Travel Session ~ Cocoa & Bella the Toy Poodles in Canberra

Amber first contacted me back in 2010 to enquire about a photo session in Sydney. Three years later, everything finally came together when I visited Canberra. Amber and her husband Daniel along with their two Toy Poodles Cocoa and Bella trundled into the car and made the trek for their session.

I’d scheduled in some time to spend location scouting for my Canberra sessions, and with some Google maps research and a bit of luck, I stumbled across Isaacs Ridge Nature Reserve. Located on the west-facing side of a hill in southern Canberra, it featured big beautiful pine trees and graded dirt tracks. It was a great place to explore with this little family – though it did involve quite a bit of hiking!

Although we struggled with the weather later in the session when some big black clouds came over, we were lucky enough to get some sunshine initially.

Cocoa and Bella were beautifully trained and sat nicely for me on some trees stumps we found in the forest. The sunshine slanting through the pine needles gave an almost Christmas-like colour scheme.

After we’d finished hiking up to the top of the hill (my second time that day as I’d location-scouted it in the morning), we spent some time in the clearings at the top where there was more light, getting some action shots of the girls.

Cocoa and Bella were SO quick and energetic! At twelve frames her second, the photos really start to add up and as a result, I ended up with a ridiculous amount of photos like this. They kept me entertained for hours while editing.

Here’s Cocoa doing her best speeding bullet impersonation. Those ears just slay me!

Before we lost the sunshine, there was also some time for a bit more posing on some conveniently placed fallen trees.

I think these two were secretly trying to out-do each other with their modelling capabilities.

Incorporating the owners into the session is often requested and it’s always good to mix it up a little and try out some different viewpoints, angles and poses. Being a photographer herself, Amber had some great ideas!