Documenting Your Own Dogs: Personal Photography Projects with Kerry Martin
Most episodes of The Pet Photographers’ Journal focus on the business side of photography. Marketing, pricing, and building a sustainable photography business.
But this episode is a little different.
Instead of talking about strategy or sales, this conversation steps back into something much more personal.
Photographing our own dogs.
Ina Jalil sits down with Kerry Martin from Puppy Tales, an award winning Melbourne based dog photographer who has spent more than sixteen years documenting life with dogs across Australia.
Together they talk about the importance of personal photography projects. The kind that are not created for clients, awards or social media, but simply to capture the everyday moments with the dogs who share our lives.
Kerry shares how small projects such as photographing daily moments or recording a one second video each day can become deeply meaningful over time. Especially when those quiet memories are all that remain after our dogs are gone.
For pet photographers who spend their careers documenting other people’s dogs, this episode is a gentle reminder to turn the camera back toward the lives unfolding at home.
In This Episode
- How Kerry Martin started her pet photography journey after leaving the Navy
- The evolution of pet photography over the past 16 years
- The story behind Kerry’s photography projects including Snow Dogs and Dog Tales of Australia
- Why personal photography projects are different from client work
- How to start a meaningful photography project documenting your own dog
- The one-second-a-day video project that changed how Kerry remembers her dogs
- Why simple, imperfect moments often become the most meaningful photographs
- How documenting our own dogs can reshape how we photograph for clients
- The emotional value of creating memories before time runs out
Key Takeaway for Pet Photographers
As photographers, we spend so much time creating beautiful images for clients that we sometimes forget to turn the camera toward our own lives.
This episode is a reminder that personal photography projects don’t need to be perfect. They just need to exist.
Future you will be grateful that they do.
About Kerry Martin
Kerry Martin is the photographer behind Puppy Tales, a Melbourne based photography and storytelling platform dedicated to celebrating the bond between dogs and their people.
She considers pets very much part of the family and shares her work to inspire fellow pet parents to create incredible memories of life with their dogs.
Kerry travels throughout Australia offering her award winning dog photography and is known for her seasonal photography experiences, most notably Snow Dogs, as well as her studio based project Project Dogalogue.
Over the past sixteen years she has received many national and international photography awards. Highlights include Master of Photography, Australian Pet and Animal Photographer of the Year, and the Pets and People category winner at the 2024 International Pet Photography Awards.
As she travels with her own beloved dogs, Kerry also writes and shares stories about dog photography, dog friendly travel, and life with dogs. Her content reaches a community of more than 500,000 dog lovers across the Puppy Tales website and social media platforms.
Through her writing and photography she encourages dog inclusive lifestyles, shares practical resources to help dogs live happy and healthy lives, and tells heartfelt stories about the relationships between dogs and people.
Puppy Tales is also a business for good, operating as carbon negative and supporting local charities through photography and fundraising. Kerry founded the Australian Dog of the Year Awards in 2021 to recognise the incredible contribution dogs make to people, communities and society.
Connect with Kerry Martin
Website: https://puppytales.com.au/
Instagram: @puppytalesphotos
Facebook: Puppy Tales
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