14 Years As a Dog Photographer!
03rd March 2025
A memory popped up on my personal Facebook page today, to tell me that it had been 14 years to the day that I set up a page for Hairy Dog Photography. It took me right back to 2011 when I had my "Eureka!" moment; I had all the camera kit already from my wedding work, I spent all my time outdoors and I loved meeting dogs - what if I could combine all this to earn a little money?!
As much as I also loved (and still love) working with people, I think I knew even back then that there had to be another string to my bow - a way to get outside and work with no real pressure doing something utterly lovely.
I dug out my first ever Hairy Dog dedicated hard drive, expecting to find all kinds of out of focus, badly composed rubbish, hampered by the kit and the software we were compelled to use back then and was pleasantly surprised to find some half decent photos. No need to "rework" them using modern software.
It was a tough fight to get Hairy Dog off the ground in some ways. Dog photography is a "thing" now, especially in the US where it has taken off in a massive way. But at the time, no-one was a dedicated dog photographer. Lots of weekend warriors listed "Pets" on their website along with "Commercial work, families, babies, weddings, Bar-Mitzvahs, Industrial work, etc etc" in the vain hope of actually being able to competently do any of them...
I really, really didn't want to be a jack-of-all-trades. I knew I wanted to be the first person mentioned whenever the subject of photographing dogs came up. Unfortunately, the subject of photographing dogs didn't seem to be coming up all that often!! Slowly though, little by little, work started coming in. I'd guessed correctly that people felt the same way about their dogs as I did about mine. They were willing to spend money for a quality product, and commercial dog photography work started coming in too - gift companies, places with office dogs, that exciting day when Ruffwear called to set up a session...
And Hairy Dog Photography has sustained! 14 years later, through recessions and a worldwide pandemic, I'm still snapping away taking photos of dogs in every corner of Aberdeen and the Shire. And it still feels like a huge honour every time I'm asked to do it!
The photos below are all from that first year in business - in no way sure I'd still be in business at the end of the year! I had to dig out my oldest hard drive to find them and honestly, I'm glad I did - lovely to see these dogs again after all these years! I can say in all honesty I remember each of them as if it were yesterday.
As always, don't hesitate to get in touch to talk about dogs in any capacity!!
As much as I also loved (and still love) working with people, I think I knew even back then that there had to be another string to my bow - a way to get outside and work with no real pressure doing something utterly lovely.
I dug out my first ever Hairy Dog dedicated hard drive, expecting to find all kinds of out of focus, badly composed rubbish, hampered by the kit and the software we were compelled to use back then and was pleasantly surprised to find some half decent photos. No need to "rework" them using modern software.
It was a tough fight to get Hairy Dog off the ground in some ways. Dog photography is a "thing" now, especially in the US where it has taken off in a massive way. But at the time, no-one was a dedicated dog photographer. Lots of weekend warriors listed "Pets" on their website along with "Commercial work, families, babies, weddings, Bar-Mitzvahs, Industrial work, etc etc" in the vain hope of actually being able to competently do any of them...
I really, really didn't want to be a jack-of-all-trades. I knew I wanted to be the first person mentioned whenever the subject of photographing dogs came up. Unfortunately, the subject of photographing dogs didn't seem to be coming up all that often!! Slowly though, little by little, work started coming in. I'd guessed correctly that people felt the same way about their dogs as I did about mine. They were willing to spend money for a quality product, and commercial dog photography work started coming in too - gift companies, places with office dogs, that exciting day when Ruffwear called to set up a session...
And Hairy Dog Photography has sustained! 14 years later, through recessions and a worldwide pandemic, I'm still snapping away taking photos of dogs in every corner of Aberdeen and the Shire. And it still feels like a huge honour every time I'm asked to do it!
The photos below are all from that first year in business - in no way sure I'd still be in business at the end of the year! I had to dig out my oldest hard drive to find them and honestly, I'm glad I did - lovely to see these dogs again after all these years! I can say in all honesty I remember each of them as if it were yesterday.
As always, don't hesitate to get in touch to talk about dogs in any capacity!!