A few months ago I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend BarkZealand – an out of this world pet photography workshop held in beautiful Queenstown, NZ. There was a group of fourteen of us learning from three of the best pet photographers in the world – Kaylee Greer, Charlotte Reeves and Nicole Begley. Three of my photography idols!! I definitely spent a lot of the week being quite starstruck, and then realised that I had better come out of my shell and start taking advantage of their incredible brains so I then asked looooots of questions, haha. It was so great though because I learned so much from not only Kaylee, Charlotte and Nicole, but from the rest of the group as well. This is our BarkZealand group on top of a mountain on the last day of the workshop. It was epic!
It was a pretty full on week – we covered everything from our sources of inspiration to lighting to composition to post processing to marketing to sales to social media – everything you could possibly think of and more. We also (of course) did heaps of photography with five shoots throughout the week. There were probably close to forty dog models who worked with us across the week – they were suuuuuuuuch good dogs and I loved them all!
We started the week at an apple orchard in Cromwell – it was magical. This is Tucker. He loved his tennis ball so much, you can see the intensity in his face as he runs towards it!
We then drove a short distance to the historical town centre where we worked in small groups with different dogs. This is Starlet – definitely one of the most unusual dogs I’ve ever photographed! She is a Chinese Crested so very unique – I just love the colours of those mountains behind her against her distinctive characteristics.
The weather on Tuesday was pretty awful so we spent most of that in our conference reviewing everyone’s images from the previous days shoot as well as continuing with all the other content. It was crazy to see all the photos and the variety in end results given we were all there at the same time photographing the same dogs!
Wednesday morning saw us at Bob’s Cove before the sun had even risen. The light and colours here were spectacular, with the cool hues before sunrise changing into a clear and perfect day. The water was unlike anything I’d ever seen – the most perfect turquoise you could ever imagine. This is Bailey swimming with his stick – I was knee deep in the freezing cold lake for this shot but happily I think it ended up being totally worth it!
Our shoot on Thursday afternoon was at Arrowtown – the most beautiful little village about 20 minutes outside of the Queenstown city centre. I’d been there before but never in the wilderness down behind the shops – the colours were glorious. While I loved all the dogs we met during the week, I think my favourites were on this afternoon…starting with Gretchen the six month oldBernese Mountain Dog.
On Friday morning, we were at the Shotover River for our last morning shoot. It was freezing! I certainly did not wear enough layers and I spent a good chunk of the morning feeling sorry for my poor frozen fingers, haha. Still managed to meet some great dogs and take some classic NZ shots that I really do love. This is Banjo doing his best serious face to properly celebrate the scenic atmosphere.
Friday afternoon was our final shoot on top of the mountain as pictured in the first photo above. We had a family of dogs with us – the team behind Oh My Dog – and I mainly worked with Enzo, the pup in the group. Just look at him!
BarkZealand was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to share more images with you! Stay tuned!