Ralph - How I Got Into Pet Photography
[ A quick little backstory: I went to college for photography, but I’ve never known what makes me happiest in my field. Even now, I can’t settle on just one thing. I know for certain that there are things I don’t want to photograph: posed newborns, landscapes, wildlife (okay, there was a time where I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer, but hiking…. *sick face emoji* ). But whenever someone (my business coach/mentor usually lol) asks me what I want to specialize in, I freeze up. “I want to specialize in it all,” I say, knowing you can’t really be a master at it all. But when talking about what to focus less on, my heart cried when she asked me my thoughts on not specializing in pet photography, as she went through the list. Without a doubt, that was one thing I never wanted to give up. As you know, I ultimately settled on my main focus being pets, weddings, branding, and senior photography.]
If you look at my website…or my social media….or my house, you will see A LOT of pictures of a goldendoodle named Ralph. Actually, if you’ve ever come to pick up prints from the studio, there’s a 75% chance you’ve met him in person too, with his tail wagging and his stuffed green octopus hanging out of his mouth. He’s pretty much the official mascot of Bre Palumbo Photography (don’t worry, he gets paid in treats). While he can’t be there for photoshoots or meetings (because he thinks everyone is his friend and demands 100% of your attention), he is the main reason that I got “into” pet photography.
In early-ish 2016, my husband, Nick, (who was my boyfriend at the time) and I started looking for a dog. Actually…I started looking for a dog, while threatening to write a “persuasive essay” for him on why we needed to get a dog. Ultimately, he agreed to look with me, and after several let downs, we were led to mid-Pennsylvania to go “look” at a puppy. Okay, he said “we were just going to look,” but I knew full well he wouldn’t drive almost 3 hours one way AND let me buy all the puppy necessities that day, if we weren’t going to get one. We even already sent in the deposit a few days prior. I really don’t know who he thought he was fooling. Anyway, we had a deposit on a goldendoodle, named “Sparky” but we were told we would have the choice if there were others still available.
As soon as we walked into the home, I saw them- a litter of beautiful goldendoodles. My dream. They were all standing on their hind legs, jumping up and down on the gate, and all of them were barking, except a smaller one, at the furthest side, who was just jumping up and down with his tongue out. “God, I hope that’s the one,” I thought to myself. But to my dismay, that little boy’s name was “Rocky” not “Sparky.” The wife handed Sparky to Nick, but I asked to hold the one I had that immediate connection with. She laid him in my arms and told me that he was available, but that they were thinking of keeping him for themselves, since they were not breeders, but wanted their female dog to be able to have one litter.
My heart dropped. What was I going to do if I couldn’t take this puppy home? I looked down at him, who was just laying on his back, smiling up at me. I looked over at Nick, who had a puppy, slightly bigger than the one I was holding, literally running up and down the front and back of Nick’s body. Somehow we knew what the other was thinking and switched puppies, only for Sparky to run up and down my body as well, while Rocky cuddled in Nick’s arms. We briefly chatted and decided that we both had a connection with Rocky and would love to adopt him, if they were willing to part with him. The husband and wife talked, and although the husband was a little bummed to watch him leave, we finally found the puppy that would make us a little family, Rocky…who was quickly renamed to Ralph….before we even pulled out of their driveway. The entire ride home, I held Ralph in my arms while he slept with his new teddy bear that we brought him.
It was on that drive that I knew, I wanted to document every single moment of this boy’s life that I could. I was finally a dog mom, and I wanted to remember every single part of his life. He was my baby, the only one I planned to have for quite some time, and I knew my purpose was to document how important him and his life was to me and Nick.
I had followed a few goldendoodle accounts on Instagram and decided that I wanted to do the same thing, so I quickly made Ralph his very own account, and started taking daily pictures of him. It grew into our routine. Wake up, go potty, play, eat, get a new bandana on, take a picture, post it, do puppy things, etc. Having an Instagram that you had to update daily was like having a full time job, it was crazy. While he does still have it, I’ve become more of a “post 3 times a year” person rather than who I was in that first year.
When I wasn’t taking pictures of him with his daily bandanas, I was taking milestone pictures: Every 3rd of the month as he turned another month old, holidays, season changes, funny things he did, you name it, we photographed it. Everyone was so surprised that he “just sat there and posed” but it became something that I accidentally trained him to do.
When his first birthday rolled around, I quickly realized that I hadn’t planned a photoshoot for him. How it slipped my mind, I’m not sure. Maybe because his birthday is at the beginning of March and it’s such a weird time of the year? Either way, I had zero ideas and his birthday was that day. I ran to the store and bought him a birthday bandana, a party hat, and his name in balloons, then tore apart our dining room and took his pictures there. That became the area where I did his birthday pictures for the first 5 years of his life. For year 2 I realized I had to at least make him a cake or something, since I hadn’t done much the year before. I figured we’d keep it simple and watch him grow up in the same spot of the house, throughout the years.
