Wendi Riggens Riggens Photography

During the event, we offered free mini-portrait sessions for the dogs. I tried to narrow my favorites down to a few, but ended up with a couple dozen!!! Be sure to take advantage of my special event pricing, and remember, 25% of all proceeds are being donated to the dog park. Also, book a pet session for the month of September or October, and your entire session fee will be donated as well!

If you had your dog’s portrait taken, visit the Pet-Palooza gallery to order prints:

http://wendiriggens.zenfolio.com/petpalooza

First, a thank you to Officer Bloomer and Reno for their demonstration. Seeing him at work was incredible!

This is Kenra, of Jen & Kenra’s in Ft Madison. She’s such a diva!

Hi Maddie! She’s the star of the Free Of The Leash blog! BTW, I love the dog park tshirts. I bought two!

This is my cousin Tedra and her cute pooch Monster. Tedra owns Peavine Lane Pet Spa in Ft. Madison, and yes, she did paint her pretty pooch blue! I spotted a couple dogs sporting “doggie tattoos” on their bottoms after visiting her booth!

And just a few more of my favorites from the day:

She wasn’t sure about me at first, especially since I have to get so close with my fisheye for the effect we were going for, but after a few minutes, she gave me some smiles!

I have a soft spot in my heart for English Bulldogs. My parents raised them for 20+ years, and my grandparents for twice that long. I shot several on Sunday, but this was my favorite!

When I saw this beautiful boy, I cried. Even though he is a harlequin and our great dane was all black, he reminded me so much of Salem. He is the first dane I’ve seen since Salem passed, and all I could do when I saw him was pet him and cry. He was just beautiful! Then we saw this super cute little puppy, and I couldn’t pass up a chance to photograph them together. It’s amazing the difference a year makes in size!

This little lady won the “Ugliest Dog” contest, but I think she is beautiful!

Just a few more…

This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to set up and photograph Pet-Palooza and the leash cutting at the new Burlington Regional Dog Park.  Everyone that knows me knows that shooting weddings is my passion, but Sunday I had the most amazing time, rolling around in the grass for 4 hours with a few dozen dogs.  I came home covered in slobber and sunburnt, but it was worth it.

I want to give a special thanks to the committee that worked to get a dog park in Burlington. As a dog owner and lover, it was much needed, and after seeing the community come out in full support on Sunday, I know it will do well here!

I’m going to blog this in two parts.  The first, this one, will feature the leash cutting and dog swim.  Part two will feature a few of my favorite pet portraits from the day.

I LOVE the logo for the dog park!

The leash cutting and blessing

My booth! The sporadic wind kept blowing everything over, so we had to forgo my big easles and rest the large prints and canvases against the table legs, risking being “marked”, and duct tape the backs of the other prints to the little easles. More than once, people ran to help us set back up after a gust of wind blew everything off! :)

The dog swim – I think this was such a great idea! The dogs LOVED it!

The little dogs and those afraid of water or that didn’t know how to swim hung out in the kiddie pool.

Yes, that included this St. Bernard puppy! I was playing with the dogs in the water (yes, fully clothed in jeans, and with my camera in hand) when this sweetheart came running over to me and leaned her soaking wet body against mine. I couldn’t resist throwing my arms around her in a big hug! She was so funny, she’d get to the “deep” part of the kiddie pool, which is only 1 foot deep, mind you, and then get scared and hurry back to the edge! Here is one of those moments!

The big pool was full of labs and sporty dogs that loved loved loved the water!

Be sure to check out Free Of The Leash for more info on the dog park, and for more images of the event!

Congrats to Eric Myer and his German Shepard, Monte, for their second place finish in The Hawkeye’s Pet Idol! They received a portrait session, along with a gift certificate to Horse & Hound and a prize from The Hawkeye. I had a great time getting to know Monte and his co-dogs, Ford & Sierra.

I love all animals, but dogs are by far my favorite. My grandparents and parents both had professional, federally recognized kennels throughout my childhood, and I was always surrounded by puppies and dogs. We have two of our own (we lost our Great Dane back in June tragically to a distended stomach), and they are our babies! My years of experience have taught me the best way to interact with different breeds and temperments, and the best way to photograph them, too.

As such, Wendi Riggens Photography is proudly sponsoring the Burlington Dog Park and the Petapalooza and Dog Splash event this coming Sunday. Come out and have your pet’s portrait taken at our booth, enter the various contests, and let your dog splash around in the Burlington Pool! It’s going to be a great time!  We will be donating 25% of the proceeds from our pet portraits to the dog park, and for any session booked in September or October, your session fee will be donated!

Now, onto the dogs!

This is Monte. He has the sweetest disposition, and was so loving and sweet!

This is Ford, Monte’s “little brother”. He was full of barks when I got there, and then was all love and slobber once he warmed up to me. He didn’t want me to leave! He has a knack for moving as soon as the camera came up, but with the use of my long lenses and keen eye, we were able to get several beautiful shots of him. This is one of my favorites. He has the longest tongue I have ever seen!

Aren’t these two just so beautiful? Or handsome, since they are male!

And last but definitely not least, here is Sierra. Eric found her wandering around the road a few months ago, abandoned and terribly skinny. With lots of work and love, she is gaining weight and health and trust. I was only able to get a few shots of her, as she spent most of the session hiding from me, but she is beautiful.

Keep yours eyes peeled for the first and third place winners, coming up in the next few weeks as we get together for their sessions!

Hope to see you at Petapalooza this weekend!

Megan & Adam are tying the knot next June.  Maybe Roscoe can be the ring bearer?  We had a lot of fun exploring down by the river and playing on Snake Alley!

Burlington is beautiful this time of year!  I love the trees!

You guys were so much fun to shoot!  I can’t wait for June!

Just under the gun here!  It’s 11:41pm on Sunday, leaving me with 19 minutes to post before my week-end deadline!

These are from the conference I went to in Cincinnati last November.  Again, tons of fun!  It was a crazy weekend, and I was exhausted by the end of it, but it was well worth it.

Trying out a different light set-up.  It has a couple hotspots, but I love the little guy’s expression!  While I enjoy studio work, it isn’t really my style, but it was fun to play around a bit.

I hope my baby is this cute!  These are twins, brother and sister.  So sweet!

And grows up to be this cute!  She was a doll to work with!

Or this cute, if it is a boy.

Don’t let brides play in the middle of the street with chairs that you pull out of the garbage.  They are scary.

This kitty totally hijacked my shot, but that’s ok, it was cute!

These are my friends from 831 Photography in Akron.  When I first met them last year at WPPI, they were holding up their little name badges, with letters covered partially to spell out my name.  When I got to the Ohio conference (very, very late due to a flight cancellation), I was greeted the same way!  I almost cried!

Excuse the quality, this was a total snapshot! :)