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  • Welcome!

    I'm a Telluride, Colorado pet photographer, focusing on outdoor dog photography that truly captures the unique personality of your dog, as well as the spectacular scenery of the area. Don't forget to subscribe to session blog posts! Please use the email notification box at the top right hand side of this page.

    Head on over to the portfolio link to view more photos, and if you like what you see, click on the session link for very important information on the process of getting photos of YOUR pup!

    I currently have openings for one or two reservations the week before and after labor day.

Samantha

Samantha was well known in town.  She had one of the most devoted owners, always taking Sam for a walk when first getting out of bed, then another one later in the day (which was when I often met up with Angie, since I am not a morning person).   My memories are filled with images years ago of Blue and Santé, and also Eliza and Juno.  We’d chat by the swimming hole on the river trail for an hour or more while the dogs did what dogs do, and other people came and went.  It didn’t matter if it was summer or winter, and I recall vividly we stood out there in a blizzard once, getting soaked with wet snow, but didn’t leave because the dogs were having so much fun.   While my dogs were always swimming, retrieving, or just running around saying hello to friends passing by, Sam was usually on the other side of the river, busy digging in the snow for rocks.  It was her obsession, and although it was hard on her shoulders, when a dog gets older you generally hesitate stopping them from doing what they love.  It didn’t matter how deep the snow was, or how long it took her.  She was patient and kept at it, occasionally barking as if that would unearth them faster.   Near the end of Sam’s life and after I lost Blue, I took Willa on our playdates, and we expanded our winter swimming hole outings to walking past the sledding hill to the waterfall and around the beaver pond.  Walking was better for Sammy’s joints, and Willa was happy to lead the way.

Change came quickly this winter.  Sam was suddenly not herself, and ultimately was diagnosed with lymphoma.  She was almost 12, and was deeply afraid of any vet clinic, so weekly chemo was not an option although it might have brought a period of remission.  Chosing to do what is best for your dog and not for yourself is a difficult choice sometimes, knowing that by choosing their quality of life over your own selfish desire to keep them with you, you are ultimately choosing to break your own heart earlier than you have to.  I took these photos shortly before Sam died.  Samantha was losing stamina, and so this was a very brief session, but Angie had told me that she only had one photo of them in all their years together, and it was important to me that the places she loved and the activities she enjoyed were documented before she left us.

If you were lucky enough to know Sam, you were always greeted with a lot of whining, squinty eyes, a lowered head and her famous grin. Unfortunately when I met with Angie, Samantha had her tennis ball, so I didn’t get her smiling as she ran to me, but you get the idea….
She was quite the charmer.

We headed to the waterfall through the woods, and she happily plopped down to munch on her tennis ball, not looking sick at all….just happy to be out in the snow.

A close up of those gorgeous eyelashes….
A bit of love….

 Even at nearly twelve years old and with cancer, she loved to have her ball thrown in deep snow so she could dig it up…or just toss a snowball, it’s just as fun!

Hello down there, I’m ready to go to the river now!

 I love the big swish of her tail….
These two photos are how I would often come across Angie and Sam as I crossed the bridge.  Angie sitting in the sun, throwing rocks into the river for Sam.  If there was snow piled up on the rocks in the middle of the river, that was even more fun, and Sam would happily dig for them until Angie made her stop.


She was a bit greedy.  She already has one rock in her mouth, but is waiting to get another one!

 And of course she will!  Sam will have to figure out which one is best.  🙂 Here it comes….We got very lucky this day.  This past winter was filled with gloomy days, and weeks would pass with just hints of sun.  The morning we planned to meet, it looked to be just as dreary, but the skies cleared up for about an hour, and long enough for me to get these photos.  Sam did not seem sick this day – just a bit tired, but happy to be doing the things she loved most with the person she loved most.  Her eyes were happy and she was excited to be going to her favorite places.   We had chosen a good day.   She was gone about a week after I took these photos.  She will be greatly missed.

