A Seventeen Year Journey in Photographs...and Still Going

Everyone thinks they have the best dog...
and none of them are wrong.
W.R. Puche

by Skip Cohen

It's Throwback Thursday, and I'm having fun thinking about the pups in my life. The two images above are thanks to my good buddy Robert Vanelli, created four years ago. Molly joined the family as a pup and was by my side for thirteen years. She was relentless in her pursuit of tennis balls, although at eight weeks, there wasn't an ounce of curiosity in her eyes!

We lost Molly to liver cancer a few months after Vanelli photographed me an Molly. Anybody who's ever lost a pet knows the gut-wrenching loss you feel. So these two portraits became incredibly important to me during that time. I'd find myself talking to them, as if Molly was still by my side.

But I'm not here to mourn the loss of Molly but remind you of the value of every photograph you capture. Nine months later, Lucy and Belle came into our lives. I had never had smaller dogs, but these two immediately filled my heart. They kept us sane during the pandemic and immediately became a part of the family, filling every day with chuckles.

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​You learn something when you lose a pet - the capacity your heart has to make room for more. It doesn't happen overnight, but time does eventually heal the hole in your heart. Lucy and Belle immediately sensed the need for pups in our house!

As you go into this year's holiday season, remember the hierarchy of why people hire a professional photographer. In the portrait/social categories it goes brides, babies, and pets, which came out of a Kodak survey at least twenty-five years ago.  I don't believe it's ever changed. During the pandemic, brides probably moved to the number three spot, and pets and babies fought it out for the top - but overall, pets have never slowed down in their importance as part of the demand for imaging.

I still miss Molly now and then, but it's always with a smile on my face. Thanks to all the photographs, I've got one memory after another I can literally hold in my hand. But the journey never ends, as new images are created daily. Looking at photos from the first day we met the pups right through to being in the pool last weekend, the pipeline of memory-makers never stops flowing.

​Happy Throwback Thursday!