I have completely neglecting our blog. Its one of those things I keep meaning to sort out but there are soooo many other things that distract me!
It is hard running your own business especially when you are trying to build it from scratch. Multiple social media channels, events, emails, marketing, shoots, editing, training, planning, location scouting, networking. On top of that trying to fit in plenty of time with Olive, keep fit and have a bit of a social life.
So I thought I would start from scratch and use this as a fresh introduction to us. Also to give a round up of what’s been going at Olive Paw Photography.
Im Dave and this is Olive, and together we are Olive Paw Photography. A man and dog team offering bespoke professional dog photography experiences in the natural beauty of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks.
Based at the foot of the Howgill fells in the beautiful market town of Sedbergh, just off J37 of the M6.
From here we have access to a plethora of absolutely stunning locations. Kendal, Kirkby Lonsdale, Barbon, Penrith, appleby, ingleton, ambleside, Kirkby Stephen, Arnside to name but a few!
Over the past few years we have had the pleasure of working with such an amazing range of dogs (and owners) and working with some amazing charities and businesses - St Johns Hospice, Animal Rescue Cumbria, Lake District Hotels, Eden Animal Rescue, The Doghouse in Kendal, Juno and co, Happy tails dog groomers and Doggy styling grooming parlour.
I am constantly working to improve not only my skills as a photographer, but also to improve the experience for you and your pooch to fulfil my goal of offering a friendly, bespoke and professional dog photography service to give every dog owner the chance to create and capture memories that will last a lifetime.
Olive oversees EVERYTHING. Lady Olive (as she is also known) has to have a paw in every decision and comes up with all of our offers throughout the year. She’s a very generous lady who loves people and dogs and if you have the opportunity to meet her you will see for yourself. One advanced warning though, she doesn’t know the meaning of personal space!
Partnerships
Last year Olive had the idea of a “spread the love offer” with the aim of helping her four pawed friends who were searching for their forever homes. As we are already recognised as an official partner of Animal Rescue Cumbria, we ran an offer where if you donated to them, we would gift you with a FREE professional dog photography experience. It went really well so we used the same format later in the year but this time you had to donate the same amount to Eden Animal Rescue. By the end of the year we managed to donate about £1000 in total! We will be running similar offers throughout this year to help our rescuer friends!
This year we are once again working with Eden Animal Rescue collating images for there charity calendar. Dave has already had a few site visits, meeting the animals and getting some cool photographs of as many as he can. We are now nearly ready to send the final selection over to Cerberus Printing in Kirkby Stephen!
We are very excited to be working with Lake District Hotels as well this year! On the 19th July we are running a charity Pup Up Studio to raise money and awareness for the Keswick Youth Centre. The event will take place at the Back Bar in Keswick (just behind the Inn on the Square). Grab yourself a beautiful portrait of your pooch and help a local charity…whats not to love! Places are limited so book your spot here - https://www.tickettailor.com/events/innonthesquare/1255998
Check out all of the local businesses we have worked with -
Training
I spend a great deal of my time learning and training not only in Photography, but also business. I have an amazing mentor and feel very lucky to be part of one of the very best if not THE BEST continual professional development programs in the photographic industry. My mentor is the legendary Damian Mcgillicuddy and his knowledge is mind blowing. Whereas some ‘mentors’ teach you how to create carbon copies of their work, Damian teaches us how to use all elements of photography to create our own unique images to the very highest professional standards.
There is so much to learn and anyone that ever says they no everything, is talking rubbish. I am constantly learning new techniques, improving the quality of not just my photography but the experience I give to my clients. It means so much to me that YOU and Your pooch have a great time as well as love the final images.
Shoots
Last year was a busy year! I had shoots all over the county and a few further a field in Manchester and Scotland. Some old favourite locations but quite a few new ones. I always love visiting a new place and weirdly enjoy the pressure of not knowing what to expect other than a google maps satellite view. What generally happens once I’ve got a few images in camera is I get completely carried away and the shot ideas keep flowing! But what this does for you, the client (or soon to be client, wink wink nudge nudge) is it gives you plenty of variation in your final collection of images.
We have been up on the top of fells as the wild Cumbrian weather shines sunlight down on us whilst 3 miles away its chucking it down. We have photographed in the snowdrops, daffodils, bluebells, heather, in the leaves of autumn and the wild flowers of summer. We’ve been in the woodlands, in the rivers, on the fells, at farms, in castles, in gardens and orchards!
Where would you like your dog photography experience?
Events
Last year we decided to increase the number of events we attended.
Eden Animal Rescue open day - on site
Eden Animal Rescue dog show -Hutton in the forest
The Venue - Kendal
Arnside summer market - Arnside
Kendal Calling - Eden Animal Rescue
J36 Xmas market - Crooklands
Kirkby xmas market - Kirkby Lonsdale
Deck the Howls - Lake District hotels, Keswick
Eden Animal Rescue dog show was brilliant. The weather was incredible and Olive got to come and supervise. I had the Pup up studio set up outside in a little gazebo and managed to donate over £250 to Eden Animal Rescue. I also got to meet so many lovely dogs and their owners.
The venue in Kendal is a great spot and the event was so well organised by shop small events. Again we had the Pup Up Studio set up on the stage area . We had loads of dogs attend and provided a great deal of entertainment for all the other stall holders!
To finish the year off in style was Kirkby Lonsdale Xmas market. This time the Pup up Studio had a real festive theme and again we met loads of pups and their owners. I love attending this market because there is such a festive vibe throughout the whole town. This year it was UNBELIEVABLY COLD! Im talking sub zero for most of the wknd. The Saturday was a lot quieter than previous years because there was about 12 inches of snow that fell throughout the Lake District which caused absolute chaos over the whole wknd.
2024
So far this year we have attended Endmoor Spring market and The Venue. Both were organised by the amazing Mia and jess from Events by Shop Small.
Endmoor spring market was great fun! Our stall was perfectly positioned next to The Beach hut from Arnside so some spectacular cakes were at arms reach!
We were back at The Venue in Kendal for the second year running with Shop small events. This was a great day! Live music, a bar, loads of tasty food (sweet and savoury), some amazing crafts and artwork and we had our Pup Up Studio set up ready for live portraits!
If you missed us at the venue, these are the events we will be attending over the next 6 weeks .
23rd June - Scruffs dog show - Fitz park, Keswick featuring our Pup Up Studio
7th July - Junction 36 summer market
19th July - Charity Pup Up Studio - The Back Bar, Keswick - https://www.tickettailor.com/events/innonthesquare/1255998
26th, 27th, 28th July - Beetham Nurseries Summer Festival - Featuring our Pup Up Studio
There will be more dates announced and plenty of offers throughout the year so keep your eyes peeled, follow us on social and get yourself signed up to our mailing list!
If you have got this far, thank you!
We hope to see you and your pooch very soon!
Dave and Olive.
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