But then right before his 3rd birthday, I realized that I was putting more effort into my dream of photography as my career, and decided to go a little bigger with that year's birthday pictures. I blew up tons of balloons and taped them to the walls in a pretty rainbow pattern. I had planned early and ordered him a cute little crown with the number 3 featured on it. To this day, that is still one of my favorite photoshoots, and I think mainly it’s because that’s when I realized I have been doing pet photography…even though it was just of my pet, and it was making me happy (and also because he’s so cute, but I’m biased).
Fun fact: Both his 1st and his 3rd birthday pictures were featured in the magazine, Dogster!
I started planning his birthday pictures further in advance. Creating a pinterest board and looking for ideas that I could pull off in my dining room, and dog friendly cakes that I could make that morning. It was sometime between Ralph’s 4th and 5th birthday that I started photographing other people’s pets, mainly dogs. But the issue was that I had to take their pictures outdoors or at their house, since I couldn’t bring another pet into my house to photograph them. Pets quickly became one of my favorite “things” to take pictures of.
And then his 5th birthday hit. I was midway between designing my studio build, buying studio equipment, and still working my full time bank job. I didn’t plan out what I wanted his theme to be for his 5th birthday, just that I knew I wanted it to be colorful. Because we were still wedding planning, for our reception, my pinterest was a chaos of wedding decor, photography, recipes, quotes, and more. And then I saw it, a colorful, fringe looking design, it was for a bridal shower, but it was so pretty. I quickly pinned it and got to researching how to do it. Nick started helping me set up Ralph’s birthday picture set ups at year three, so he was on board with helping create whatever I thought I was going to create for year 5. And then we started working on it. What looked like a quick, easy, set up, turned into endless hours for multiple nights. At one point, my very own husband looked at me and said “maybe you just take his pictures after his birthday this year, so you don’t feel rushed.” I couldn’t believe the man I married suggested this! Kidding of course, but I still didn’t take his advice. We ended that photoshoot on plain white paper “just to see what it would look like” since I had so much studio stuff waiting in our home since the studio wasn’t finished yet. I was horrified to realize that even though we put in hours of working on the fringe background, I loved the “simple” set up better. While I was editing them, Nick looked over my shoulder at the computer and said, “maybe next year we stick with simple.” And that….I did not.
The months between his 5th and 6th birthday happened to be my first months in my studio. I had quit my full time job and was officially a full time photographer. While I didn’t go as crazy as daily photoshoots, Ralph did get his fair share of time in front of the camera. I had lots of fun ideas for different themes, but now I was finally able to photograph other pet’s birthday pictures indoors! I was on cloud 9. I love birthday pictures and cake smashes, but there’s just something about a dog on a plain colored background that just makes me so happy, and I’m instantly brought back to Ralph’s 5th birthday on his plain white backdrop after putting in hours of work on the colorful one.
For his 6th birthday session, I finally had the space to give him an Office themed photoshoot. It had been on my to do list for years, but the dining room didn’t offer the space. I loved it, it was funny and cute all in one, plus it’s mine and Nick’s favorite show, so it made it even better. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to top it.
And then I came up with his 7th birthday idea. Unfortunately, two days before his pictures were originally scheduled, he developed an extreme case of pancreatitis. The vet put him on a crazy schedule and a super weird diet. We were told he could no longer have people food, which included the ingredients used to make a dog friendly birthday cake. I quickly texted my baker, The Baking Witch, and canceled his tie-dye cake. I was devastated because I had this theme planned for 11 months. Luckily, I pushed his pictures out a couple days (because I finally learned to not do them on his birthday) and came up with the idea of tie-dye letters spelling out “seven.” It was perfect and although still not on a normal diet, and unable to be bribed with cake and/or treats, he still absolutely rocked his birthday pictures.
When I was looking back at pictures throughout the last 7 years of his life, other than getting super emotional at how fast 7 years has gone by, I noticed one big thing, my photography has gotten SO much better. I used to be so proud of the images I was creating back then. Even though his 1st and 2nd birthday weren’t as cute as the themed ones, they still were cute enough that the 1st birthday made it into a national magazine, so I thought they were amazing. Back then, I didn’t know how I’d ever be better than that. I never would have thought I’d be where I would be today with dog photography, and I hope that in another 7 years, I will think the same thing.
I can’t believe I found one of my biggest joys in photography, all because one little puppy was jumping up and down, smiling, not barking.
