OMG I have never been disliked by a canine the way this little Bichon Frise disliked me.  Her name is Izzie and her buddy’s name is Lily.  Lily loved me as you can see - she totally cheeses it up for the camera!  But Izzie could barely stomach glancing at me out of the corner of her eye.  They make a great pair, a study in contrasts like the comedy/tragedy masks

To check out Ashton Kutcher checking out my doggie photos, click here!    Okay, it’s sort of a form letter where you can upload your photos into Ashton’s little video and he has canned reactions to them, but if I hadn’t told you that, wouldn’t it look cool?

Big News for Us: Doghouse Studios is mentioned in the April issue of Denver’s 5280 Magazine! This issue is their Definitive Denver Pet Guide and is has a very thorough list of pet resources.  Here’s what it says about the li’l ol’ Doghouse:

“Fine art photography is often reserved for stuffy family portraits and inexplicable abstracts. But not at Doghouse Studios. Photographer Xan Rubey uses her fine-art eye to create compelling yet lighthearted photos of family pets. She’ll catch your beagle in a perfectly ridiculous pose or your Italian greyhound curled up in her favorite spot.” And as if that weren’t cool enough, 9 News ran a segment on this month’s 5280 Magazine and they flashed a bunch of my photos across the screen while the interview was going on!   If you want to see the video, CLICK HERE  and then be patient  - it’s a little slow to load

When my webmaster, Michi, created this blog for me she told me I’d have to write a bit at least once a week to keep it current with search engines. Oh, sure, no problem, I can do once a week. Um, last entry was when? Well I’ve been busy dammit. I’ve been doing many, many photo shoots for the Kong dog toy company. Which by the way is a lovely company. The kind of friendly, bring-your-do-to-work place that I could work at if — God forbid — I ever had to get a real job. Again, God forbid. The photos are for their website, their ads, their packaging, etc for all their dog and cat toys. Cats are a bitch. Yes, cats are a female dog — I understand the misnomer but it’s accurate in an abstract sort of way. I’m really beginning to dislike those creatures. Sooooo tempermental. But dogs are jubilant, life-affirming lovebugs. That’s not my bias talking, those are hardcore indisputable facts. Anyhoo, the shoots are fun and it’s been nice to be busy.

Just found out that Pottery Caffe, Boulder’s lovely little paint-your-own-pottery and espresso bar, is for sale. I’ve always liked going there because they’re very accommodating to dogs of all sizes. My Great Dane is as welcome there as my Chihuahua. I would never actually bring the Great Dane in of course, because he is named after Ferdinand the Bull for some pretty obvious reasons and it’s generally considered unwise to bring a bull into a china (pottery) shop. Anyhoo, if anyone reading this has interest in owning-your-own paint-your-own, get in touch with me. It’s been well-established for 9 years and has a superb location tucked on the north side of Boulders venerable McGuckin’s hardware store and right in between Salon Salon and JJ Wells so it gets great foot traffic. Here’s the website: http://www.potterycaffe.com

Ferdinand the Bull-puppy: Howling

I think the type of client I work with at any given time is a reflection of that time and whew! are the times a-crazy now. In the middle of moving to a new home I thought it was a good time to also completely remodel my website and start a new business as a Silpada jewelry rep and continue scheduling photo shoots and offer to start doing photo shoots of new home listings for my real estate agent. Not sure why that sounded good all at the same time but there it is. My most recent photo shoot felt just like my life: chaotic! But it all turned out fun. She had three adorable dogs and wanted a family portrait of herself with them all. Great idea but - wow - these were energetic dogs Shirley, the human, is a lovely person and her dogs just adore her. I think we finally got some good shots once the critters calmed down. Here’s a sample!