Better Together Purina

For most photographers a photoshoot centred around animals would be considered a serious headache.  Dogs and cats are notoriously difficult to work with, particularly if they aren’t professional working animals.  Add an amature human model to the mix and there is bound to be trouble!  I was approached about just such a project by Nestle Purina.

One of Purina’s core principles is that pets and people are better together.  Anyone who has ever had a pet can attest to the fact that bringing a dog, cat, or other animal into your life can change you in a profound way.  For someone without pets it can be hard to understand how special these relationships truly are.  Purina of course gets it: Not only are they a leader in the pet food industry, but their employees are animal lovers themselves.  Purina wanted to highlight this in a series of photos that they’d be using for online marketing.

In order to capture the essence of these special relationships we setup a mobile studio at Purina’s Canadian head office in Mississauga Ontario during their Take Your Dog to Work day event. Most Purina employees can actually take their dogs to work any day of the year, which is a great perk for their animal loving team, but they make a special day out of it once a year for everyone to take part.  Throughout the day I met dozens of loving dog owners and their wonderful canine companions.  My animal trainer Angus worked with each dog to get them comfortable while I photographed the interactions they had with their owners.  The special bond shared between them is obvious in the photos that I captured.