Until Dave and Jenny came into his life. They have taken a very boisterous, energetic and destructive dog (Think of Marley from the film ‘Marley and Me’ but with an extra gear) and turned him into such a beautiful boy. He still has that same sparkle in his eye, the same winning smile, but now he looks to them for leadership and is gentle and obedient. Dave and Jenny you have done a WONDERFUL job. I wish the session could have lasted all day, I hope I have done him justice.

Aside from Noah, its been another busy week. Thanks to all the Greencross staff at City Road, Beenleigh for your hospitality (I hope you like your photos!!) and to all who visited us this week. As promised here is a sneak preview… do let us know what you think!!

We also had a brilliant week in the studio, I hope you enjoy the photos.

As always let us know what you think!

If you are reading this blog, do leave a comment and let us know your thoughts! Especially if you are a proud parent of one of the animals photographed. I look after the blog, Beck looks after our Facebook page, and she is crowing because she is getting loads more comments than I am.

Shadow, the black Kelpie cross in the first photo, is a very special dog, and is photographed in her working clothes. Can you guess what job she does? Keep an eye out for more on her soon… meanwhile enjoy the photos!

Afterwards we stayed at Coolabine Ridge, a wonderful new Eco Sanctuary just outside Mapleton. We wish we could have stayed a bit longer… so we booked in for our Wedding Aniversary in April! Many thanks to Ron and Helen for their wonderful support of the RSPCA, and for putting us up. We woke up to the most wonderful views and total peace and quiet – shame we had to get up and face the Brissie rush hour traffic!

Photos below are of Benjy, myself and Beck with Bob Irwin, some of the ladies from the RSPCA with Bob, and RSPCA Mark Townend with friends.

On top of that we had some wonderful dogs in the studio. Hopefully you will enjoy their photos too.

Ken

I photographed the Detroit and Ellie the Boxers just before Christmas (I love Boxers!), the other photos are from this week.  By the way if you are an RSPCA supporter and you think you recognise the pug in the top hat, its Monty. Monty lives with Stuart, the manager of World For Pets, the RSPCA superstore in Springwood. Monty is often at the store, wearing his top hat or his sombrero, and was also helping supervise the recent Santa Paws event. He is one of the most beautiful Pugs I have photographed and a real character.  Is he our star of the week? Leave a comment and let us know.

Ken

Being a photographer I got plenty of photos, hope you enjoy the ones below. Maybe they can give you some ideas about where you can go camping with your dogs. If you have a favourite dog friendly camp spot let us know!

Photo info – clockwise from top;

• - Beck, Tian and Sophie on the beach at Corindi. Corindi Beach Holiday Park is right on the beach, the park and beach are both dog friendly and definitely a great place to spend a few days.
• - Camp fire cooking at Ferndale Park. Another dog friendly camp site, right on the edge of the beautiful Barrington Tops National Park.
• - On the road again!
• - Ken fishing (well dangling a rod) at Lake Glenbawn. Lake Glenbawn is one of the wonderful New South Wales State Parks. You really feel like you are away from it all, but with a hot shower just over the hill. Our favourite spot!
• - Sunset at Lake Glenbawn
• - Sunset at Copeton Waters State Park. Where I took the photo from can be under water when the dam is full, its currently at only 8% capacity.
• - Thunder storm at Copeton Waters. Luckily it passed us by, it was throwing huge hailstones which wouldn’t have been good for the tent…
• - Lake Glenbawn
• - Corindi Beach, rainbow between the storms
• - Field behind Corindi Beach
• - Rainbow at Corindi Beach
• - Lake Glenbawn
• - Tian at Lake Glenbawn
• - Tent set up at Corindi Beach
• - Beck reading with her new Kindle by Lake Glenbawn

As we announced in September, we are the official photography partner for Greencross Vets. As a part of this, we are going around all their clinics taking photos of their staff with their own pets. I’ve got to say I am having great fun with this project, they are all really friendly people and they have wonderful pets. Capturing that special bond between people and their animals really feels like a priviledge at times, it can be an emotional experience. Keep an eye on their website, more of our photos will be going up there as we get around to more of their clinics.

We have also provided some of the photos for the Greencross 2010 calendar, and our images are gradually going up in all their clinics. So next time you are in at Greencross, see if you can see one of our Canvas or Aluminum photos up on their walls!

If you want us to photograph that special bond between you and your pets, give us a ring. We would love to capture your memories for you.

Zoo Studio will be actively involved with the RSPCA QLD Santa Paws at the end of November (more details to come soon), Million Paws Walk in May and of course RSPCA Awareness Week. Check out the RSPCA QLD’s Don’t Knock Appeal – a fabulous online initiative. The RSPCA Qld’s Doorknock and Don’t Knock Appeals run annually between the 25th of September and the 8th of October. All money raised will go towards looking after the abused, neglected and abandoned animals that are in the care of RSPCA Qld.

Of course we are helping to raise funds and awareness for the amazing work they do and have set up our own Don’t Knock Appeal site – here http://www.everydayhero.com.au/zoostudio - so please give generously J We think every pet deserves a loving home!

We are also working with Greencross Vets on a number of initiatives including the annual Greencross Vet Calender, images for all their clinic walls and website as well as very special offers for all Greencross Vet clients. So stay tuned for more details soon!

Also big thanks to those who voted for us in the Canon Creative for a Cause competition (mentioned below). We made the finals but didn’t win the grand prize. Oh well lets see if we can do better next year!

