A Year in the Life of Karen Moe Photography Part 3

The Cotons

And then there are the Cotons. Oh my! Jewela on the left; Fatiana on the right; and check out Prince Kintana all cozied up in the middle! Coton de Tulears are exquisite creatures: both beautifully natured and beautiful to look at. Their sweet, playful personalities and ravishing good looks are also complemented by an exotic heritage: they are the Imperial Dog of Madagascar and were brought to France during the infamous Age of Imperialism. Despite a splattering of brutality in their history, those French sure do have good taste!

I have had the honour of photographing Lorna Christie’s “White Pearl Cotons” twice. “Coton Pool Party” (above) was taken on a sparkling spring day in the dogs’ beautiful yard in White Rock BC. As soon as I saw the princess pool, I knew that the three Cotons were meant to be photographed in it. Luxurious hair rigorously brushed to perfection, fountain-tailed and chocolate-brown-almond-eyes shining, the sweetest faces crowned with tasteful bows, these dogs are so darn elegant that they trump any Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty! Move over Disney! Here are ‘The Cotons’!!

"Prince Kintana"

One day, Fatiana, Jewela and Kintana visited my studio. The morning of their visit, I put a sign in the building elevator inviting anyone to come by and meet the most beautiful dogs in the world. Three of my friends and neighbours came. One young woman, a textile designer, sat on the floor stroking Kintana and murmured with a mixture of emphasis and disbelief, “You are the most exquisite creature I have ever met...”

"Jewela & Fatiana"

Some people snub their noses at pure breds, show dogs, dogs that have been bred for centuries to achieve a certain temperament and physical appearance, dogs who are bought and sold for thousands of dollars. But, as a visual artist, and a worshipper of Beauty, I have no problem with perfection. The Cotons entered my frame as aesthetic gifts, as sculptures. Exhilarated, I constructed idealized settings and backgrounds, enacting the balance of rococo, sentimentality, romance, committing every post- modern crime. “How can any creature be so perfect?” these portraits ask. Well, they can. Look. Perfection exists.

“Coton Party”

Jewela, Fatiana and Kintana are definitely a party ... a festival in fact! Posed to perfection in front of bright spring daisies, sit three laughing Cotons in a row, girl and boy bowed, flossy hair swishing and swooping in the wind. Princess Jewela is tossing her head back in uproarious (well, delicately uproarious ... they are exquisite Cotons after all) laughter; Kintana is just a down-to-earth jovial kinda really cute guy; and sweet, demure Fatiana smiles shyly at the end.

What can be happier? How can one not smile when in the company of such adorable and adoring fun? When Lorna Christie parades her three Cotons along the White Rock Beach Promenade, she definitely turns heads. Children come running, delighted, squealing, like they are on the brink of a fairyland. They want to touch, snuggle, snuffle, and hug. How can anything so cute be real? “Mommy can I please kiss the fairy-tale?”

Ok, all of you big dog (or Dog-Dog) people are probably feeling a bit green at the “that’s not a Dog” gills. And I apologize. But I can’t help it! They are just so unbelievably cute! And they have fabulous personalities too! And, look how obedient they are, sitting there, impeccably back- grounded by yellow daisies: 3 laughing Cotons in a row.

A Year in the Life of Karen Moe Photography 2012 Part 2

Jasper

As soon as I saw Jasper, I knew I had to photograph him against an old stone wall covered in lichen. Having lived in Vancouver most of my life, I knew that the Burrard Inlet side of Stanley Park has just the wall. Australian Shepherds have the most dynamic colouring of any dog, in my opinion. And when they have one blue eye and one brown, it’s an aesthete’s dream!

As a Dog Art Photographer, the visual content and composition of the image is one of my greatest passions. I think I love nothing more than creating beautiful things. And it is easy to do when dogs are your subjects. Don’t get me wrong, I like photographing the human animal too; but, if a dog just looks at the camera and cocks his or her head, it’s a good shot; humans, of course, are another story!

I photographed Jasper on a wet, grey February day. Mike and Amanda wanted jumping shots, so Jasper happily accommodated by racing and leaping tirelessly for his best-friend Frisbee. As Australian Shepherds have an explosive amount of energy, Jasper could have run and hurled himself upwards all day, I am sure.

When we had our viewing slide show with wine & cheese at my studio, Jasper saw himself doing his thing on the screen and jumped up at the pictures. Was he going for his Frisbee again? Even in two-dimensions! Now that’s devotion!

A Year in the Life of Karen Moe Photography Part 1

Hi!
Well, I did it! I finished my second Year in the Life book today and it has been sent off to the printers. Some of my wonderful clients are buying one and it will be a gorgeous Dog (& Cat) Art coffee table book. Here is the first installment for your enjoyment :)

“Whirl-O-Rama-Kismet”

We start 2012 off with Kismet. At the time of this shoot, he was about the same age as Karen Moe Photography,a mere 8 months.

The shoot took place in Langley BC, on a bright, windy, and wild spring day. And Kismet was as wily as the wind that blew and whirled him around the acreage, his round puppy body and Havanese red and white a blur in the spring green. I was the running photographer. Chasing and ducking and attempting to predict his next move, spinning between exposures as he raced between sun and shade, still and speed, the photographer’s adrenalin buzzed alongside her subject. What resulted were a series of shots with his hair whipping around his body like a tornado, the blustering spring day in harmony with his untouched puppy spirit.

Kismet has now become a bit of a celebrity. As an ideal specimen of Havanese, he has been whisked away to the show dog circuit. His Kismet days are a thing of the past. He now jet sets from show to show and was even in Westminster in February 2013. Ironically, the history of his name is indicative of his rapid rise to fame. Starting off as Kismet, soon after this picture was taken, he went back to his breeder, Beth Obrecht of “Rockhurst Havanese” in Wakefield, Quebec, and became ‘Toto’; after a brief time as Toto, he was sent down to a prestigious handler in Sedona, California and was aptly named ‘Sedona’ because of the red Sedona desert and his corresponding red hair.

This narrative of a name doesn’t end here. I saw ‘Kismet’ again at the BC Dog Fancier’s show in October 2012 and couldn’t decide what to call him, so I tried out ‘Kismet-Toto-Sedona’. As I photographed his impeccably groomed, swishy perfection trotting around the ring, though, he then became ‘His Royal Highness’ (HRH for short). But, after the Westminster Dog Show, and returning to a less glamorous but maybe more fun life as a sought-after-stud, he has now become ‘Jack.’ Personally, after such a lineage of nomenclature, I find ‘Jack’ to be a bit of a thud. But perhaps his new found macho profession is befitting of a simpler, more manly name.

Nevertheless, whatever ‘Kismet-Toto-Sedona-HRH-Jack’s’ name is in the moment, I am so glad I met and photographed a most charismatic and mischievous puppy named Kismet!

What a flossy coated beautiful guy!

swoosh ... swoosh

HRH rocks!

I think the judge is impressed :)

I want a dog just like

"Kismet-Toto-Sedona-HRH-Jack"