Patterns is the theme for week 17 of the 52 week dog photography project and if you follow me on Instagram (@barkography) you know that I was in Vancouver this past week. My advice if you've never been: GO!!!!

Oh my gosh, it was incredible. I'd been once before but it was 20 years ago and I didn't really remember it. The city is larger than I remembered. It's easy to get around. The food was amazing (and if you're an American, it's pretty inexpensive.) It's clean. We felt really safe and it's super dog friendly. There are dogs everywhere and lots of off leash dog beaches.

A beautiful city, the Pacific Ocean and snow capped mountains... it's a photographer's dream or at least it was mine and I was lucky enough for it to be my reality for a few fun filled days.

If you're going there to photograph dogs like I was, it's the mecca. There were options to photograph in the forest & trees, on the beach at sunset and if you want to get up early, you can catch the sunrise coming up over the downtown skyline (stay tuned for those!) The options are endless. It was incredible and I can't wait to go back again.

I wasn't really looking for patterns while I was there. I wanted to create photographs that shouted "I'm in Vancouver!" Then we stumbled across this:

We were driving around looking for a place to eat when we spotted this wall by @kudart. Sadly we didn't get a dog in front of it but we did try! About 2 blocks away was the striped wall in the top photo and that's where we got to photograph Hugo, the dog in the first photo on this post. Yes it did cross my mind to ask them to walk to this wall but I chickened out.

I met up with my friend Audrey of Sunsets Unleashed from San Diego. I contacted her a few months ago and asked her if she'd be interested in going. She's usually game and she was this time. We each flew in on Tuesday and on Wednesday and Thursday we attended a lighting workshop with a local portrait photographer, Kyle Cong pictured below. 

We met at two different locations and each day he had professional model Kristin Linkletter lined up and I asked if we could bring a dog model too. He said yes. :) We were working on lighting so I wasn't looking specifically for patterns.  Here are a few shots from our workshop where I did use patterns in the images.

We talked about going back to Vancouver and doing a studio session workshop with Kyle. I'd love to do a sunset shoot with him too on the beach.

Our dog model is Deniro and his mom is Meghan of @vancouverfashiontruck. I met her through instagram. He is 13 months old and the breeder named his siblings Pacino and Brando. :) Gotta love the old Hollywood shout out.

Our professional model is Kristin (@kristinlinkletter). All of our models were amazing and we so appreciated them being there so we could practice.

To see what the other photographers blogged about this week, check out Mikahla Dorey in Nova Scotia, Canada. Be sure to click the link at the end of each post and you'll end up right back here when you finish the blog circle.