Last year I attended the brand new Logan Million Paws Walk (see the photos here) which was heaps of fun, but when this year’s walk rolled around I had the opportunity to have a stall at my local Samford walk, so I jumped at the chance! Samford is just 5 minutes down the road from me so this was very convenient and gave me the opportunity to meet lots of locals and their dogs.

I had new pull-up banners created for the event which I am in so in love with. It’s great to be able to display my work large and in full vibrant colour – just how it’s intended to be viewed. I had a little trouble choosing which photo to feature on the single-image banner, but in the end went with Aladdin, a rescue Husky from Arctic Breed Rescue I photographed last year. The photo combines all three elements that I try and include in my work – light, location and expression.

With my stall all set up, products on display and competition to win a free Bare Bones session underway, it was time to start roving around and taking some photos of all the doggy participants. Before the walk, the demo team from Bonnie’s Dog Obedience put on a show with their super well trained dogs, even stacking them on top of each other in a stay. Nice work!

Dogs and their owners started arriving an hour or so before the walk kicked off. After a very early morning shower, we were blessed with some gorgeous weather as the clouds cleared and the sun came out. Perfect for backlighting!

It was great to see so much good behaviour from all the dogs. Friendly, polite greetings everywhere!

Lots of curious little faces.

The lineup to register for the walk went all the way across in front of my stall. I had a constant stream of doggy subjects to photograph!

Time for walkies! Lots of gorgeous pups.

The water station got lots of visitors after hot dogs came back from the walk. Great work from the organisers in setting this up.

After the walk, it was time to kick back and watch the entertainment from the agility dogs from Pine Agility Dog Sports Club (also known as “PADS”).

These gorgeous and athletic Aussies showed off their frisbee skills, demonstrating the advantage of teaching the dogs to land safely after small jumps before graduating to bigger ones.

Next came the competitions, time to find a comfy spot and watch.

The theme for the day was “the jungle” – there were a few lions and tigers along with various other jungle creatures. Loved this lion!

The Glamour Pets of Samford team put on a great show for the group dress-up category with lots of jungle animals.

Not to be outdone, the littlies got into the act as well. Loved the little snake!

This bulldog won the dress-up competition with his elaborate elephant costume complete with Tarzan and Jane!

These three absolutely cracked me up. Especially the GSP “elephant” – so resigned to their fate, they just sat and took it all in calmly, costumes and all.

This little one took out the tricks category with a very clever blanket roll trick. The trick was little hard to capture in a photo, but check out all the badges! A very deserving winner.

I was super impressed with all the dogs just sitting calmly with their owners, taking it all in.

Would you believe this gorgeous dog is a rescue? Who could give up that pretty face!

This dog won the rescue story category, he certainly landed on his feet after a rough start in life.

For a bit of fun, I dragged Luna off from her stroll-minding duties and entered her in the biggest dog competition where she came second – I have no idea how as there was another pair of Danes there that were bigger! Maybe the judge took pity on my “teacup” Great Dane.

How amazing is this dog! He’s a Komondor, apparently the only one of his kind in Australia. He won the “rarest” category. That soft puppy coat will become corded as he gets older.

My mum, who came and helped out for the day looking after my stall, entered and won the hairiest dog category with her Tibetan Terrier, Tashi. She was stoked!

All in all, the day was a big success. I loved meeting all the locals and their dogs, there was a great sense of community at this small but friendly Million Paws Walk location. Looking forward to next year!

To see all the photos I took, check out the full album on Facebook. Feel free to share and tag yourself!