• While leading a photography tour to Tanzania, Africa, the lodge we stayed at had installed
a large pile of rocks to act as home to a colony of rock dassies. I’d been for a swim and as I walked back to my room I saw the dassies were out and about. I raced to grab my camera and 50-600mm lens.
I sat about seven metres from two juveniles, but was able to zoom in thanks to the beast of a lens. Much to my amazement, a third dassie appeared, then a fourth and a fifth, until there were seven peering out at me. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens
@ 500mm. 1/50s @ f9, ISO 1600
    While leading a photography tour to Tanzania, Africa, the lodge we stayed at had installed a large pile of rocks to act as home to a colony of rock dassies. I’d been for a swim and as I walked back to my room I saw the dassies were out and about. I raced to grab my camera and 50-600mm lens. I sat about seven metres from two juveniles, but was able to zoom in thanks to the beast of a lens. Much to my amazement, a third dassie appeared, then a fourth and a fifth, until there were seven peering out at me. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens @ 500mm. 1/50s @ f9, ISO 1600
  • There’s only one creature on the planet that makes me shudder: big hairy spiders. When my friend, Michael, wanted photos of Cuddles, his bird-eating spider, I think he knew I’d be horrified. But I’ve always found my camera to act as a buffer (maybe more of a mental one than a physical one) so I was able to photograph Cuddles easily and without fear. As I leant forward to take a shot, Cuddles was startled by this big giant looming over him, and pulled in his legs. I felt bad that I’d scared him and saw an adorableness in his vulnerability. It flicked a switch on for me – how ridiculous to be afraid of Cuddles! Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 lens. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 125.
    There’s only one creature on the planet that makes me shudder: big hairy spiders. When my friend, Michael, wanted photos of Cuddles, his bird-eating spider, I think he knew I’d be horrified. But I’ve always found my camera to act as a buffer (maybe more of a mental one than a physical one) so I was able to photograph Cuddles easily and without fear. As I leant forward to take a shot, Cuddles was startled by this big giant looming over him, and pulled in his legs. I felt bad that I’d scared him and saw an adorableness in his vulnerability. It flicked a switch on for me – how ridiculous to be afraid of Cuddles! Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron SP 90mm F/2.8 lens. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 125.
  • Macaws are phenomenal to photograph. They come in every colour of the rainbow and then some. This macaw was in care due to a form of vertigo. He had been taught to show his wings on command and delighted in doing this for the camera. Note: he is sitting on trusty stick. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens
@ 31mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 100
    Macaws are phenomenal to photograph. They come in every colour of the rainbow and then some. This macaw was in care due to a form of vertigo. He had been taught to show his wings on command and delighted in doing this for the camera. Note: he is sitting on trusty stick. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 31mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 100
  • Seven sweet seven-week-old staffy puppies (try saying that fast!) strike a pose in my studio. The pups are seated on a one-square-metre ottoman with pieces of yoga mat placed along the sides to act as walls. This keeps the puppies safe. I started with two puppies, then slowly added more until the whole litter was on the backdrop. Then it’s a matter of quickly getting their attention and being ready – I might only get a split second to have all eyes looking at me. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 24mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 125
    Seven sweet seven-week-old staffy puppies (try saying that fast!) strike a pose in my studio. The pups are seated on a one-square-metre ottoman with pieces of yoga mat placed along the sides to act as walls. This keeps the puppies safe. I started with two puppies, then slowly added more until the whole litter was on the backdrop. Then it’s a matter of quickly getting their attention and being ready – I might only get a split second to have all eyes looking at me. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 24mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 125
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Profile: Alex Cearns

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Picture this: you’re face-to-face with a bird-eating spider the size of your hand. The room is tiny, it’s hot, and you have to get as close as you can because it’s your job to capture every inch of the little guy’s personality with your camera while his owner breathes down your neck. Sound like the stuff of nightmares? It’s just another day in the office for Perth-based pet photographer Alex Cearns OAM.

Today, Cearns’s successful pet portrait business, Houndstooth Studio, stands as one of Australia’s most well-respected, and she has won hundreds of awards for her photography from all over the world.

