Emotion is the topic of the dog photography 52 week project for week 48 and emotion is the reason why I got into dog photography. In August of 2014 my black lab Buddy had a health scare. I was out of town and my husband came home to find him disoriented and bleeding from his nose. He rushed him to the emergency vet and they couldn't confirm but suspected cancer.

I don't have great photos of my first two dogs, Sloan and Sam. I have a million photos of them but none that are very good. A few days after bringing Buddy home from the vet, I purchased my first professional camera. I thought if I bought a professional camera, I'd be able to take professional photos. I had NO idea there was much to learn about photography. This is one of the photos I took of Buddy. It is far from perfect but I'm so glad I have it.

Buddy died 5 weeks after I got my camera. I suppose I lost some of my inspiration so I halfheartedly played around with it for the first 1.5 years and finally got serious in the spring of 2016. 

I have just started to seriously delve into the world of pets and their people. This is an area where I want to gain a lot more experience. I want to capture the bond between pets and their people. I want my photographs to show the emotion. I want to be able to look at my photos and feel the emotion.

This next photo is one I took last year and I wasn't very confident when I snapped this of my neighbor Tiffany and her dog Jack. She said goodbye to him just a few days ago and she sent this to me telling me how thankful she is to have it. THAT is exactly WHY I do this.

Here are a few more photos I've taken recently that show emotion. When I thought about what I wanted to write about today, I could've taken Moose out and snapped some photos of him running around. I'd be able to capture his emotion if he was chasing a ball but given that I got into photography because of Buddy and because my friend Tiffany had to say goodbye to her beloved dog Jack this week, I wanted to show this type of emotion.

This golden retriever is Darby. She was recently diagnosed with cancer. She had a huge scar on her shoulder from recent surgery at our session but her parents wanted to make certain they had photos of her. This is why I want to do this.

This last photo is Sammie. I took this photo last month and neither her mom nor I knew that they'd say goodbye to each other a few weeks after this was taken. I know her mom will treasure this forever and I'm so thankful to have been able to give her this moment in time.

This is a blog circle and next up is Jessica Wasik with Bark & Gold Photography, celebrating the joy and love between Pittsburgh pets and their people. Be sure to click the links at the bottom of each post and you'll end up right back here.