“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart,
and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
~Khalil Gibran

Carolyn OK, let me wipe away the tears and tell you how beautiful and touching everything about this is. This has to be one of your best ever. Maybe it is because I knew Sam and miss her too. Angie will treasure these. ❤️

Honey I seem to have a stray dog hair in my eye… this was truly beautiful. I am so glad the weather held for you to get these shots in time. Love these ❤️

Susana These are beautiful photos. Angie I’m so sorry for the loss of your lovely Sam. There was such a wonderful light and soul in her eyes, she must have been very special. I hold a special place in my heart for goldens, and am hoping my Schenley welcomed your girl at the gates of the bridge. Run free beautiful Sam xx

Candice What a. beautiful did. The pictures are great! I love the close up profile the best!

Annette Rose Jen, you have captured the love and devotion between Sam and Angie perfectly…the bond we share with our beloved best friends is unparalleled. So glad you have these wonderful pictures into their lives together for Angie to cherish 🐾💕

Don F Some fantastic shots of a beautiful dog, but I know they are so much more than just pictures to Angie. Just wonderful.

Elisa Becker Gorgeous pictures of a beautiful dog. Our time with our beloved dogs is never long enough. So very sorry for your loss Angie. It looks like you and Sam had a very special relationship.

Krista Kersh These photos of dear Samantha are lovely indeed! I first saw Samantha many years ago when we would come to Telluride with our first Golden, Emmitt, and I loved watching her and Angie along the river trail. Then, as the years wore on, our new boy, Finn, would come to Telluride and Sam and Angie were still there and we became friends. My heart goes out to Angie because I know Sam was her everything. That said, Samantha lives forever in Angie’s heart and is beautifully immortalized in these stunningly touching photos…gorgeous work, Jen. Samantha was a beauty. RIP sweet golden girl xo.

Carol What a beautiful girl…and what beautiful memories you made together. Try to fill the hole she has left in your heart with all the love she gave you throughout her life.
You’ll be together again at the Bridge. Hugs and prayers to you.

Randy Hicks A highlight of our trips to Telluride was always bumping into Sam and Angie on the trail with our boy Emmitt and later with Finn. Sam’s beautiful spirit is captured in these photos as is the love between the two blondes and fun at the swimming hole too. A life too short but Heaven could not be sweeter.

Cindy Beautiful tribute to a wonderful team, Angie and Sam. I know these photos will provide some comfort. Well done

Heidi Christmann Such an incredibly beautiful tribute for your beautiful friend. Her eyes were filled with love and excitement to be doing her favorite things. Hope she is swimming and digging for rocks at the bridge <3!

Cecil Very touched, such beautiful pictures of a special love. You did the best of the best with this tribute Jen.

Jeanne Allen Such beautiful photos of this lovely girl. I hope these photos will eventually help you remember her with mostly smiles for all the years you shared together.

Christy Burch How lovely that your camera can capture the heart & soul of one of the planet’s greatest creatures. Love this!

The last of the leaves

Sadly, many of my fall dog photography sessions in Telluride were with tourists, and we were rained out for most of them.  River’s session was flexible even though her owner lives about 6 hours away, but Telluride weather never seems to cooperate, and although we thought we were going to have a sunny day, it was extremely overcast.  I haven’t been good about keeping the blog up to date, but River (yes, another Flat-Coated Retriever), deserves a mention.  She was the opposite of what I expected, especially since I had met her before….I am pretty sure her mom wore her out on a hike earlier in the day (even when I told her specifically NOT to wear her out!), and River decided this day was the day to pretend she was totally deaf.   😉  So, what I expected would be easy turned into one of my hardest sessions I have ever had.  Regardless, I think there were some beautiful photos, with stunning colors and a lovely black dog.   Meet River, all the way from from Colorado Springs!

 She has a very pretty natural stack.  After staring at the sky and waiting for the big, dark cloud to move so that the sun could shine, we gave up and let River head to the water and kick up her heels.    She didn’t mind the lack of sun one bit!
Miraculously, while River was busy playing, the sun broke through for a few brief moments!  River chose this moment to blatantly ignore her owner’s calls, ignore me throwing rocks and making any animal noise I could think of, and basically pretended neither of us existed.
“The sun is shining?  Who cares, there might be fish down here!”
I was shocked and surprised to find wildflowers among the changing leaves  – a rare sight in October!


She’s good at stalking….

We finally gave up altogether on the sun, and took the gondola to the top of the mountain to check out the views.


