During my visit to the States in June 2013 I had the great pleasure of hanging out with a bunch of really talented professional pet photographers – you can read more about our adventures here and here. When our meetup in Pennsylvania was over, my partner and I hitched a ride with the lovely Kaylee from Dog Breath Photography and her man Sam to New York City.

We’d spoken about lining up a photo shoot in Times Square while planning our trip and the perfect pup for the job turned up – PJ the Long Haired Chihuahua owned by Sam’s cousin, April. After arriving quite late into town, we all embarked on a crazy mission downtown, with photography gear, lighting, and Mr Peanut Butter and Jelly himself – can’t get much more American than that for a name – happily riding in the subway train like it happens every day. Which it probably does, for this little guy!

We arrived in Times Square just after midnight and spent an hour or so setting up some shots with our super star model PJ, who took it all in his stride.

I captured a few cool shots of Mr PJ rocking it like a superstar amongst the neons and craziness of Times Square. Love that little snaggletooth!

Kaylee was shooting with her lighting, so I stepped in and took some shots too. I usually only shoot with natural available light, so it was a new experience for me!

I couldn’t get over how unflappable PJ was about the whole thing. If you’ve ever been to Times Square, especially at night during tourist rush hour, you’ll know this place is seriously hectic and filled with people, noise and vehicles.

PJ was totally focused on his mum and her treats, happily balancing on some metal barricades while we set up shots and fiddling around with lighting.

As well as having a play with Kaylee’s light, I also took some natural light shots. There was such an abundance of lighting around, though since it was so colourful the hard part was getting the white balance right while editing.

I just love clever PJ’s little spotted belly in this shot!

We certainly drew a crowd and constantly had people stopping to ask “who owns that dog?” and “is that dog famous?” PJ soaked up all the attention and pats from strangers.

In an attempt to get PJ closer to the ground for different perspective, we placed him on a milk crate.

Kaylee captured some behind-the-scene shots of me which she kindly let me use in this blog post – thanks girl!

Love this one of a random stranger taking a pic of me shooting! How crazy!

Taking it one step further and showing her willingness to do whatever it takes to get the shot, Kaylee ended up shooting with PJ on the ground, lying belly-down on the pavement to get the shot. That’s dedication!

Aaaand this is the resulting image – awesome!

I’d like to take this opportunity to extend a huuuge huge thanks to Sam, April, Dan, Marty, Crystal and Ken for helping out at the shoot and of course PJ for being such an unflappable pro model – we couldn’t have done it without you little buddy! And Kaylee, we need to do this again sometime. What crazy dog photography adventure can we dream up next?! Oh that’s right – our Zoomies Pet Photography Workshops!

Thanks Sam for grabbing this shot of Kaylee and me at the end of our shooting adventure. What a night!