It is all the more remarkable because photography isn’t her first career and something she only began taking seriously just 14 years ago.

Geckos don’t have eyelids so they lick their eyeballs to keep them clean and moist. Capturing images which show natural animal behaviours is always one of my aims as they then go beyond a portrait and become educational. This image has been used to demonstrate this behaviour to school groups and members of the public. Canon 5D, EF24-105mm f/4L IS lens @ 105mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 100.
Geckos don’t have eyelids so they lick their eyeballs to keep them clean and moist. Capturing images which show natural animal behaviours is always one of my aims as they then go beyond a portrait and become educational. This image has been used to demonstrate this behaviour to school groups and members of the public. Canon 5D, EF24-105mm f/4L IS lens @ 105mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 100.

“It was my interest in animals that came first, well before the photography,” she explains, speaking down the line during a rare break from shooting at the studio. “I’m an only child and I grew up around animals my whole life. In many ways they were my first friends.”

And although a lifelong love of animals would later become key to her work, it’s also a world away from where she started out – 14 years with Western Australia Police, and five years with the Federal Government before deciding photography could be a career that might just have legs.

This orphaned joey was rescued by Wildlife Care WA. She was thrown out of her mum’s pouch when mum was hit by a car. She suffered from injuries to her tendons and wore these foam supports for three months. She was eventually released into a protected bush area. I let her find stability on my arctic white paper backdrop and as soon as she was comfortable, set about taking her portrait. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 lens @ 33mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 125.
This orphaned joey was rescued by Wildlife Care WA. She was thrown out of her mum’s pouch when mum was hit by a car. She suffered from injuries to her tendons and wore these foam supports for three months. She was eventually released into a protected bush area. I let her find stability on my arctic white paper backdrop and as soon as she was comfortable, set about taking her portrait. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8 lens @ 33mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 125.

Finding that “thing”

Step back to 2006 and Cearns had just bought her first DSLR.

“At first I thought I’ll just photograph everything,” she says. “But I quickly found myself gravitating towards animals. Looking back on it now, it was really all I ever wanted to do.”

But there was a problem – she needed subjects and her own pets weren’t enough.

“I did some research and saw the RSPCA in Perth didn’t have a photography partner,” says Cearns. “So I went and asked them if I could photograph their rescue cats and dogs, and then I went and did the same at a local wildlife rescue centre.”

Part of this was to practice and improve, but it also tapped into her intrinsic belief that if she was to profit off animals as a photographer, she should also give back to the communities that support them.

Around the same time, she took a trip to Cocos Keeling Islands where she captured a beautifully hypnotic photo of blue underwater clams. It began to attract attention.

The Cocos Keeling Islands are filled with vibrant and spectacular giant clams (Tridacna maxima). These blue clams were photographed in a breeding facility on West Island. They were around 10cm long at the time, and can grow up to 40cm. I held my camera above them and photographed straight down. After a few shots, the clams sensed my finger moving and closed up so I walked away with what I had. This is my one surviving shot! Canon 5D, 65mm focal length. 1/640s@ f9, ISO 640.
The Cocos Keeling Islands are filled with vibrant and spectacular giant clams (Tridacna maxima). These blue clams were photographed in a breeding facility on West Island. They were around 10cm long at the time, and can grow up to 40cm. I held my camera above them and photographed straight down. After a few shots, the clams sensed my finger moving and closed up so I walked away with what I had. This is my one surviving shot! Canon 5D, 65mm focal length. 1/640s@ f9, ISO 640.

“I entered that image in a few competitions and it was recognised, and I started to think maybe I was doing something right,” she remembers. “People suddenly wanted to buy a copy of it.”

On the strength of that image and some of her early pet portraits from the rescue centres, she was contacted by two galleries offering to represent her work. The offers were fortuitous. At that point she had already started selling some of her photographs, with a CD of 100 pet images just $95 – a business model she laughingly admits was “not the best”.

On realising that Perth had no dedicated studio pet photography businesses, and with a few clients up her sleeve, she decided to take a punt and launch her own business. The seeds of Houndstooth Studio were sown.

