Wow - the year has flown by and a lot of photography has happened for us here at VP Shoots Photography!  While many of you may know that I am the main photographer behind our photography - I have 2 partners that work with me - one is my lifelong partner, Jim Vargas.  The other partner started helping with rescue dog photography back when my little twin girls were just mere pups - Greg Turner.  A shout out thank you to both of them!

This year we have photographed over 80 rescue dogs, some dogs we photographed more than once making the number of photography sessions go over 100 this year.  We love each and every dog we meet whether they are looking for their forever home or they already have their forever home. 

As 2022 begins in a few days, one goal I have for 2022 is helping people with 'end of life' photography sessions.  This is a tough thing to do, but the rewards are so big and having lost our Jimbo in 2020, it's very fresh in my mind. 

It's been almost a year now when a litter of puppies was born into the Maxx and Me Pet rescue and one little puppy wasn't as fortunate as the others.  Her name was Honey and she was being fostered by a very special person who was also a vet tech.  I stayed positive during the whole photography session, but in my heart I could only pray that I would be able to capture this small puppy's personality. Honey did great and within a few weeks was no longer with us.  I often wonder if she was just waiting for us to capture some great memories that touched every one that met her.

Meet Honey

More Photography

A good portion of our photography is 'for the dogs'.  We have photographed a lot of dogs!  We also photograph people (family portraits, senior photographs) and photographed a wedding for friends.  In addition to doing pet photography, I do stock photography for an agency and sold one of my 'biggest' name authors cover this year - Lisa Jackson's book "The Third Grave" features my photograph (and the book was really good too!).

A look back at 2021 has given me time to reflect where I might want my photography to go in the next year.  Definitely I will continue to help the rescue dogs with my photography.  It's a very rewarding project.  As I mentioned earlier, I would like to help with "end of life" sessions and have recently joined The Tilly Project and I am currently looking into additional avenues related to this particular type of photography.  Having said this, I am happy to continue to photograph my furry kids (Abby, Ollie and Rue) and other pets of all ages.

Interested in Pet Photography Session?

If you would like to discuss or book a custom pet portrait session, send an email to [email protected] or give us a call/text Linda at 813-610-2671 in the Tampa Bay area (Hillsborough/Pinellas/Pasco/Polk counties in Florida).  We have flexible rates and packages to fit most everyone’s budget as we believe that having wonderful photographs of your pet is important to so many people.

Blogging with Pet Photographers

This is a personal project that I try to participate in each week (as much as possible).  This post is part of a 'blog circle' which is with several other Professional Pet Photographers around the world.  Each week a different theme is provided to the group and we, as pet photographers, interpret the theme in our own way.  Follow the link provided at the end of each of my blogs to the next pet photographer's blog - and when you arrive back at my blog - you've completed the entire circle of blogs for this theme.  For more pet photographers sharing their take on this theme, head over to Toronto based pet photographer, Terri J Photography, shares her first ever client photo awards for 2021.