Happy Holidays from Chanterelle Photography: There’s A New Kid In Town

It had become tradition around these parts to produce a holiday card of a somewhat epic nature, starring my dog Missy and myself.  When she passed away last year, I was asked many times what I was going to do about that year’s card (there was a plan, you can see the result and read about it HERE).  So naturally, when I adopted Watson this summer, people started asking if I would do a card with him this year.  The honest answer was, “I don’t know.”  It would require a lot of patience on his part, and since he would only be about 8 months old when it came time to shoot, I didn’t know if he’d be out of his goofy puppy stage enough to tolerate wearing clothes, holding props, or the biggest challenge of all: staying still.

I didn’t decide to make an attempt until about a week before we did the shoot.  If it turned out he wasn’t ready, we could try again next year.  But if we were going to do it, the choice for the theme was obvious.  🙂

The front:

The back:

A few fun tidbits:

*Watson was named after the Dr. Watson from Sherlock Holmes.  I wanted him to have a sidekick’s name, but I also wanted it to sound slightly “older” or more distinguished since he looks like a little scruffy old man.  I considered Alfred (Batman’s homeboy), but that sounded a little TOO old!

*I found Watson’s vest and shirt at Goodwill (size 3T).  Good thing I’ve learned some sewing skills recently, because I had to take them apart and modify the backs so they would fit him.  The shirt is actually pastel green and I changed it in Photoshop (what, like I was going to let it clash???).

*The book at the bottom of the pile is a copy of The Hunger Games, which was the theme for the last card I did with Missy.

*I already had a black wool trenchcoat, but to give it a more Sherlock-y look, I added a capelet that I pieced together from a pair of plaid women’s dress pants (yes, PANTS) that I found at Goodwill for 99 cents.

*This year’s card went to people in 19 different states, and 4 cards went outside the U.S.

Happy New Year to all of you, from me and the little dude.  We’ve got several big things happening this year including a couple of milestone birthdays, plus Chanterelle Photography celebrates TEN years of fantastic clients and general awesomeness.  You don’t want to miss what is coming up VERY SOON to kick off our anniversary year!

Want to create your own Sherlock Holmes themed photo shoot?  Here are links to some of the exact items we used (click the photos below to go to the corresponding item’s page on Amazon)!   Please note: this post contains some referral and/or affiliate links.  What this means is, if you click on one of the links and purchase the item shown, I may receive a small commission from the company selling that item (as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases).  This happens at no additional cost to you – the price of the item is the same whether you order through one of my links or not.