FAQ

If your pets are family, your everything, and likely one of the most important living things you love in your life, you’ll want to hire someone who shares in the same feelings and truly understands how much you love them. Working closely with rescue groups for the past 13 years, there’s not a behavior I’ve not seen and worked with, and my ability to work with animals and bring out their personalities is incomparable. I will work closely with you and in great detail to understand your vision and how that will work best with the individual personalities of each of your pets, creating one-of-a- kind images and an experience you will LOVE! 

While my travels take me just about anywhere there are pets and beautiful scenery, I split my “home” time between San Diego, California, and Surf Pines/Sunset Beach, Oregon. 

If you’re looking to do a photo session between June and September, come on up to the beautiful PNW! That’s when we have the most sunshine and perfect temps for outdoor shoots, and I’ll spend a good block of time up there.... with a couple visits back to San Diego in the summer months. For late September through mid December sessions and again in the spring, my sessions will be in San Diego and other areas of Southern California and beyond! 

During my road trips between Oregon and California, I also stop in many cities to and from, so watch for my Road Trip fundraisers and On Tour travels to see when I’ll be conducting pop-up fundraisers (for local rescues) and private sessions in your town! Interested in having me travel through your town? Reach out - if there’s enough interest, I will make your town part of my road-trip route!

Short answer - Not at all! 

Sunsets Unleashed came to life as it was essentially the core of combining the things I’m most passionate about — dogs, beaches, sunsets and photography! Since I live near the harbor and several dog-friendly beaches, I built my portfolio practicing on my own dogs, friends’ dogs, and hundreds of dogs for local rescue groups. It’s a style of photography that I loved creating from the very beginning. 

Fast forward to recent years, I have the honor of being hired to do the same for pet parents all over the map! While the beach-sunset style is my specialty and the most requested type of session, many sessions are not at the beach or anywhere near water. On-location sessions are scheduled for the last two hours before sunset (unless we’re shooting on an overcast day), and I will customize your session to create images from a location where your pet is comfortable, happy .... and hopefully where there’s a beautiful scenic backdrop!

On-location sessions are held at local beaches, parks, trails, iconic buildings, murals, and the like. For indoor studio sessions, they are held at my in-home studios in San Diego, California and Surf Pines, Oregon. Lifestyle sessions are held in your home and/or office where you “lifestyle” takes place! For some commercial clients, I rent professional studio space when needed. For ill or elderly pets, I come to you and photograph your pet in your home or in your yard.

Yes, I can absolutely photograph your dog while he/she is on leash. Many of the images of dogs in my portfolio were photographed while on leash. I will direct and guide you on how to help me with getting them in the right positions as well as work on some candid shots on leash. Leashes are removed in post-processing/editing. 

If the weather isn’t cooperating, we will reschedule your session at no additional charge. I spend a lot of time watching weather patterns for coastal San Diego and Oregon, but even then, sometimes we just have to move things to a different date. For clients wishing for a SUNSET session, I pay close attention to things like heavy marine layer/clouds and fog as well as tidal reports. Sometimes we have to move the session more inland and away from the coast to try and get an actual sunset; other times ... we just reschedule. For clients traveling a far distance, I will also try and keep the next day or two open/available in case we have to try for better weather the next day.

Absolutely! While the majority of the session will be focused on getting great images of your pet(s), I always encourage you to join in on a few of the images so that you’ll have those to treasure as well! If you’re looking to have the majority of your images focused on your human family, I will recommend a couple of my favorite family photographers for hire who will gladly allow your pet to be in a few of the images.

While I’ve structured my collections to always have a tangible product for you to have forever (and that I’m sure you’re going to LOVE), you will also get the web-sized images for sharing. In addition, you can purchase high-res digital files a la carte in groups of 3 or 5.