River posing with the Telluride Airport behind her (top right).   Believe me, it isn’t for the faint of heart.  🙂
Enjoying the view….just like we were.Suddenly, she was full of sass, even in the thin air at 10,000 feet! A little wide angle view ….Thank you Honey for bringing River for a session, she is an absolute sweetie, and I think we made the best of the afternoon despite all of our obstacles!  So glad you enjoyed your time here (and I know River did)!  Give her a cookie from me and hope to see you both again soon.  Willa misses her new best girlfriend.  🙂

Carolyn Beautiful photos. Both the dog and the scenery.

Don F If you hadn’t mentioned that conditions weren’t right, we never would have noticed. This is a great bunch of photos of a really photogenic River. As always, I love water-frolic-pics, but the beauty shots are spectacular as well.

Toni Freeman The fall colors are absolutely gorgeous, as is your Flatcoat subject. You are so good at capturing the expression and personality of our solid black beauties!

Krista Kersh In spite of what you describe as less than perfect conditions, these photos of River are positively lovely! As usual, a beautiful photo shoot of a beautiful girl. Love that River girl ❤

Oreo-e-o!

It’s been a while!  I’ve been remiss at keeping the blog up to date, but I have to take the time to do a special entry….meet Oreo!  When Ethan, Oreo’s owner sees this post, it will be a complete surprise, and I hope a good one.  Ethan’s friend contacted me about photographing Oreo on her way back to Colorado Springs from California, ultimately deciding to detour to Telluride in order to get the photo session done while he was deployed.  Oreo is twelve years old and a cattle dog mixed with….who knows what!?  But she certainly doesn’t act like she is twelve, and was really fun to work with despite the weather not being entirely cooperative, and the river being a muddy mess.  Hello, Oreo!

Looking lovely with Ingram Falls in the distance….
And I’m just loving her ears in this shot on the bridge.  
We had to really explore to find some interesting places to photograph…I rely heavily on the river being clear and pretty, but we had very hot days with heavy snowmelt, so anything involving the river was not an option.  But who would have thought that dandelions gone to seed could be so pretty?
As you can see, Oreo still has PLENTY of spunk left at the age of twelve.  It’s just a number, after all!A close up for the pretty model!
And a super-duper close up.  You have to embrace the grey!  Look at those gorgeous eyes….
We took a little drive in search of some flowers….and struck gold!

Check out the look….I have PLENTY of these, by the way.  She was a bit silly and liked giving me goofy expressions.
Nothing like running through the mountains….
But a gal has to stop occasionally for a beauty shot.  🙂
So regal!And, saving one of my favorite photos for last, Oreo sassing off.  Yep, we hear you!

I’m so glad the timing worked out to get this done – I think you were in town for all of four hours!  I’m also thankful that although it was cloudy most of the time, we didn’t have rain.  I hope you enjoyed your surprise, Ethan!  You certainly have a really amazing friend – and an amazing dog as well!  And no, I couldn’t help myself but to call her “Oreo-e-o….” over and over…it’s rather addictive.  😉

Kasey Carlisle Beautiful pictures of a sweet girl! Her funny personality is captured perfectly. Ethan, you are a lucky owner to have such a great dog!

Elisa Becker Wow! What a wonderful surprise. Ethan you are one lucky guy. I am sure you will treasure these amazing photos of your beautiful friend, Oreo, forever. I LOVE the picture of Oreo jumping for joy where her ears are straight up in the air. Enjoy!!

Don Freeman I don’t know whether I like the feet off the ground or the “talking” shots better. Either way, she certainly belongs in front of a camera. What a great session with a beautiful subject.

Otis’ mom She has such a sweet, soulful face! Love love the photo of her jumping with her ears flying too. Great photos, Jen, and an even better story about cute Oreo!

Carolyn These are beautiful even without a clear river. I love the spunky ones in the dandelion puffs! She looks like quite the character. And what a wonderful surprise.

