Who’s adorable? Julio!
Who’s super sweet? Julio’s mama Suzanne!
Who had Suzanne and me laughing non-stop? Julio!
Julio, or as I like to call him “hooley-booley” just has this big goofy grin. He’s cute, but has no idea just how cute he really is! He walks around with an unassuming attitude, always content to just be. If only we all could have such a satisfied and grateful demeanor!
I first met the Jules (pronounced like jewls, but “h” instead of “j”) in 2013 at a charity dog wash for the Coalition to Unchain Dogs at Dogtopia in Raleigh! Julio came in right before another pair of Blue Heelers and all three looked so much alike that I had a hard time making sure I was editing the right photos for each dog!
Julio was found as a stray. Suzanne adopted him from the Wake County Animal Shelter. She emailed me in January with the news that her sweet 14 year old had been diagnosed with a slow-growing nasal tumor. She was a little apprehensive about setting up a shoot in part because she felt like she was acknowledging that his time might be near. After a nice long talk on the phone with a few tears (on my part…I swear I usually hold it together!) and a lot of laughs, we had talked all about Julio and planned our session! Two weather delays later, we had the most beautiful blue skies and crisp spring air for our shoot! It was worth the wait! I did a good bit of work to remove tear stains under Julio’s eyes during the editing process since they had just recently appeared and weren’t the “true” Julio look. I designed an album for Suzanne and after some back and forth, we were able to decide on a special photo for an 11×14 for her walls. Her mom was also super anxious to have some photos of her grand dog to show off as well!
I dare you to look at Julio’s sweet face and not giggle with joy! Oooooo I just want to squeeze him!
Here is what Suzanne had to say about her experience and her products:
“I want to thank you again for the beautiful photography you do. I’m so happy with the photo book and the 11 x 14. When I took the 11 x 14 out from its gorgeous box (what a great presentation!), I had to laugh because you captured Julio so perfectly, It was like I was seeing the picture for the first time. And the minute I took the photo book out and looked at the cover, I cried. It is so beautiful. I cried and laughed my way through the book and love the way the quotes match up so well with the pictures. Thank you also for the adorable keychain! Now when I want to show someone what Julio looks like, I don’t have to fumble with my phone to find a picture of him. And I now have these precious pictures of my boy that I can look back on in the future. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
