also totally relieved!”

While we were at the beach, Zoe’s best mate Khan just happened to turn up. Zoe just loves Khan and will happily follow his lead at the beach, even following him into the water in play (with some coaxing with her favourite red ball as well). Not bad as Zoe is quite afraid of water! Unfortunately there was no time to play with Khan on the day of the shoot, so Zoe had to be content with watching from a distance.

With the sun dipping lower in the sky, we had just enough time for a family portrait or two in the gorgeous beachy backlight.

Before heading back up the beach to the car to drive back home (and a bit of playing on the walk).

Back at home, out came the ball, and Zoe switched modes! This girl is obsessed with her red bouncy ball and would probably quite happy play with it all day.