Featured in Professional Photographer Magazine: Behind the Scenes
Every few years, a little park east of Atlanta bursts into a sea of yellow wildflowers.
When that happens, I rearrange my calendar.
These are short, unpredictable weeks — dependent on the right amount of rain, the right temperature, and the meadow not being mowed before the bloom peaks. When everything aligns, the light filtering through those flowers at golden hour is the kind of thing you can't manufacture in a studio or recreate with editing. It just exists, briefly, and then it's gone.
This fall, Professional Photographer Magazine featured my work in their Background section — highlighting these wildflower sessions and my approach to photographing dogs in fleeting natural beauty. Seeing my work and story in the pages of a national publication felt genuinely surreal. And deeply validating for every muddy-paw print and squeaky-toy moment that got me here.
What the Work Actually Looks Like
Most of my sessions take place in natural light at locations where dogs can be fully themselves. That often means trading comfort for creativity.
In the feature, I shared one of my favorite truths about this work:
"Being a pet photographer requires a lot of flexibility — belly down in wet grass, balancing a long lens, leash in one hand, camera in the other, squeaker in my mouth."
That's the honest version. Every session is equal parts patience, improvisation, and trust. I might be belly-down in a wildflower meadow holding one dog while photographing the other. I might be waiting twenty minutes for a dog to decide the camera is safe. I might be chasing the light across a field while everything is going exactly right and I know I have about four minutes before it's gone.
Dogs don't fake emotion. That's what I love most about this work. Every expression in these images is real — because you can't talk a dog into looking joyful. You can only create the conditions for it.
Why Being Recognized by PPA Matters
Professional Photographer Magazine is the official publication of the Professional Photographers of America — the largest and oldest photography organization in the world. To be featured there isn't just a spotlight. It's a peer recognition that the work holds up at the highest professional standard.
Pet photography is often underestimated. People assume it's simpler than it is — that dogs just sit still and look cute and the photographer presses a button. What it actually requires is technical precision, genuine understanding of animal behavior, the patience of a wildlife photographer, and the emotional intelligence to read a dog's body language before they reach their threshold.
To be recognized by that publication, in that context, feels like a small validation for every pet photographer who believes this work is art. Because it is.
What I Believe About This Work
I believe you deserve artwork of your dog that honors the relationship you share.
Not a photo to post on Instagram.
Not a file you'll mean to print someday.
Artwork — the kind that hangs on your wall and stops you in your tracks on a regular Tuesday morning. The kind that proves your dog was here, was loved, was yours. That's what I'm trying to make every time I'm belly-down in a wildflower field with a squeaker in my teeth.
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