Photography Thoughts & Stories from Tucson
My Dog Has Issues. Is a Photo Session Even Realistic?
A rescue dog "with issues" tells me almost nothing about how a session will go. I need to know what sets your dog off and where they feel comfortable. Here is what I ask before we shoot, and how we plan the session around the answers.
When the Pose Followed the Dog: HSSA Editorial Staff Headshots in Tucson
Three days after a test session with one dog, I rebuilt my mobile studio at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona for a full day of editorial staff portraits. The lighting and backgrounds stayed consistent. The poses did not. Every dog had a different currency, and the pose followed the dog.
Before Portrait Day: Planning Editorial Staff Headshots for HSSA in Tucson
People come to Tucson to learn animal welfare work. When HSSA asked me to photograph a new series of editorial staff portraits, we spent almost no time talking about cameras. We talked about where the photographs would end up. Then a dog named Sparky arrived and rearranged everything I thought I had settled.
So You Got a New Puppy. Photograph the First Year Before It Disappears.
The ears that looked too large on Monday somehow fit better by Friday. Your phone will hold thousands of photographs by your puppy's first birthday, and almost none of them will be the ones you frame. Why the first year is three different dogs, and when to photograph each one.
I Have 4,000 Photos of My Dog. Why Would I Hire a Professional Photographer?
You have 4,000 photos of your dog on your phone. So does Michael Kloth. Here is what a professional session adds that Portrait Mode cannot, and when your phone is enough.
Can a Photographer Make You Look Better Without Making You Look Fake?
You want a headshot that looks better than your casual photos, not one that looks like a stranger. There is a real difference between flattering and fake, and it matters the moment you walk into the meeting. Here is how I make a Tucson portrait that still looks like you.
Can You Edit Out a Leash?
Can you edit out a leash?" Yes. And keep it on. Pima County requires it, my contract expects it, and sometimes I'm the one who asks for the leash. Before and after portraits of Stella and Basil, two PACC dogs photographed a decade apart, show how routine the edit really is.
Is a Professional Headshot Worth It If You Only Need LinkedIn?
An AI headshot costs $29 and might fool a recruiter completely. But LinkedIn has a rule about what your photo has to be, and it is not really about detection. It is about trust, the same trust that governs your work history and your degrees. Here's what that means for what you pay for.
A Few Tools to Help You Plan, Before We Ever Talk
Most free tools on a photographer's site are bait for your inbox. These three are not. One reads your pet before the session, one takes the dread out of a headshot, and one shows a print on your own wall at true size. No signup, no catch, and no funnel waiting on the other side.
Should I Groom My Dog the Day of, or Will He Look Too Groomed?
Bad haircuts have derailed more than a few pet sessions. Before you book a groom, ask yourself: does your dog look like himself the day he comes home, or does it take a week? The answer changes everything about when to schedule. Here's how to think it through.
Unseen: Pacific Northwest
Three years in the Columbia Basin with an infrared-modified camera, learning a landscape that didn't behave. From the wide basin views to the agricultural images made just before leaving, this series records two completely different relationships to the same high desert landscape: the work of arrival, and the work of departure.
Watermark Corporate Session
Twenty-one headshots in three hours at a Tucson foothills location with two lighting setups running simultaneously — indoor studio and outdoor with the Santa Catalinas in frame. The session went well. There's one decision I'd make differently, and it has nothing to do with the results.
The Patience Transfer
The same instincts I've built over twenty years photographing shelter animals, knowing when to wait, when to move, and when to let silence work, turn out to be exactly what executive portraits require. The nervous executive and the frightened shelter dog are solving the same problem.
You Just Graduated. Here's the One Thing Missing From Your LinkedIn.
You spent four years earning credentials. Your LinkedIn photo is still a cropped image from someone's going-away party. Before your job search gets serious, here's what a professional portrait session actually looks like, and why it matters more than most new grads expect.
Making Up for Lost Time:
X-rays at intake told part of Angel's story. A stray found in Marana, she arrived at HSSA carrying more history than anyone expected. What happened on a sunny Oro Valley porch a month after her adoption tells the rest.
The Graduation Gift That Actually Helps Them Get Hired
Your graduate worked hard to get here. A professional portrait session is the gift that keeps working after the ceremony ends, helping them show up prepared on LinkedIn, in job applications, and anywhere a first impression happens before a handshake.
From the Parking Lot to the OR:
The morning plan was simple: exterior shots, studio portraits, then documentary work inside the clinic. Then a dog got loose in the parking lot. What happened next covers five hours, a surgical suite, and more than I can count.
When There Isn't Much Time Left
Three dogs. Three families. Three sessions with a fixed horizon. Charlie could only walk in circles. Chowder spent his last morning at the park he loved. Jersey Girl wore a flower crown. None of them are here anymore. Their photographs are.
Where Photography Takes You: Inside Tucson Medical Center's Operating Rooms
A camera opens doors you never expect to walk through. Operating rooms at Tucson Medical Center. Robotic surgery suites. Pediatric recovery rooms. Each place taught me something different about photography and reminded me that the most useful lessons often come from the strangest assignments.
Capturing Pet Memories in Tucson
You know the photo. You took it last fall, caught your pet at exactly the right moment. Finding it again is another matter entirely. There's a reason a fine art print on your wall does something a camera roll never quite manages. Here's what a session designed around that outcome looks like.