I’ve had this awesome stick in my studio for about 12 years and almost every bird who comes in gets to sit on it. When this rescued flying fox came in for portrait photos, he needed to hang off something, and the trusty stick was the perfect option. I placed it between two chairs and ensured it was stable, then gently placed him on it and allowed him time to find his comfortable hanging pose. I love the expression on his face in this image, even if he does need a tiny pair of pants. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 lens
@ 57mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 100
I’ve had this awesome stick in my studio for about 12 years and almost every bird who comes in gets to sit on it. When this rescued flying fox came in for portrait photos, he needed to hang off something, and the trusty stick was the perfect option. I placed it between two chairs and ensured it was stable, then gently placed him on it and allowed him time to find his comfortable hanging pose. I love the expression on his face in this image, even if he does need a tiny pair of pants. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 57mm. 1/200s @ f13, ISO 100

In the studio

“I started off by putting an advertisement in the newspaper for $800, and from that I booked eight clients,” explains Cearns.

Word quickly spread. In the first six months she had 20 clients. By year’s end, 100, and the following year, 400. Today, Houndstooth Studio photographs more than 1300 pets a year, with all creatures great and small welcome.

Human or animal, a great portrait is one that tells us something about the subject. With pets, it’s no different – a raised paw here, a lolling tongue there – it’s the unique moments that Cearns seeks to capture in her studio.

Remarkably, from start to finish, a client and their pets will be in the studio for just half an hour. Cearns takes about 300 shots in 15 of those minutes, which means that by the time most of the animals realise what’s happened, they are already back in the car on their way home.

This kelpie x dog was photographed in front of Uluru. I had to lie on the bitumen road and photograph up using a 24-70mm lens to ensure
I captured Uluru in the background. There are several sacred sites on the rock, which are forbidden to be photographed
– one is behind the dog and the other is out of shot on the left hand side. I had this image in my mind’s eye before I visited and was thrilled I was able to make it happen. Canon EOS-1D X, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 31mm. 1/6400s
@ f2.8, ISO 640.
This kelpie x dog was photographed in front of Uluru. I had to lie on the bitumen road and photograph up using a 24-70mm lens to ensure I captured Uluru in the background. There are several sacred sites on the rock, which are forbidden to be photographed – one is behind the dog and the other is out of shot on the left hand side. I had this image in my mind’s eye before I visited and was thrilled I was able to make it happen. Canon EOS-1D X, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ 31mm. 1/6400s @ f2.8, ISO 640.

This ability to work fast and minimise the animals’ (and their owners’) stress levels while also ticking off a shot-list is a real skill, but a few tricks-of-the-trade for photographing pets definitely helps the process.

“With 1300 animals a year, I get all sorts,” she says. “Take dogs, for example – I get dogs who bite, dogs who are terrified, dogs with anxiety issues, dogs who want to sniff around the place – everything!

“I spend five minutes winning them over and getting them relaxed,” she says. In the studio, there’s a comfortable 19-degree environment for them to settle into, and the 15-minute shooting part is designed to be over as quickly as possible.

“I sit about a foot away from them with a 24-70mm lens, right at the minimum focus distance. For the dogs especially it can be quite tiring as it’s a bit like a training session. I have the camera in one hand and a treat in the other, and from there it’s a matter of keeping them focused on me.”

Cearns’s lighting setup remains the same throughout the shoot – one or two lights when shooting on black, and two or three lights when shooting on white.

For her black backgrounds, the lights will be positioned either side of her, pointing at her subject. For her white backgrounds, one light will be next to her and two will be used to blow the background out.

One of the challenges with shooting similar subjects in similar situations many times over is bringing something new to every shot. Is it always creative? Well, not always.

“I’m always shooting to a client brief,” explains Cearns. “The clients will have seen my previous work, and they want the same for their pet.

This means I have to get the same range of shots, and in my mind I work through a list that I check off as I go – half face, looking down, looking up, side profile, tongue out, tongue in, eyes closed, etc.” At times, she’ll be the first to admit it can be repetitive and stressful in equal measure.

