Everyone who visits our studio is acquainted with our infamous squeaky toy called Red Monster. The dogs love him, always carrying him around and trying to sneak him out the door with him. He is the last monster standing, part of an original set of three including Blue and Purple Monsters! One pooch even thought he was her puppy!
Recently the dingo pups took a liking to Red Monster. Here are some pics of his meeting with Osirus!
Here are the latest dingo pup pics captured last week! Now aged 8 weeks and double the size of puppies the same age, we have Osirus and Isis starring in the photos! Richard Barry of Richard Barry Photography took some time out from capturing beautiful baby portraits and came along to take some behind the scenes shots of the pups third photo session. I was also ably assisted by Leigh, Daz, Debora, and Sam – you need four extra pairs of hands when working with active dingo pups! Big thanks to everyone for helping out!
Speaking of ‘starring’ the dingo pups and Daz and Leigh recently featured in a Canning Times article (below) on dingoes and on page two of the West Australian newspaper – click here to read the West article and their important message! They are champions of the dingo cause and caring dingo ambassadors!
Read Richard’s blog here.
Behind the scenes
Leigh distracting Isis with a bone
(Photo courtesy of Richard Barry Photography)
Richard meets the dingo pups – and looks quite happy about it!
As promised here are the updated pics of the dingo pups at six weeks of age. This time they were wide eyed and active, but still sought the comfort of Mum Loxie for a feed – although she wasn’t having a bar of it because of their sharp little teeth! Two days after these photos were taken, Jarrah flew to her new home over east, followed a day later by Baldr. We wish them much happiness with their adoptive families.
As part of our ongoing photography commitment to the WA Dingo Association, Suzie (our native animal handler) and I returned to the home of Darren and Leigh to photograph their new family members - Osirus, Isis, Jarrah & Baldr, their four little dingo pups! With Loxie (the best dingo mum ever) looking on, Suzie and I took a series of studio shots of the three week old bundles of fluff. Their eyes were open, but their vision hadn’t quite kicked in yet and as with adult dingoes, they were very fresh and clean – being native wolves they don’t have that ‘doggy’ smell that unwashed or damp pooches can sometimes get. They were also twice the size a dog puppy would be at the same age – part of their inbuilt evolution, being that only the strongest survive, so pups in the wild have to grow rapidly to be able to fend for themselves.
At the end of the photo session, I was presented with a lovely certificate of appreciation and bright beautiful bunch of flowers by Daz, the President of the WADA. Thanks so much Daz, Leigh and Barb (whose daughter made up the flower arrangement!) – I’m hard to surprise, but you certainly did just that, and the certificate will take pride of place in my studio.
Suzie, and I (accompanied by Erin) have since taken another set of studio pics showing the pups at 5 weeks of age. And we’ll be returning at fortnightly intervals to fully chronicle the changes in the pups over time, which is a first as far as we know!
I feel very privileged to not only document the pups’ growth but to get a fortnightly fix of dingo pup kisses and hugs. I’m always greeted by them running over and jumping around on my leather boots, chewing at the laces! So special to have access to them and to be trusted with them too!
Here are some of the three week old pup pics (and Loxie)! Plus you can read our earlier blog about the dingo day photo shoot here.
It’s always wonderful to hear special news!! Loxie the magnificent Dingo we photographed as part of our WA Dingo Association (WADA) photo session in February gave birth to four dingo pups last night! Two girls and two boys! We are heading out to see Loxie on the 12th June to photograph her new arrivals for the WADA 2011 calendar!
Congratulations to Loxie and Wylie (proud dad) on the birth of the puppies! We can’t wait to meet them all and I just know they are going to be so adorable coming from such regal dingo lines! Oh and congrats to their human “guardians” Leigh and Daz too!
Dingo mum Loxie
Dingo dad Wylie
We received the loveliest testimonial last week from Lee Mullan, the president of the WA Dingo Association and someone who knows Dingoes first hand - he shares his home with two amazing, Dingoes Loxie and Wylie. I say “shares his home” because you don’t ‘own’ a dingo. Instead their relationship with people is more like a mutual respect and tolerance, based on trust. We’ve posted Lee’s kind words on our Testimonials page, but thought we’d share it here too, because it’s a real insight into the uniqueness of having a dingo as part of the family. Lee, along with Daz, Barbara and the rest of the WA Dingo Association members, are all dingo advocates, and devote themselves to correcting the misconceptions about dingoes and educating people on their plight.
We appreciate all of the wonderful testimonials we receive from our clients, and would like to say a blanket thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send one in.
“The WA Dingo Association wanted to create a calendar for 2011, featuring our member’s Dingoes. We needed to find a professional animal photographer who could capture the true ‘essence’ of a Dingo, who could create a pictorial representation of what we see every day, the animals we strive to create an awareness of; A beautiful creature, sentient, aware, gentle, loving and empathetic – A magnificent, athletic, native Australian wolf with inherent instincts that show in their character, a sometimes detached condescending aloofness, and an independence from need of human care, but a proud and regular humorous ‘larrikin’ when raised in a domestic environ with the right people. That was the brief. BIG expectations of any photographer. But Alex and her team transformed those expectations into a reality. She nailed the brief. We had 11 dingoes photographed in one day, no mean feat considering it was coming into breeding season and many of the Dingoes were female, of age and affected by seasonal hormones. “Sisters” can be a tab grumpy when chasing the same boyfriend! Alex and her team are true ‘animal people’.
Aboriginal Dreamtime legends depict the Dingo as an all seeing, all aware being, that can see into the soul of a person and make judgement of their true character. Many feared rejection from Dingoes in the camp as it was mark against them. Dingoes know instinctively if you are a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person. Alex and her team all passed with flying colours. All the Dingoes loved them! The photo sessions were relaxed, the Dingoes were at ease and comfortable, allowing them to show their true nature and allow Alex to capture that as an image for all to see, Alex’s photographic style us unique in the market. The animal is the focus and there are no distractions. The images are exactly what you want of your best friend, and exactly ‘who and what’ they are, captured in a millisecond. If you want a ‘living memory’ and a true representation of your furred, feathered, fanged or finned friend, Alex and her team will deliver.”
The WA Dingo Association has kindly written an article about our dingo photo day held last month for their March newsletter. They also sent through some behind the scenes images showing myself, my animal wranglers Clare and Di, and a team of assistants, dingo owners, and dingoes all doing our bit to create fabulous dingo photographs. A lot of time and effort goes into our studio shoots, and in this case natural light shoots too, and we really appreciate the assistance and efforts of everyone involved on the day!
Special thanks again to Barb for all her work in organising the shoot, both before and after, and to Daz and Leigh for letting us use their house as our photo set, and for their hospitality in providing food and drinks to my photo team. You all do a fab job of caring for your dingoes, fully understanding their special needs and attributes, and in educating as many people as you can on this often maligned and misunderstood native Australian. The love and respect you have for them was is touching and I learnt so much from you all. Plus, another thanks to Clare and Di who worked long and hard!
Here’s a behind the scenes glimpse (with thanks to Leigh who took the shots), followed by the March WADA newlsetter article:
