Oscar the Sheepdog Mix | May Breed of the Month | CM Bryson Photography
Oscar was named after a boy her daughter knew in in pre-K.
Her favorite boy, specifically. The one her daughter couldn't stop talking about at four years old. The boy is just a fun memory now, a footnote of the story, but the 100-pound Old English Sheepdog mix who came home as a puppy is still the center of everything.
That daughter is sixteen now. College is closer than anyone in that house is quite ready to admit.
The Dog Who Always Looked Like an Old Man
Oscar has always had a certain quality about him. Claibourne noted it in her application almost as an aside — he has always looked a little like an old man.
Now he is one.
He is eleven years old. His hair parts down his back and waves in the wind when he runs. He is large and slow and entirely certain of his place in the world. He does not rush. He does not need to.
He was rescued as a puppy and has spent every year since becoming exactly who he was always going to be — the kind of dog who makes a house feel full, who shows up in the background of every memory, who has been there for every version of a little girl growing up.
Why Now
There is something about a dog in his senior years that changes what a photograph means.
It is not about urgency or sadness. It is about recognition — the understanding that this particular chapter, with this particular dog at this particular age, will not look exactly like this again.
Oscar at eleven is not the same as Oscar at five or Oscar at two. Claibourne knew that. She said as much in her application — now felt like the right time because their pack had entered a new chapter, and she wanted to preserve this season exactly as it was.
That is the right reason to book a session.
The Session | Claibourne's Farm
Oscar's session did not take place at one of my five standard locations.
There were two very good reasons for that. First, Oscar is eleven years old and a hundred pounds, and transporting a senior dog of that size is not always straightforward. Second, Claibourne lives less than five miles from my house on a beautiful farm.
Sometimes the right call is just the obvious one.
We shot at home — and it was exactly right.
Claibourne's property is beautiful for portraits. We started on the gravel driveway, where the trees lean in from both sides and create a natural canopy overhead. A wooden fence line ran alongside it, and the depth of that driveway with the light filtering through the branches gave us some of my favorite images from the entire session.
That's where we got the fence line portraits. That's where we got Oscar and his girl together — her leaning into him, his face close to hers, the two of them completely comfortable in the way that only eleven years of growing up together makes possible.
The Audience
Here is what I did not expect.
While Oscar was having his session, the rest of the farm was watching.
Claibourne's other two dogs were inside — pressed up against the glass of the front door, faces at the window, tracking every move. Claibourne's mom lives in a small cottage on the property, and her dog was doing exactly the same thing from her door. And the cat had positioned herself on the back screen porch with an unobstructed view of the whole production.
I have behind-the-scenes images of all of them.
Every animal on that property, watching Oscar have his moment.
He did not seem surprised by this. He has always been the kind of dog that commands a attention. Apparently he commands an entire farm.
What These Images Are
When I delivered Oscar's gallery, I already knew what Claibourne was going to have.
Not just a portrait of a beautiful dog.
Proof. Of all eleven years. Of the little girl who named a puppy after her favorite boy in pre-K, now sixteen, now taller, now standing beside him with her face against his and her whole childhood in the frame.
Oscar is not going to be young again. But he is going to be on that wall, exactly as he was on an evening at the farm when the whole family gathered around him — even the ones watching from behind the glass.
About the Breed of the Month Program
Each month I open one session to the public — a complimentary Signature Session plus artwork credit for one dog whose story moves me most.
May was Oscar's month.
→ Learn about the Breed of the Month program
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CM Bryson Photography serves the greater Atlanta and Georgia region, specializing in museum-quality wall art and heirloom albums for dogs and horses.
