When you have a little, old dog whose routine is tv and couch time in the evenings, it’s hard to leave the house after dinner, so I haven’t… in a looooong time.
So, with some good friends coming over to make sure Mr Coco got his evening cuddle time in, I walked out into the dark evening.
The event?
Our friend Grant had brought his Grant Lawrence & Friends: An Evening of Story & Song to town, and he’d asked two of the members of one of my favourite bands, BUM, to play a couple songs. 

We've known Grant since the early 90's because Rob (my husband) and Andrew's band BUM used to play with the band Grant was in, The Smugglers. Neither band is playing these days, but the bond that was forged amongst smoke-filled bars and a type of #vanlife that would make current social media van-lifers run screaming into a picturesque sunset from their bathroom & kitchen fitted, custom, cozy home on wheels, has kept those friendships going.

Grant is an incredibly engaging storyteller and his subjects this evening ranged from musicians to BC Ferries line ups and the cast of characters he’s met growing up in Desolation Sound. Peppered throughout the storytelling his ‘friends’ at this show were singer/songwriters Joel Plaskett, Ashleigh Ball and Lindsay Bryan, as well as Rob and Andrew from BUM. 

All of the performances were so beautiful and heartfelt and the evening ended with a sing along of Joel Plasket's song, Hey Moon.

I spent most of the magical evening watching from the sidelines and exploring backstage… here’s a snippet of what I saw.

To see where Grant's playing next: https://grantlawrence.ca/events

I usually photograph other people's dogs, but I recently took some time to photograph our Mr Coco. 

Being 14 and basically blind and deaf, I've been meaning to get some portraits of him because I know all too well, time isn't always on our side. Plus, he's not a superfan of my camera, it's easy to put off.

But I've been doing more palliative pet photo sessions lately so I figured if all went well, it would be a chance to work on the photo I wanted for our wall, as well as be a bit of an experiment -- to see if I could capture him as I do for other people's pets.

It was just me and him in the studio, and if I'm being honest, it was kinda tough.
Partially because he's not really comfortable in my studio anymore. He used to love it because he'd get treats and had a special bed, but that's no longer enough and it's now just kinda confusing for him. And he doesn't like the slippery paper of the backdrop so he didn't want to stand on it for very long.

And all that got me thinking...

Am I capturing him how I see him? Like really see him? Or am I capturing some other, more fearful part of him? Do others see him as I do, or how he appears in the photos? Are those the same thing? Is he enjoying this in any way?

And that led me to ponder... 
Do I capture other people's pets as they see them? How much do other people want to see their pets as I see them?

Really, this experience opened a bit of a can of worms in my brain, but at the end of the day, that's part of what being an artist is. There's self doubt, there are questions that may never be answered, but I know this: 1) I love photographing pets, including my own, and 2) I consider it an honour to be able to share someone's pets through my lens and my eyes.

So, here are a few more photos from my session with our Mr Coco.
Thanks for stopping by, ~w