Olive, Esher Common, and the Photograph I Could Never Have Planned
Dog photography Surrey | Baby announcement photoshoot with dog | Esher Common dog photographer
Ridhi and I got along like a house on fire long before this session ever happened. We are both a bit obsessed with dog behaviour, dog training, and dog hobbies, and once we started talking, neither of us really stopped. So by the time we actually got to Esher Common with Ridhi, her husband Greg, and their silver Labrador Olive, it already felt less like a booking and more like meeting up with a friend who happened to have a very good dog.
Olive was originally booked in for a fairly standard portrait session. A celebration of her, exactly as she is, exactly as she deserves. But a couple of weeks before the date, Ridhi messaged to ask if I would mind rescheduling. She had just found out she was pregnant, and she wanted to fold that news into Olive's session instead. One celebration becoming two. The love this little family already had, and the love about to arrive.
They had a scan booked before the session, and Ridhi wanted to bring those photos with us into the shoot itself. She had also ordered two caps. Mom. Dad. The plan was already forming before we had even arrived on the Common, and I remember reading her message and just thinking what an absolute honour, to be trusted with something this big.
And then, in one of our messages, Ridhi mentioned that Olive's birthday was falling around the same time. So obviously, a birthday bandana came too. If there was ever a session built to celebrate absolutely everything at once, this was it.
A dog who already knows how this works
Ridhi loves training. Properly loves it - not in a box-ticking, basic-obedience way, but the kind of training that becomes a shared language between dog and human. She does mantrailing with Olive. She has clearly put in years of patient, considered work to understand exactly who Olive is and what she needs, and you can feel that the moment you meet their family.
Olive is a rescue, and there is something in the way she checks in with Ridhi, glances back, waits to see what's needed, that tells you this dog has learned, slowly and properly, that she is safe now. That nothing here is going to be forced on her.
That groundwork meant the session itself had an ease to it that not every shoot has from the very first minute. Olive wasn't guessing at what we wanted from her. She offered things. Tricks, glances, a full-body wiggle when she got something right. She is, genuinely, one of those dogs who seems to enjoy the whole performance of it - not because she's been trained into compliance, but because she and Ridhi have built something together that she clearly finds rewarding in itself.
Sunrise on Esher Common
We arrived at sunrise, which is always my favourite time to shoot here, and the light did not let us down. Properly golden, the kind that looks almost too good to be real but is straight out of camera, no editing trickery required. Spring on Esher Common has a particular softness to it, and that morning it delivered exactly that - the heather still slightly damp with dew, the air cool enough to see our breath for the first half an hour, everything washed in that low amber light that makes even the most ordinary patch of grass look like it was designed for a photograph.
Olive was an absolute joy to work with. Greg and Ridhi know her so well, and it showed in how naturally they moved with her - never forcing a moment, just letting her be herself and stepping in at exactly the right times. She investigated. She ran. She had what I can only describe as bursts of pure, committed zoomies, the kind where a dog simply has to circle back around twice before they can settle again.
The action shots from this session might be some of my favourites purely for comedic value. Olive has an extremely expressive running face - somewhere between pure joy and mild personal offence at the wind.
The moment with the caps
Partway through the session, Ridhi and Greg put on their Mom and Dad caps, faces turned away from the camera, and held the scan photo between them. We talked through how we wanted the moment to feel, and somewhere in that conversation, Ridhi mentioned, almost in passing, that Olive knew a trick called "selfie."
I had not planned for this. It came up organically, the way the best moments in a session usually do. So we tried it, just to see whether Olive would be comfortable doing it in this particular set-up, with the caps and the photo and the slightly unusual arrangement of her humans facing away from her instead of towards her.
She was. Completely.
And in that one frame, her eyes flicked, just for a second, towards the scan photo in Ridhi's hands. I caught it. One frame, one second, and somehow the whole point of the day was sitting right there in Olive's face. Present with her family. Glancing at the newest member before they had even arrived.
It was a moment so fleeting that I was so worried I had missed it. It was only when I looked back at the images afterwards that I noticed I hadn’t mistaken where her eyes had gone. It is one of my favourite photographs I have ever taken. Not because it's technically flawless, but because it happened entirely by accident, in exactly the way the truest moments in this job always do.
This is the photograph. The one I didn't see coming until it was already happening.
