Big Dog Little Bed Productions // A Promo Shoot

We did a shoot with Janice Smith of Big Dog Little Bed Productions way back in 2015 (see it here!) when I was just starting to become the creepily obsessed stalker of her dog named Toby. She wasn’t super concerned about my drooling over his fluffy adorable fluffness at the time but I think over time she’s come to realized just how serious I am about him. I call her from hotel rooms at 11pm to say things like, “Hey Janice! We just made it to Blacksburg! Are you still awake? Can I come see Toby? What’s your room number? Oh… you just got in bed? Okay…I guess I’ll see him tomorrow.” And then I call at 8am to say things like, “Hey Janice! We are awake! Are you awake? Can I come see Toby? You’re downstairs? Okay, we will be right down!” And I’m not totally sure what she thinks about my constant comments on her Instagram regarding him or my texting her to ask about him occasionally but you know what? I don’t really care. Toby is my dog soulmate. My love for him is broken down into several parts:

50% Unreal orange fluff
30% Playing like a total spaz with arms straight out in what I’ve come to call “invisible casts” and romping around like he’s done five lines of cocaine
20% Unrequited love (he does tolerate me and occasionally seek me out for head pats, but part of me enjoys the fact that every single photo I take with him involves him literally rolling his eyes or actively trying to escape)

Anyway, Janice told me that Toby doesn’t like it when girls come on too strong to him, so I’m trying to refrain from making this entire post about him. Janice is a dear friend of ours, an extremely talented female bossy lady videographer, a Durhamite, a lover of pups big and small (the small, also adorable, far more loving and friendly doggo in these pictures is Murphy), a trusted colleague, and a wearer of vests and fanny packs. We have a little too much fun photobombing her at weddings (there are probably many minutes of footage she’s accumulated and cut out) and we love her dearly. It was with great pleasure that we photographed her new promo photos for her wedding and commercial videography company Big Dog Little Bed. She is hilarious and charming and adorable and beautiful and intelligent and can rock 1977 dad glasses like there’s no tomorrow. This shoot makes me smile because Janice makes me smile. Also Toby.

Christena Cleveland // Promos.

We started doing a lot of promo sessions last year and we absolutely love them! They’re a great chance to try some new things and change up the pace a little bit. It’s also fun to meet new people with interesting careers that need photography for promotion or branding of their business. This week it was an honor to photograph our very first author! Christena Cleveland is the author of Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart. Her degree is in social psychology and she specializes in issues of reconciliation and how it relates to the Christian church. She contacted us to do some more casual headshots and promo photos for her speaking engagements and website, and we were happy to oblige. Christena is professional, intelligent, and great to work with – not to mention beautiful and possessing a really great taste in furniture. :) Check out her book on Amazon, her website here, and her promo photos below!