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Internationally-renowned, award-winning animal photographer Illona Haus created scruffy dog photography inc. as the province's premier pet photography business which continues to serve clients across Ontario, the US and the world. Based in Kitchener, Ontario and photographing exclusively animals for fifteen years - both commercially and for private clients - Illona is considered one of the world's leading and most influential pet photographers.

 

To learn more about the scruffy dog photography, its creator and history, and the scruffy dog experience, feel free to browse through the menu above, and scroll through over a decade's worth of blog entries below!

 

Please drop me a line! I'd love the opportunity to capture stunning, creative, one-of-a-kind photographic memories of your 4-legged loved ones to treasure in artwork for a lifetime, and show you just what makes the scruffy dog experience second to none.

calendar cats

a few shots from the mini-shoots for the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society calendar … available very soon!

first there was Eddy … not very accommodating when we were indoors …

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… so his owner suggested we move to the deck and backyard where he never runs away.  what a difference! he actually kinda seemed to like me outside.  🙂

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then it was off to meet Mensa … who didn’t care for any kind of company and took a lot of coaxing …

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and finally sweet Ashley … the easiest and most accommodating of the lot … perhaps because she’s a bit of a diva and an affection slut…

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then i asked: “hey, will she go up in the tree?” and wham, even shooting blind with her high above me, i got the money shot …

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thanks, Ashley, for being a true model.  and thank you, all, for your participation in the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society 2010 calendar.

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  • DeanneI look forward to hanging this calendar on my wall, as well as sharing your amazing work with friends and family.ReplyCancel

  • VJThese pictures are amazing! You have truly “spoken” with them 🙂ReplyCancel

  • andreaas the owner of a standoffish, no-company-please, cat i can totally appreciate how difficult they can be to photograph…and you did an AMAZING job!!! love them all! 🙂ReplyCancel

more calendar dogs

thought i’d share with you a few more of the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society calendar dogs with a small selection of shots from their mini-shoots …

this is Buster … not even a year old he’s still got that puppy goofiness, but was very well-mannered for the shoot …

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can you say adorkable?  i loved this boy.

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then there was beautiful Bella …

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but i had my own name for her …

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Bella was a sweetheart, with a wonderful spirit and energy.

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and gorgeous Bear …

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hairy beast and ball connoisseur …

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and Meesha, whose recent diagnosis isn’t very good and had me forgetting about what i’d set out to shoot for the calendar.  all i could think about was shooting enough memories for her mom.

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and last but not least, lovely Sophie … frisbee nut and bundle of border-collie focus …

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one of my favorites …

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i’ll share the cats next … stay tuned!

calendars should be available soon and proceeds help benefit the animals at the shelter.

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  • RogExcellent series.

    You’ve proven it is possible to go from a word smith to a photographer. (And let’s keep in mind that old saying that each photo worth a thousand words but I’ve long known that no writer will ever agree to that!)ReplyCancel

  • Kathy Innocenteyou have outdone yourself…this is truly a special thing you have done for the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society. Your generosity will not be forgotten, you have made my job as a fundraiser here at the Centre that much easier.ReplyCancel

  • Holly Garner-Jacksonthese are all very awesome, illona. The ones of Meeesha gave me goosebumps!!!!!!! Her mom should be thrilled and very grateful I’m sure.ReplyCancel

  • karenThese are all fantastic! How are they (or you) ever going to choose for the calendar! You’ve been a busy girl!ReplyCancel

  • RuthWow, stunning photos, well done!!!ReplyCancel

  • andreaillona….these are fantastic!! loved seeing the larger images….we are lining up our print order!! thanks again for all of your wonderful work with these dogs. 🙂ReplyCancel

  • AndaIllona, these are amazing! Each and every one is worth printing and framing and admiring every single day!ReplyCancel

colour woes

the curse of being a perfectionist is that you’re only very rarely completely and utterly satisfied with your work — read: “never”.  for those who know me, they know i’m rarely satisfied with a photo … i’ll always find something in it to work on, to make it better.

COLOUR is probably the most frustrating aspect in this perfectionist’s workflow.  i take colour very seriously … everything from a $2500 monitor touted to be the best of the best, to running my colour-calibration every two weeks using high-end soft- and hard-ware … checking in frequently with the labs by routinely running test prints … all to give my clients the very best of images.

and so, you can imagine the frustration when — after working long hours perfecting each image in regards to colour and white balance, hue and saturation — that it all goes to hell in a handbasket the second you upload to the Internet.  sure, colours vary from monitor to monitor … not all of us are calibrated, not all of us have the same monitors … but it’s when the colours are so utterly different from browser to browser that i just kinda wanna lose it.

here you see what i’m talking about … on the left is Mozilla Firefox and on the right Explorer.  i, myself, use Firefox, and still find that on some sites the colours of my images are way off … like the main scruffy dog site … very over-saturated.  but hello? Explorer? the entire blog is hyper-saturated and the hue has completely gone off the rails.

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so what to do?  i consistently remind clients via the website and the literature i send them that colour varies from monitor to monitor; i encourage them to come to the studio for a consult where they can see the true colours on a calibrated monitor.  of course, with the love of their dog clouding their judgement, maybe they don’t even see it? maybe they don’t care?

still, i do!  i care a lot.  that turquoise sky and orange bulldog are not in my portfolio.  i’m not into hyper-saturated images with unrealistic colours … i work hard for the realistic tones and hues … so it’s very frustrating to see this depth of discrepancy, especially since the Internet — with its vast array of colour management — is the main representation and home of the scruffy dog work.

so … enough kvetching.  maybe black and white is the answer.  🙂

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  • nickI normally force photoshop to convert to srgb when exporting for web it seems to solve it rather than embedding the profile and hoping the browser knows how to handle it.ReplyCancel

  • LizOh I feel your pain!!! Sometimes facebook and flickr also mess up the colours when uploading. I think that IE should just be outlawed, banned really. haha. It is the WORST browser on many offences, not just over-saturating photos.ReplyCancel

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