I had the pleasure of meeting these 3 adorable dogs, Mike, Sen & Kojak.  I photographed each of them separately along The Wissahickon Trail right near The Valley Green Inn.  This family contacted me soon after winning a Complimentary Portrait Session at “The Annual Spring Fundraiser for Bully Dogs”.  They have graciously rescued many dogs and currently have 8 dogs, 2 foster dogs and a cat!   A house full of love for sure!

Here are 2 of my favorite photos of Snickers and I together:

Those make me happy. 

Since I am new to figuring out how to post video on here, (I’m looking at you Carl/ husband/ web designer!)   I will post a fun Snickers video on my facebook business page.  Hope to see you on there!

http://www.facebook.com/MelissaHasseyPhotography

All four of the dogs were so calm and well behaved.  I was shocked!  With 4 large dogs, I had prepared myself for mass chaos!  I give all of the credit to their caring guardians, Trisha & Patrick.  They were both so excited to have me there photographing their babies and I was just as excited for the opportunity to do it!

As some of you know, I have a special place in my heart for Chocolate Labs.  I spent my teen years growing up with the sweetest and most adorable Chocolate Lab, Snickers.  I still miss him and think about him lots!  There is something so special about bonding with a dog.  Trisha & Patrick, luckily, get to bond with 4 of them!

The handsome Daddy.  Those ears…..  too cute!!

Love these expressions….

As I was working on these portraits, my husband saw them and said, “Wow!  That is amazing.  How did you get them all to look in the same direction?”.  The answer, at least for the next 3 photographs is simple.  Bologna!

Meet Spanky… he is a Pit Bull/ Boston Terrior mix.  Beautiful….

Spanky is handsome, intelligent and very fortunate.  He was rescued and is now loved and taken care of by a wonderful family.  His trainer and owner, Dana, is really amazing with him.  She is actually in the process of starting a dog training business.  After watching her with Spanky, I am confident that she is going to do really great!  Spanky was so well behaved and performed an array of tricks that continued to amaze me.

During the session, we did a variety of portraits with Dana’s mom, Arlene; Dana and, of course, Spanky.  First, Arlene & Dana::

Clearly, you can see that my job was made very easy this day!

And some more of Spanky…  admit it, you love him too…. 

Here is Dana working on a few tricks with Spanky…

And, last but not least….. my very favorite trick that Spanky does…..  he recovers tissues when Dana sneezes!  Yes, I am serious!  It is really amazing to see…

This was such a fun session!!  Thanks so much to all three of you!  : )  Dana, all the best with your business!!

]]> http://melissahassey.com/2010/04/puppy-love/feed/ 0 http://melissahassey.com/2010/01/beautiful-january-sun/ http://melissahassey.com/2010/01/beautiful-january-sun/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:43:52 +0000 melissa http://melissahassey.com/?p=2121 So…. I definitely have been feeling the winter “blahs” and can hardly wait for the spring…. let alone summer.  I prefer to be baking hot than frigid cold.  In fact, not only do I prefer the heat, I downright love it.  Granted, I don’t so much love the humidity…. but who does?  I definitely feel more inspired during the warmer months and have been aching to get out and do some nature photography.

Anyway, this morning after I made breakfast and was headed upstairs to my office to get down to business, I noticed the beautiful light streaming through our doorway.  I instantly felt inspired and knew I needed to capture the light/ moment.  It is these beautiful moments that get me through the winter, i suppose.

So…. I took a few photographs but then realized it would be more interesting with Santucci (our cat… named after my favorite pizza parlor.  mmmmmmm).  So, I guided him here and there…. which isn’t always easy.  At one point, I actually picked him up, placed him in the light and sat him down like I would a dog.  To my complete surprise, he stayed there long enough for me to get back to the camera and lie on our kitchen floor.  I then tempted him with his favorite toy….. a hairband.  He couldn’t resist!  Here are the results::

For now, we have our cat, Santucci (named after my favorite pizza parlor)!  Secretly, I think he loves this.    I took the time to set up his bed (which he loves!) in front of our tiny Christmas tree.  He eventually laid in it and I continued to add decorations on top of him until it was just too much.  Eventually he got spooked by something, jumped up quickly and broke 4 ornaments into tiny pieces.  Oh well!  Still worth it!  Here are some Toochy Christmas photos…..

Look, that’s me in the reflection!

I love this one because he actually looks like a statue or one of the figurines…

This is for all of you dog lovers out there….  especially chocolate lab lovers!