Mike and Jessica contacted me a few weeks ago wanting to do a quick shoot to get some photos for their holiday cards.  We met at Sugarhouse park on an overcast day.  The temperature was in the mid-30′s.  The pond at the park had mostly frozen over, yet the ducks and swans hadn’t left.

One of the things Mike and Jess wanted was to incorporate their new puppy, Cayenne, into the shoot.  She was a black lab, nine months old, with plenty of that puppy energy left in her.  As soon as Mike brought her out of the car, she was tugging at the leash, wanting to run free, to express her inner pup (encouraging her was the vast amount of fowl in the area).

At any rate, after much tugging and maneuvering, Cayenne managed to break free of the leash, not five minutes into our shoot.  She raced out onto the partially frozen lake, ready to play with the birds.  She realized all too quickly, however, that stopping on ice isn’t as easy as on other terrain.  She slid right on into the ice cold water.

In the beginning, this was all quite laughable.  However, as time progressed and Mike realized that Cayenne wasn’t about to yield to the orders of her master, he began to panic.  When he finally got ahold of her, we came to the realization that she wasn’t going to be a factor in the shoot, at least not initially.  She smelled of duck dung, and was muddier than any of us wanted to handle.

So, after putting Cayenne in the car (realizing he’d have to clean it later), Mike, Jess, and I started off to our first location.  The first pose I had in mind was Jessica piggy-backing on Mike.  If you know these two at all, you know that getting them to take this pose seriously was, to say the least, difficult.  Nevertheless, we still managed to snag a few shots great shots from it.

The next photo I wanted to capture was the two of them in a snowball fight.  Again, if you know Mike and Jessica, you know this was hilarious to watch.  Jess is the prim and proper one, while Mike (although he can look quite sharp when he needs to) is much more of a down-and-dirty kinda guy.  Watching these two throw snowballs at each other, while trying to remain composed enough to take the shots, was difficult, to say the least.

Once we’d finished with those shots, we headed back to the car to see if the dog was ready for some shots.  After ensuring her collar was just short of cinched around her neck, he brought Cayenne out of the car again.  And once we’d moved out of sight of the fowl, he took her off her leash to try for a pretty cool shot.  Apparently Cayenne like to jump and catch snow — so we gave that a go, and again, got some great shots.

All in all, I love Mike and Jess, and working with them to get these shots was entirely my pleasure.  Thanks you guys.