Susan Schmitz – Owner/Lead Photographer

I've always had a love for animals and art. It wasn't until I hit my mid-life crisis (Well, maybe it was a 1/3 life crisis... I'm still young... most days) and I moved to Sedona that I was actually moved to explore my artistic side.

I just started taking photos as a reference for my drawings & paintings. Then I started to appreciate the instant gratification of a photo. Once I learned Photoshop, the geeky-techy side of me was completely hooked! I found the perfect blend of personal interests; dogs, photography and technology. And from this merger, A Dog's Life Photography was born... and so was I.

Laura Sand – Photographer/Account Executive

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had three loves in my life… music, animals and photography. The first memory I have of taking pictures was when I was about six years old. I would run around my house and back yard taking pictures of all the things that I loved…my parents, my brother, my cat… well mostly my cat. The first memory I have of listening to music was the same year, although there is photographic evidence of me grooving to tunes through headphones before the age of two.

I’ve learned that life is very short and you only get one shot at it. I’ve followed my dream to a place that I never knew was possible. I met Susan in prison! Ok, let me clarify… it was the greyhound prison program’s graduation day and we were both there for the celebration. We clicked immediately and she began teaching me the ropes from the very first moment. The rest… as they say… is history.

I Shoot Humans

Saturday, July 18, 2009

That title sound good does it? I can only imagine what kind of characters I am going to get visiting my site through a Google search.

It didn’t sound that great either when I was checking out at Target and asked the cashier if she thought that a 9 month old baby would fit in the big cooking pot I was buying. She was almost going to call for security until I explained to her that it was just a photo prop.

I was just at a Pictage users group gathering last night and the topic was about branding your image and figuring out what type of business you want to run without running off into a million different directions. The speaker was Rachael Earl of “My Camera Loves You“. She did a great job. It got me thinking about not doing any more marketing of services besides dog photography. Then I started editing these photos of this ADORABLE little boy named Etai and my heart just melted.

So, I decided that there’s not way I can stop “shooting humans”. I get so much joy out of creating something fun and unique with baby photos. (See the “How to make a bubble bath in Photoshop” post for a quick tutorial).