These friends! The last time I photographed Quentin and Lady was back in 2012, and while we’ve stayed in touch, it was absolutely delightful to see them in person again. They wanted to have some photos taken of them in their incredible backyard garden and zen space with their two rescue dogs Ruthie (bigger pup) and Lily (smaller pup), who are the World’s Goodest Girls. When I say their garden is incredible, I mean their garden is incredible. It’s like a tiny Duke Gardens but with fruits and vegetables and wildflowers in addition to the magnolias and everything else. There are paths and birdhouses and bird baths and a firepit and a beautiful dinner table and a large grassy space that makes you want to lie down and roll around on it, which is exactly what Lily and Ruthie like to do. We walked around the garden and ate strawberries and chocolate mint and talked about birds like the old people we are. It was a beautiful afternoon spent with two beautiful people and two beautiful pups.

My dear videographer friends at Big Dog Little Bed have expanded and are welcoming Andrea, their Creative Producer, to their team! I’ve photographed BDLB many times and we always have so much fun, but it was really wonderful seeing the energy between Janice and Andrea for the first time. They’re both encouraging and inspiring one another, and they’re truly excited and passionate about their work telling the stories of others. I was tasked with getting new headshots of everyone, documenting their process and story discovery (with help from Lauren and Jeni, our client models), and photographing their new studio setup. All of this included Bernie and Layla Bean, the BDLB dogs! Bernie, the resident Big Dog (or bigger dog in this case since she’s kind of medium-sized) is super into me right now and I’m enjoying basking in her fandom. Layla’s the resident dog skeptic who is much more like a cat. She likes me too, but really just prefers trying to keep her toys away from Bernie. It’s always fun to photograph the pups but even more fun to reconnect with this amazing local small business of which I’m a superfan. :)