I guess the first bit of news to share is that we won a Silver Medal at the APPAs (Australian Professional Photography Awards) 2009!

These awards are run by the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP), and are the yardstick by which professional photographers measure themselves.

Last year I won a couple of bronzes, and am delighted to get a silver this year.

The APPAs are the most prestigious photography awards in Australia, there are thousands of entries, its not easy to get an award and I am delighted we did.

My winning photo is of Bruiser, a beautiful Pug. Bruiser is one of our clients from Perth, Western Australia. What do you think of the photo? Do leave a comment and let us know!

In June we completed nearly 20 photography sessions in our first month, met many wonderful people and all kinds of beautiful animals. I have included a few of my favourite photos for you to see. Maybe one of these will win an award at next years APPAs, who knows?

On a last note, we have entered Canon’s Creative for a Cause photography competition, with the aim of winning the RSPCA in Queensland $60,000. This is a huge amount of money, and would make a huge difference to the lives of many thousands of animals, so if you do get the chance please do go to their website and vote for the images we have entered. Just click on the photos below to go to the voting area for the specific photos – yes you can vote for both! The finalists are selected by the public votes, so we can only win if enough of you vote for the photos.

February 2009 – Flew to Brisbane for a holiday and decided we really loved Brisbane and thought that our Zoo Studio – Animal Art Photography business, which had been running very successfully in Perth, would also be a smash hit in Brisbane. Decided to re-locate, we wanted to be closer to our family anyway. Important note: If you are a past customer from Perth, we are still happy to provide and supply any prints you wish to purchase from your photography studio session.

Early March 2009 – Sold House and Home Based Studio in Perth WA in 3 YES 3 Weeks and then panicked because we had not found a place to buy in Brisbane – in fact we did not even know what Suburb we wanted to live in.

Late March 2009 – Flew to Brisbane again and found a house and studio just perfect for Zoo Studio in Chapel Hill. Made an offer, and bought the house. Michelle from Macleod Partners in Toowong is a fantastic and very professional real estate agent we must say!

April 2009 – Packed up Studio, Office, House, Cats, Dogs – over 372 boxes and pieces of furniture for home and office. Engaged Pickfords to move us over to Brisbane and Jet Pets (the very best) to fly over our cats.

May 1st 2009 – Settled on the House in Perth BUT settlement in Brisbane got delayed – Banks…. Hmmmmm that’s all we will say!

May 2nd 2009 – Embarked on the road trip of a life time – 4WD drive, two Golden Retrievers (too old and nervous to fly), camping gear and a sense of adventure, but no hair dryer for the wife ahhh! More blog posts and photos on this later, we have developed from great tips about camping with dogs and have some funny stories to tells – like the one about a dog (that hates fireworks or thunder) a campsite, valium and a country rodeo fireworks display.

May 7th 2009 – Bank finally settled on our new studio and home in Brisbane!

May 11th 2009 – Arrived in Brisbane and camped in the new house until our office and furniture arrived.

May 17th 2009 – Million Paws Walk Brisbane and Perth – Ken fly back to Perth for the RSPCA as their photographer and Beck managed the stall in Brisbane. Congratulations to Catherine Pearson who won the RSPCA Raffle for a $1000 Zoo Studio Gift Voucher and Robyn Dunlop who won the Zoo Studio – ‘Guess the Doggie Treats in the Jar Competition’ for a $750 Gift Voucher from Zoo Studio.

May ??> 2009 – Those awful floods – our heart goes out to all those people that suffered storm/water damage. Unfortunately we our new house and studio proved water tight!

1st June 2009 – Zoo Studio officially open for business and we have been busy taking quite a few booking for Million Paws Walk supporters who have taken advantage of our very special Introductory offer. If you would like to find out more about this, please contact us!

Yes it’s a long blog entry but, as you can see the staff at Zoo Studio have been very very busy. We are looking forward to working and living in our new home in Sunny Queensland.

It’s been a very busy week! We have had a full appointments diary, photographing some beautiful animals, and on top of this we have been working hard getting the content sorted for this website. Do have a look at the gallery, maybe your pet is in there.

Additionally, we are busy expanding our product range. New to the Price List are prints mounted on Aluminium, and we have just got back some of our display prints for the studio wall. All I can say is WOW! The photos really pop, they look absolutely stunning. We have a photo of our boy Christian as a 26×26inch, the depth and clarity has to be seen to be believed. If you want to see an example, get in touch and we can arrange a time.

As if that isn’t enough, we are also planning some exciting events that are happening next month. The first event is the Perth Royal Show, we will be there each day, sharing a stand with SAFE (Saving Animals From Euthanasia). We are launching a calendar, on which we have been working very hard since February, so come and visit us and buy a calendar, all proceeds go to SAFE and they are such a very good cause.

Also coming up at the end of September, we are at Fair Day. I’m really looking forward to that, we are sponsoring the Dog Show, and Beck is a judge! We also have a stand, so if you are going to be there do come along and say hello.

Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to introduce you to a very special boy. His name is Teddy, and he is a beautiful Shar Pei. His owner Geoff bought him in last week, for a photo session for the SAFE calendar, it was a privilege to photograph him, and I’m very pleased to say he will have a month to himself.

That’s it for this week, please do feel free to leave a comment, we look forward to hearing from you.

All the best

Ken
Zoo Studio