FAQ

Yes we will!  While we are dog specialists, we’ve photographed much loved cats, birds, horses, frogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, goats and a cow.  These other pets have been photographed both with their families or with the family dog, and by themselves.  We’ve also photographed Australian Wildlife including wombats, wallabies and possums.  If we haven’t photographed it yet – we’d certainly love to!  There’s definitely a thrill in photographing an animal for the first time.

If you have any questions about how we might approach photographing your unique pet family, then contact us to have a chat about the options we have.

If you’re looking to capture all the adorableness and sweetness of a puppy, then you want to have them photographed as soon as you can!  Puppies change incredibly quickly.

If you’re thinking of a Growing Tales or Four Sessions Experience where your fur babies growth is documented four times over a year, then you want that first session as soon as you can in order to capture the full range of their development from puppy to dog.

You may be surprised the number of times that we hear this!  To look at the photos we capture, people think that other people’s pets must be very well trained or great performers in front of the camera, and that in comparison their’s is not – that incredible photography of their pet isn’t going to be possible.  It’s very rarely the case that we photograph perfectly well trained pets and even good pets can behave differently when having their photo taken as its something new from the everyday.

Through photographing pets every week and being animal lovers we understand their nature and can well relate to them.  In our design consultation we will discuss any unique or special requirements that your pet might have, so that we are well prepared for your session.  On the day of the session, we’re super patient, take the time needed and work with your pet to achieve the results you want.  This enables us to create the best opportunities for many great photos and to quickly learn to predict their behaviour so we know just when to click the shutter to capture a perfect moment.  Whether you have a crazy excitable dog or a timid and cautious pet, we’ve worked with that nature before and have delivered gorgeous photos to their humans.

Absolutely.  We encourage for you to be part of the session with your pets.  Your time with your pets is never going to be as long as you’d like so it’s an important part of both your stories to capture the connection that you have.  We know that not everyone loves to have their photo taken, but there are many ways for you to be included in the photo and the bond you share with your pet to be captured.  We’ll chat about them at your Design Consultation.

Certainly are.  We know that not everyone has only one or two pets in their household and for them their photos must naturally include all the ‘family’.  We don’t charge a fee for ‘additional’ pets because to us that just doesn’t seem fair when all your pets are your ‘furkids’ and equally important to you.  

We frequently have sessions of 3 and 4 dogs.  On occasion, we’ve had sessions with 5, 6, 7 and once 8 dogs!  

With a larger number of pets, a group photo of all them all together will depend on a number of variables including how the pets get along in close proximity, their level of training and the location.  We would discuss these for your pets at your the design consultation and, if you’re wanting a large group photographed together, on the day of your session we’re certainly going to try for it.  

We’re happy for you to invite anyone else that has a meaningful place in your pet’s life.  We are often photographing the pets of siblings or extended families in the one session because they spend so much time together it was only fitting that they be in a photography session together.  In fact, it was through these larger groups of pets from extended families that the ‘Playdates’ sessions grew – the Playdate gives us more time, space and options for capturing more pets together.  

Puppy Tales Photography is based in Botanic Ridge, in the South East of Melbourne and on the edge of the Mornington Peninsula.  We’re also not too far from the Dandenongs.  We think it’s a wonderful spot to be for this range of locations that we have nearby – beaches, open grasslands, mountains, forest, urban – and close for people living in Melbourne, on the Peninsula or in Gippsland.  The studio photography is conducted in Botanic Ridge.  

Throughout the year we also travel for sessions in incredible locations.  We’ve have sessions each year in Sydney and Canberra (contact us if you’d like to know dates for the next time we’ll be there).  We head to various great dog friendly and beautiful locations for our seasonal retreats, including Dinner Plain in winter for the Snow Dogs Sessions and Retreats.  

In 2018, as we travel for our Dog Tales of Australia trip we’ll be offering photography in all the destinations we visit (but it will be limited by the amount of time we will be there, so you want to book ahead!)

If you have a destination in mind, get in touch – we’ll certainly discuss the options with you.

How beautiful that you’re thinking so thoughtfully for the intended recipient! Photography of a beloved pet is such a gorgeous, personal gift – I’m sure that they’ll appreciate the time and effort you went into and, we would love to make it work for you. However, there are a few questions…

Will your friend or family member want to enjoy and be a part of the photography experience? I’m not just talking about whether they will want to be in photos with their best buddy, although that is an important consideration. Their pet is a precious part of the family and no one knows their them better than their people.  That’s why we have the design consultation to find out what they’d love us to capture and have forever immortalised in photo art. While we can have a similar chat, we may miss important details, simply because neither of us had an idea that that is what they wanted photographed.

Who owns the pet? Before I can photograph anyone’s pet, I need the pet owner to sign an agreement allowing me to do so. If you’re planning this session for your spouse or the pet lives in your household and you’re over 18, you’ll be able to sign. But…if this is for a friend or involves a pet who lives outside your home, you can’t give me permission to photograph their pet.

So what should I do if this isn’t an option for me? Rather than surprising someone with images, I suggest you surprise them with the experience itself by purchasing a Photography Gift Certificate. Your friend will be thrilled at the thought of designing the session and being a part of it with their pet.