Krista Kersh Oh, wow!!! Not only is Oreo the cutest girl ever but, these photos are really great!
I love that you captured this girl and her obvious personality but, also, the beauty of Telluride. I would love to meet Oreo 🙂

Beeg! ~ (Telluride Dog Photography)

Interestingly,  everyone assumes winter sessions aren’t as good as summer sessions or fall sessions.  I suppose of course, that it depends if your dog likes the snow.  I personally love the contrast of blue sky and snow, with textures of pines trees, aspens if we shoot in the woods, or the reflection of dogs and nature in the frozen river if we shoot in town.   I have a lot of people say they want a winter session, and then never book one.  In my opinion it’s worth it if you love the mountains.  If your dog is a snow dog.  If you want those memories.  Beeg LOVES snow, she will just run ahead and plop down in a pile of fresh powder and wait for you.  Pounce on invisible creatures under the snow.   Hanging out with a dog that loves snow just makes you happy.

I am sure everyone is thinking that must be the weirdest name EVER.   Beeg is a nickname for her real name, Baby Girl….shortened to B.G…..which then became Beeg.  All I can say is that I don’t know any other dog with the same name, and that is a GOOD thing!   She was a rescue, and went through some phases of shyness, oh…somewhat inappropriate behavior, lets say….but is now a fabulous and charming dog with a happy expression, mellow attitude, but a fondness of chasing snowballs.  Meet Beeg!

I photographed Beeg at the end of the day, and noticed we were losing the sun quite quickly behind some clouds, so worked fast to get some blue sky action photos.  She happily obliged.

…AND I can run that way, too!
And I can catch snowballs for you!
I am never happy to lose blue sky.  But I couldn’t complain about the diffused light of the sun setting behind the clouds, turning everything shades of blue and gold.

Abrupt stop!!!  Check out the snow spray to the left of her.  🙂Beeg is pretty mellow but Lauren was throwing snowballs at her…which she LOVED.
I think her fabulous tail is the best thing about her….but her ears are a close second.

Thanks Lauren for letting me photograph your baby girl.  Glad we had such a gorgeous day, I hope we see you on the trails soon!  And for everyone thinking of a winter session…do it soon.  I have limited sessions left until the mountain closes, and then I won’t pick up my camera again til June.  Plus…the conditions are fantastic this year!  To view more winter sessions, simply go to the home page, click on “categories” and then “winter”.

Carolyn These are beautiful. She is so pretty as is the scenery.

Don Fantastic session. She has a wonderfully intense expression, especially when catching projectiles…my favorite shots, BTW.

Julia and Delilah ~ (Telluride Dog Photography)

After the chaos of travel and then the holiday season at the store, we are going to jump straight from the deep greens of Clipper and Eilin’s summer session to the earthy tones of fall.  HUGE changes happen in such a short period of time!  Julia and Delilah are from California, but after a nose work camp in the Denver area, their mom decided to detour down to Telluride for (literally) half a day for a photo session.  I don’t think I have ever harassed anyone as much as I did Elisa for not staying in town more than 5 hours….there is just way too much to see and do!  The weather wasn’t 100% cooperative with me, but the dogs were naturals, so that more than made up for it.  Meet Julia, a nine year old Lab, and Delilah, a two year old terrier mix, who was quite the pistol.


You can tell Delilah is the boss….but Julia doesn’t seem to mind.  Here’s the sassy girl, wanting to follow in her big sister’s retrieving footsteps, but not so sure about that cold river water!

SMILE!!!!

Loving her bumper from Mountain Tails.  
I have to say, I do think she likes to show off.  More of that later.  🙂
Julia is quite the pretty girl.  Ask her to pose, and you will get ZERO results.  Let her do her own thing, and wowza!  Hello Beautiful!

You have to include a good shake shot….

She has Delilah’s puppy bumper here….and meanwhile Delilah was playing with Julia’s large size bumper.  Silly dogs….
She is a tad ball obsessed….
Here is the true nature of Delilah.  Terrier on springs.  I could have photographed her all day, she wanted to leap over anything that other dogs would have just run through, no encouragement necessary.  She made me laugh, and I love that she stole Julia’s big girl bumper for this first photo.
Leaving you with some images of true sisters….often I saw them mimicking exact body postures…again totally unposed.  As different as they are, they are very bonded.  Thanks Elisa for coming all the way down to Telluride, and I hope to see you again so you can actually enjoy the town!

Carolyn Great captures Jen. Love all of the 4 off the floor shots of Delilah. I also love the posturing shots of them together. Pretty amazing.

Don Some of the best action shots ever! I always love the water-shaking, but Delilah with her toy, a dog’s length off the ground is maybe the best.

F A C E B O O K