If you're looking for a dog photographer in Surrey or London who'll happily build a session around your celebrations with your pets, whatever they may be, you can -
What it meant to be trusted with this one
There is a particular kind of trust involved in being asked to photograph a family's biggest piece of news in the same pet photography session. A new baby on the way, and woven into this life a dog who Ridhi and Greg have clearly poured years of care into understanding.
I think about this a lot in my work - how a session is rarely just about the dog in front of the camera. It's about everything that dog represents to the people around them. For Ridhi and Greg, Olive isn't a placeholder before children arrive. She is already, completely, part of the family that is about to expand. The session needed to say that clearly, without it ever being said out loud.
It was a privilege to be trusted with both. Olive, exactly as she is. And the beginning of everything that is about to change around her.
Seeing the gallery for the first time
I always find the viewing appointment one of the most genuinely moving parts of this job, and Ridhi and Greg's was no exception. There's a particular kind of quiet that happens in the room when someone watches their gallery play, and sees their dog properly. Not just photographed but seen. In glorious detail, in all the love they have for them quantified into immortalised moments through my camera.
A few weeks after the viewing session, I delivered Ridhi and Greg's final order, and it's one of my favourite deliveries I've done in a long time. They chose my largest wall gallery, five framed pieces, plus ten digital files to keep alongside them.
I want to mention this not because of how much they spent, but because of what it actually represents. Olive now has a place on their walls that matches the place she already has in their lives. That's exactly what I want for every client who chooses wall art. Not decoration. Not an afterthought. A proper, permanent space for the dog who is so clearly woven into everything about this family, right alongside the space they are about to make for their baby.
And this isn't the end of it either. We're already talking about shooting together again, which, honestly, might be my favourite part of this whole story. Because as much as this session captured a particular moment in time, Olive's story, and this family's story, is still very much being written. I cannot wait to be back behind the camera with them for the next chapter.
In Ridhi's wordS
"I first reached out to Amie after seeing her beautiful, natural photographs of dogs in open spaces rather than the typical studio-style images. I absolutely loved how authentic her work felt and how she captured dogs simply being themselves.
From our very first conversation, everything just felt right. Communication was easy, natural, and effortless, and I immediately felt confident that she was the perfect person to photograph Olive.
Olive can be a little quirky at times and has been through a lot in her life, so finding someone who would be patient and allow her to be herself was incredibly important to us. Amie was amazing. She took the time to understand Olive's personality and worked completely at her pace. There was never any pressure or expectation for Olive to perform perfectly. If she wanted to have a play with a ball, investigate a scent, watch another dog, or have a burst of zoomies, Amie simply adapted and incorporated those moments into the experience.
What impressed me most was how naturally she brought out Olive's true personality. Olive felt completely relaxed, comfortable, and free throughout the shoot, and it really shows in the photographs. The images don't just show what Olive looks like - they capture who she is. Her cheeky side, her beauty, her intelligence, and the joy she brings to our lives all shine through.
When we received the final gallery, both Greg and I were genuinely emotional. Every image captured exactly what we had hoped for and more. Looking through them felt like seeing Olive's story told through photographs. We instantly started talking about which ones we wanted framed because they were simply too special not to display in our home.
Amie is incredibly talented, patient, professional, and clearly has a genuine love and understanding of dogs. If you're looking for photographs that capture your dog's personality rather than just their appearance, I honestly couldn't recommend her more highly.
We will treasure these photographs forever and cannot wait to book another session. 1000% recommended.”
What I'll remember most
It's the eyes flicking to the scan photo. It has to be. But it's also everything that surrounded it - the cool air at sunrise, Olive's birthday bandana flapping slightly in the wind, Ridhi and Greg laughing at each other's caps before we'd even started, the easy way the whole morning unfolded because nobody was trying to force anything to happen.
Some sessions feel like documenting a single moment in time. This one felt like documenting a hinge point - the exact place where one chapter of this family's life was closing gently, just as another was opening. Olive sat right in the middle of both, completely unaware of the significance, mostly just hoping someone had more treats.
That's the job, really. Being there at the hinge points. And being lucky enough, every now and then, to catch the one frame that says more than the whole session
put together.
Olive, Esher Common, spring sunrise. A session I will not forget.
If you have a session of your own brewing, whatever shape it ends up taking -
Whether it stays exactly as planned or turns into something completely different along the way, like this one did, I would love to help you capture it. You can find out more about my outdoor sessions on my portrait page, and get in touch any time.