We’re so very sorry that you’ve reached this time in your pets life.  They are such an incredibly important part of your life and we know that it’s a tough time.  We understand that getting photos before it’s too late is now one of the most important things for you and we have the ‘Forever’ Sessions for this time.  

Where we can we will shift what we can or book a session outside our normal hours to accommodate a very sick or terminal pet.  Please give us a call right away so we can work out how we can best assist you.

Yes.  We’ve worked with many timid pets.  Through taking the profile of many rescue dogs we’ve gained great experience with dogs of all different natures.  At the most timid, we’ve photographed a dog which would not look at your when you had a camera anywhere in the area, little lone when you brought it up from hanging by your side.  In these situations, we had to work quickly to establish our trustworthiness with the dog and use different approaches to capture photography for their profile photos – as this finds them their forever family, it’s incredibly important.  In a non-creepy way, Kerry has been known to hide in bushes and peak around corners in order to capture photos with eye contact.  

Also, Kerry’s own dog Keiko can be timid with new people and new situations so we also know first hand how it can feel trying to do something new with a timid dog and the gentle approach required.

Yes.  We will design your photographic experience around what your dog is able to do.  

Absolutely.  All black and all white pets can be some of the most tricky to photograph.  Often when people do this themselves they end up with blobs of white/black that have no details.  Great lighting control is required to bring out the best in these pets.  If you check out our portfolio you will see that we capture the gorgeous of these pets, to the same wonderful quality as all other pets.  

Yes.  We’ve photographed many rescue pets that have shaved patches post desexing or that have scars from an incident prior to coming into care.  We can certainly pose them so that it can’t be seen or, if need be, remedy in post production.  But if you have the benefit of time then it’s probably better to wait so that we are not placing limitations on what we can do with your pet during their photography session.  If your pets scar or shaved patch is going to improve, it might be better to wait a month or two for your photography session.  

For their safely, quite a number of dogs can’t go off lead and that’s completely fine – there’s a range of options available to you.  These options may include a studio session, a home location session, a fenced or contained location or having your dog on their lead in another location.  Leads and collars can be removed in post production.

In our work with Siberian Husky and Arctic Breed Rescue, none of the profile photography of those dogs were ever photographed without a lead.  Most dogs of these breeds don’t have the best recall and with rescues it’s often unknown how they will respond in a new location, it was just not a safe option.  From those photos though you can see the results that we achieved for dogs on lead.

While some pets are more photogenic than others in terms of the poses they give you, we’ve never met a pet that hasn’t we haven’t photographed well!  Through our approach to photographing pets and our experience we know we can take gorgeous photos of your pets!

We’ve met many camera shy pets and we’ve photographed them all beautifully.  We know that eye contact in some of the photographs taken of your pet is an incredibly important aspect of a professional photography experience.  We have techniques and tricks that we use throughout a session.  We’re also quite persistent when it comes to capturing the very important things like this.  While we won’t push your dog if they become uncomfortable, we will return to trying to get their eye contact several times and with different approaches throughout your session.

We’re up for trying anything, especially if it sounds like fun!  Let’s chat.

Included in your session fee is travel up to 30 minutes from Botanic Ridge.  Outside this travel fees might apply.  The exception to this is the playdate and retreat destinations that we offer and when we offer sessions ourselves in a different City.  For example, we don’t charge travel costs for the sessions at Dinner Plain or when we’re visiting Sydney.

Feel free to get in touch to discuss the location we have in mind and we can advise you on any travel fees that might apply.

For you – yes, depending on what you want in your photography!  If you are wanting photos of your dog at the snow, then winter is obviously going to be the best time for that!  Similarly if you want the colour of autumn or the joy of your dog racing along the beach then there are going be certain times of the year when it’s better to capture this than others.  If however, you’re looking at a studio location or a session in your home, then the time of year isn’t as important.

For us – no.  We have options year round.  The studio is an option all year and we can advise you on the best options on location for a particular time of the year.   

Of course!  Gift certificates are the perfect gift for the special pet-loving person in your life.  Puppy Tales Photography offers beautifully presented gift certificates for gift giving. They’re printed on thick art paper, include a handwritten message and delivered beautifully boxed with a bow.  Gift certificates are available for any value and can be:

• used towards sessions or products,
• posted to you or the recipient,
• personalised for the recipient, occasion or with a special message.

Puppy Tales Photography is available Australia wide for commercial, editorial and commissioned pet and animal photographic requirements, both through agencies and directly to clients. We have further information about our commercial dog and animals photography services here.

Many of the images on this website are available for purchase and commercial licensing.

Feel free to get in touch to discuss your project and see if Puppy Tales Photography is the perfect fit.

Certainly! At Puppy Tales Photography we get to meet many amazing pet loving business owners and work with the great brands behind many fabulous dog products, services and experiences.  If you think you have an idea for us to work together, partner or collaborate, then we’re all (puppy dog) ears!   Get in touch or send us a message {[email protected]}

Yes we can and we’d love to!  Everyone should have wonderful photos of their pets.  They are our best friends and like any other family member they should be photographed well and often.  These photos will go on to be the lasting memory we have them.

There is considerable information available on the blog as to how to take better photos of your pets and our free e-book ‘Phodography’ includes over 30 tips for taking better photos of your dog.

If you’d like individual mentoring then please feel free to get in touch to discuss what it is that you’re looking for help with.