A Dutch dog called Teun

On a recent trip to the Netherlands, I met up with Arjan and Petra and their Beagle Teun. He is still a puppy – full of life and mischief so it’s a good thing he has the use of a very large garden to get rid of all his energy!

All I had brought with me was my camera. Usually I set up some lighting and a background when I do a home shoot, but this time I had left all that at home. I had plenty of light anyway. It was a beautiful bright day and the sun was streaming through the large windows. This was also not supposed to be a very formal shoot so I worked with what was there – a beautiful and light interior and a more than spacious garden at the back of the house.

I started off indoors capturing Teun as he was happily lounging around, but that soon progressed into rough-and-tumble play with Arjan. That really got Teun in the mood so we all went for a run around the orchard. A piece of land has been planted with young fruit trees, which means that Teun will never lack for a tree to cock his leg!

There really is nothing better than a young dog enjoying play and chasing the ball (or, in this case, ball in the sock). Often when I play with my cats, they will suddenly stop for a scratch or a bite to eat. Teun was exactly the same! He came across his chew and then very contently laid down for a bit, which gave me the opportunity to do a few outdoor close-ups. I must say that Teun’s colouring (white, tan and a very dark brown) really complemented the sharp green of the freshly mown grass and the blue sky.

We then did some images of the three of them together and Teun was lapping up the attention. As was to be expected, though, all that play and excitement makes for a tired puppy and he had a lie-down in the sun – stretching out and dropping off to sleep.

Arjan said: The shoot was a really good get-together and I enjoyed seeing how Teun responded to you and the camera. The result? Lots of fun and beautiful photographs! It’s great to have so many images of the three of us, too. What we also liked was the small present in the post later: a beautiful CD case wrapped in pale pink tissue paper. Exciting to receive and unwrap!

Charles & Eric

Charles and Eric could be twins. One of them, though, is slightly darker than the other and the other one is slightly bigger and perhaps a bit rounder – but whether that’s Charles or Eric, I couldn’t tell you. both of them are adorable nevertheless! They are still kittens, not even a year old, and they obviously do all those funny kitten things like jumping on top of each other and running around the house.

They were very cool cats with me visiting (my own Bill and Fluff hide whenever we have guests), but they were a bit nervous of me setting up a background and 2 flash heads. The background paper went on a table for them to be photographed on and once they had had a bit of a play on it they quite enjoyed all the attention and fuss. Charles or Eric’s favourite was a wooden spoon, but they also enjoyed the paper bag being dangled above their heads – until it was time for a break and a wash.

The boys were very beautiful and obliging subjects and hundreds of shots were taken, which I edited down to approximately 50 of the best of Charles and Eric!