The sandy beaches along Lake Michigan will always feel like home to me, making it even more special when I get to photograph dogs who have that same love for the beach.

The Muskegon State Park offers several areas of the park that are open to dogs year around. These areas include trails that wind through the beach grass, up and over the dunes, beach front covered in sand, other areas blanketed in seashells, limestone boulders that make up the break water piers, lighthouses and coast guard boats backdrops, and of course, the fresh water for action shots and wading in.

During all photoshoots, I do keep all dogs on leashes. In my camera bag, I keep several styles of leashes, including thiner show leads for the smallest dogs, heavier leather leads for the bigger dogs, and a long 15’ leash we can use for action shots. These leads are always edited out of your final image, leaving it looking as though your dog was the perfect angle, posing like a professional dog!

As always - no dog training is needed to capture professional photographs of your dog! It does help when your dogs knows the basics (sit, down, stay or wait), but I am very used to working with puppy brains or show dogs, where photographing them standing, and then capturing them in a sit or down when they naturally provide that behavior, is perfectly fine as well.