. . .

two photographers.

six days.

2,302 miles.

one rollerskate car.

sixteen great danes.

two bernese mountain dogs.

one wire haired dachshund.

This is probably bound to be the longest blog post I’ve ever shared. Sorry ’bout it 🙂

My dear friend Jesse accompanied me for this whirlwind trip, and I’m so glad she did! We had such a blast. The initial reason for the trip was for me to do a mentorship with the talented Barbara Breitsameter of Poppy Blue Photography. I also happen to have an amazing network of Great Dane friends through Facebook, so I was able to make plans to visit and photograph FIVE Dane families! So cool to meet all of these online friends in person and the wonderful dogs that I read about and see photos of all the time.

Disclaimer: This blog post is a mixture of iPhone photos & ‘big girl camera’ photos 🙂 

So, let’s begin at the beginning. If you have a dog, and you’ve ever taken a trip, you know that feeling you get that they KNOW you’re about to leave them? Emmet was like velcro for about a week before I left. He followed me around, posed by my new suitcase, and refused to come inside while I packed. (At least he let me use his bed in the office, what a kind fellow.)

We left early on a Sunday morning, and it turns out that in the middle of February, any plane from Pittsburgh to Florida will probably be full of people ages 99+. I learned that “Snow Birds” is an actual term. And, they make nice travel companions 😉

We flew into Fort Myers, and upon our arrival (after a super WINDY landing, and just a small panic attack on my part) we set out to pick up our rental car. I had reserved a 2- or 4- door sedan, and the conversation with the rental car desk attendant went a little something like this:

attendant: so, do you want the insurance package?

me: no thanks.

attendant: how about the optional XYZ bundle?

me: nah, that’s okay.

attendant: so, I’m guessing you don’t want to upgrade your car, either?

me: nope… it’s a 2- or 4- door sedan, right? 

attendant: it has four doors.

me: is it super tiny or something?

attendant: *smirks* it has four doors.

We cracked up when we were approaching the car in the lot of numbered spots, and I pointed it out to Jesse. It was parked between two Mustangs, and I said, “that’s our car,” while she legitimately refused to believe me and thought I was kidding.

Have you ever driven in a roller skate? It’s kiiiinda fun 😉 At one point we parked next to a Kia Soul – yes, the hamster car – and it was HUGE compared to this funny little Nissan Versa.

(the second of these photos is from later in our trip when we made one of the larger Great Danes we met pose with us and our roller skate car.)

Our first day consisted of Moe’s for a small lunch (yum!), a bit of exploring, and dinner at Ford’s Garage in Fort Myers. I’m not much of a burger fan, but these were so good!

My mentorship was in the Naples/Cape Coral area. We started early Monday morning, and I mean early! During the whole trip, we didn’t sleep later than 7am. At all. Anyway, on Monday, we found the most funky, fun, and vibrant locations in Matlacha. Fern was such a gorgeous model. And not the least bit stubborn 😉 *insert sarcasm here*

A kind small business owner even let us use their private gardens – talk about fun! The following images were there 🙂

The image below is one of my favorites from the whole trip. I want to paint my driveway like that!

We worked on editing during the day Monday, and that evening headed out to Sanibel Island – which is the only bit of the beach we got to see during our whole Florida trip!

Jesse did some research and we learned that these 9-legged sea stars are native to Florida only! We spent about an hour on the beach capturing the gorgeous Fern, who wasn’t a fan of the scary ocean waves 🙂

Oh, and of course, we took some selfies.

Above, me and Jesse with a partial furry photobomb of Fern!

Below, me and Barbara!

And check out this sunset!

Oh, and since I lack the skill of telling stories/sharing photos in order, here are some random Fern fun photos, too 🙂

And some more mentorship photos:

^ The master editor, Barbara, at work!

This was our backyard for a few days – I’m not a fan of tropical, but Florida in February was right up my alley. Did I mention the perfect weather? 60s the whole week!

Okay, back to kiiind of having this in order….

Tuesday, I had the pleasure of photographing Beary, the adorable Wire Haired Dachshund. He was SO adorable, and his human mom has the most incredible accent (she’s from Austria). I wanted to put them both in my suitcase for the trip home.

And. Look. At. That. Beard.

Seriously. The beard.

Tuesday evening meant more photos of Fern, this time in downtown Fort Myers.

Jesse had some more one-on-one time with Fern, and let me tell you how helpful this was. I nicknamed Fern “Furniture,” she was so stubborn and immovable at times 🙂 Her mom had warned us that she was a tough client, but sheesh, she wasn’t kidding!

What she lacks in compliance, she makes up for in beauty, wouldn’t you say? 🙂

Barbara’s hubby, John, also did a quick bit of modeling, along with chauffeuring us for the duration of my mentorship 🙂 Oh, and that’s Uta. More about her in a few!

Oh, and this other model. She’s got the mooooves.

Back to your regularly scheduled Fern-gramming.

Back at the house before we left on Wednesday morning, we were able to capture a few quick photos of Uta, Barbara’s senior dog. She’s got the sweetest face <3

I think I’ll wrap up this blog post now, and part two: the dane sessions will come tomorrow 🙂

. . .