Client Session ~ Callie the Weimaraner at Shorncliffe, Brisbane

I just missed Callie’s 4th birthday by four days with this post, but even though it’s late – a big happy birthday to you, gorgeous girl!

I met up with Callie’s mum for our session at what is quickly becoming a favourite place of mine to shoot – Shorncliffe in Brisbane. Unfortunately the big jetty in the background of this shot is closed at the moment for some pretty serious maintenance, but hopefully it should re-open later this year, making this location even more awesome!

So onto Callie. Amy had warned me that she is pretty high energy, and she wasn’t wrong! We spent a good half hour at the start of the session racing around on the beach, which Callie thoroughly enjoyed.

In behind the beach is a strip of parkland nestled in under the cliffs with some lovely trees and grassy areas. Maybe it was because we wore her out first, but I was pretty impressed with Callie’s staying ability for these shots. Such an alert girl!

We even managed to convince her to lie down, but just for a second, before she wanted to be off up exploring again.

Callie looks pretty amazing for a dog who’s just been through surgery and treatments for cancer, right? Apparently even the chemo barely phased her, she preferred to stand up in the car rides to and from the vet and only laid down once after a particularly hard treatment. She’s bounced back amazingly though looks so healthy and vibrant! I guess she’s a fighter!

Not being able to use the regular wooden jetty, we made do with the concrete one. On the way out, Amy had to run alongside down on the sand with Callie, but on the way back she raced along back towards me happily!

Callie was a tricky one to get some nice relaxed portraits of as there was so much to see, smell and do at our location! We had some treats to bribe her with though and managed a couple of quick shots. In this shot I imagine her saying “Hurrrryy up and take it, please! I have things to dooo!”

Since I really wanted to photograph Callie on a wooden jetty, we jumped in the car and headed up to Woody Point on the Redcliffe Peninsula, just in time for the last half hour or so of sunlight. These next two shots are a good example of the different looks you can get when shooting with the sun (the first shot) versus into the sun (second shot). Shooting with the late afternoon sun gives a lovely warm glow to the subject but can cause shadows and uneven lighting on the subject. Shooting into the sun, while a little trickier to do (manual exposure is a must), ensures the subject is evenly lit and has separation from the background due to the rim light from the sunshine.