Umbrella Alley.... and of course a Dog!

Did you know that Charlotte has an Umbrella Alley? It’s at Metropolitan on Kings Drive near Dressler’s.

Umbrella Alley at Metropolitan was installed last month by Studio Cultivate. There are nearly 100 umbrellas hanging from fairy lights.

If you want Instagram worthy photos or a place to take a selfie, this is the spot to be. The umbrellas are bright and colorful and will provide a nice pop of color in the background of your photos.

You know when I saw a photo on Instagram of Charlotte’s newest art installation, I had to get a dog there.

Let me introduce you to Luna. She is a working service dog and is beautifully trained. She is also gorgeous and she flashes her smile regularly. You all know how much I love that.

I knew this location and my idea may be a bit challenging for dogs that aren’t super well trained so I put out a model call for well trained dogs. Luna was a total rockstar.

We met up early in the morning to avoid any crowds and that was the right idea. There was hardly anyone around.

Photographing a dog here posed a challenge because, well, the umbrellas are up in the air and dogs are short. Even big dogs are short when compared to the umbrellas.

That meant I had to lay on my back and shoot upwards to get the dog and the umbrellas in the photo. Check out this short behind the scenes time lapse video of me photographing Luna.

(This is why I regularly need massages.)

Recently I joined a photography challenge through Unleashed Education. Every two weeks for 6 months, we are given a topic to shoot. This round was “Get Low” so I knew it’d be the perfect time to check out Umbrella Alley.

So, what do you think? Are these Instagram-worthy?

If you want to check out Umbrella Alley, the installation is temporary. It will be up through July 1st and then it’s coming down so be sure to visit it before then.

If you’d like to discuss having your dog’s photo taken here, reach out. Let’s chat about it. I’m game if you are!