A few of my End of Life Sessions last year
The last year has been an incredible one, with me focusing on dog end of life or rainbow sessions. I’ve had the honor of meeting so many amazing dogs and their family. It has awed and humbled me, as well as helped confirm I am on the exact right path for me. I wanted to briefly mention a few of them that really stood out to me, a little bit of a spotlight on them specifically. It’s hard to explain the emotions and power these dog rainbow sessions have, but I want to try!
Bo: This was such a whirlwind day. I woke up to an email from Bo’s owners saying he had crashed and had his appointment to cross the bridge later that afternoon. I hurried and rescheduled my morning and met them at the Middleburg Community Center a few hours after I’d read the email. Bo was such a sweet boy and man did his parents love him so much. He was very tired, so we only met for about 20 minutes. I was able to get a really beautiful gallery with some deeply emotional photos that still make me choke up. .


Zoey: I had a client recommend me on a Northern Virginia Ladies group for having done a rainbow session with her dog earlier that year. Zoey’s mom emailed me and we met later that week. She was such a sweet girl and so devoted to her girl, Maggie. It was quite incredible to watch her struggle to walk over to her girls; she wanted to be close to them at all times. Maggie and Zoey would spend a lot of time snuggling together, so I made sure that we got an image of Maggie kissing Zoey’s head, and it has become one of my very favorite photos I’ve taken.


Otis: Otis was the first dog rainbow session I did in 2024. I met the Harvey’s in a new location in Clarke County that I hadn’t used yet and it turned out so beautiful. Otis was the definition of a potato when he was in his mom’s arms. My favorite photo from this session was when I was zoomed in to get his face details. He was looking at Callie, and you can see her reflection in his eye.


Sophie: Oh goodness I loved Sophie. She had an oral tumor and had gone through a really rough round of chemo recently. She was SO SPUNKY. Her parents called her a “petulant princess” and it was the perfect description. I fell in love with her immediately. Even with the cold and a bit of snow, we got some incredible photos, the sunset really showed up that day. A few of my absolute favorites are from Sophie’s session, they are gut wrenching and full of emotion.


The last session I’ll mention today (I still have quite a few I want to briefly talk about!) is of Daisy. She was probably my first “official” rainbow session, before I knew a name for what I was doing. Daisy owned one of my very good friends and fellow photographer Ashley. Daisy was a social media queen, and had so very many photos of her having wonderful adventures and going on lots of car rides. Her mom mentioned she wanted some photos of her before she passed, as she had a very aggressive tumor in her eye. I jumped at the chance since I’d done a lot of dog photography before. We just had a little mini session, but I love how they came out. Daisy and Ashley, in many ways, helped push me to find my niche and bring my passion for photography back. I’m so glad that I met Daisy (she was such an amazing girl; I loved getting to feed her French fries!) and will be forever grateful that she helped me find my path.