“Where it’s exciting is every interaction is different,” she says. “Animals are living beings, and they respond to me in different ways. Sometimes they give me an expression or pose I’ve never captured before.” And of course, experience helps.

“I can look at a dog and tell you verbally what a dog is thinking, and the owners will laugh and say to me, ‘That’s exactly what they were thinking!’” 

Perfect pet pictures

Great portraiture always requires a good relationship between the subject and photographer. And for pet portraits it’s no different.

“I think of it as a team effort,” says Cearns.

“Whatever they can give me, I can get. If they usually give paw, and on the day they decide they won’t give paw, I have to work with it. I never force them to do anything, there’s always a mutual respect.

If a dog is wary of strangers, I can get them to relax in the studio, but there will still be elements of that character trait in the images because that’s their true nature.

A rescued bronzewing dove sits on the hand of her carer and stretches her wings. Images like these are all about timing. I watch birds carefully and as soon as they start to move or rouse (ruffle and shake their feathers) I know they are about to give me something fun to capture. Timing is key. Canon EOS-1D X, 24-70mm f/4 lens @ 24mm. 1/125s @ f13, ISO 100. 
A rescued bronzewing dove sits on the hand of her carer and stretches her wings. Images like these are all about timing. I watch birds carefully and as soon as they start to move or rouse (ruffle and shake their feathers) I know they are about to give me something fun to capture. Timing is key. Canon EOS-1D X, 24-70mm f/4 lens @ 24mm. 1/125s @ f13, ISO 100. 

The key to a great portrait, says Cearns, is something that shows the animal as a sentient being, and perhaps more importantly, as beautiful.

“I see my goal is to take a picture that captures what the owner sees when they see their pet. The fine line of course is capturing the pet how I see it, which is also hopefully the same way they see them. And of course, no two pets are ever alike.

“I could have puppies, and then a baby kangaroo, a snake, a rottweiler, and a couple of rats all in the same day. Each will
require different knowledge of their behaviours to successfully photograph them,” she says.

Dogs have always been the masters of the head tilt… until this gorgeous British shorthair cat came in. Canon EOS-1D X, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ f13, ISO 100.
Dogs have always been the masters of the head tilt… until this gorgeous British shorthair cat came in. Canon EOS-1D X, 24-70mm f/2.8 lens @ f13, ISO 100.

The style

Cearns style of photography is very deliberate – in the studio she shoots on a white or black background, with the intention of showing the viewer “everything” of the animal. There are no distractions – just the animal in its purest, cleanest form.

This is something that comes from her background in photographing rescue animals – the right photograph of the right animal at the right time can mean the difference between an adoption or a donation, or awareness being raised.

Interestingly, this minimalist style is also something she aims for when working outside the studio, where she often finds herself favouring clean, unobtrusive backgrounds.

“My wildlife photography is often very clean and simple, and I use natural elements such as grass and sky for my backgrounds. I don’t like man-made elements in my images and often aim for a solo portrait rather than a group shot or action shot,” she says.

The gift

At the heart of everything Cearns does is the idea of giving back. It’s clear her charitable work is a hugely important part of who she is, but it’s also remarkable when you consider she not only runs a busy photography business, but also works as a business coach and mentor, is a published author, keynote speaker, an ambassador for a number of photographic brands, and acts as a judge for many photography competitions, including our own Photographer of the Year and The Mono Awards.

In total, she partners with, or provides sponsorship to around 40 animal charity and conservation organisations around the world, and in 2019 was recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day honours list for her service to the community through charitable organisations.

Of all her interests, it’s this she will not compromise on.

“Let me put it this way: if I couldn’t do all the beautiful things [having my own] business allows me to do for charity, I wouldn’t photograph people’s pets. My driving interest in doing this job is it allows me to give back to charity. I’ve always thought if I can support them, I should.”

Cearns is quick to confirm the old saying that charity begins at home.

“You don’t have to be a pet photographer to give back to charity – it could be just about any professional service – you could put out a call on social media for towels or blankets, or stand there rattling a tin at a donation drive. There’s lots of different things people can do. I’m just very blessed that my day job and my passions align.” ❂

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