I've loved animals since I can remember.

I remember buying my first camera, and I remember what I pointed it at — a dog, a cat, a squirrel, a bird. That never changed. Two decades later my natural subject is still an animal.

I learned photography on film. I took classes, and I developed my own prints in a darkroom — mixing chemistry, watching an image come up in the tray, burning down a bright corner with my hands under the enlarger and holding back a shadow with a piece of card. Dodging and burning were things you did by hand, and getting one print right could take an evening and a stack of paper.

That's still the work. The tools changed; the judgment didn't. Most of my time still goes into tone — where the light falls, how far a shadow drops, whether a dark coat separates from what sits behind it. Black dogs are the hardest animal to photograph and the hardest to render, and I've spent twenty years learning why.

This has always been my passion. But like everyone else, I had bills to pay, so I spent twenty years in corporate America — and got laid off twice in two years. Now I'm focused on it one hundred percent, which is the first time that's ever been true.

Every portrait starts with your photograph and your animal. I work in four styles — Fine Art Realism, Impasto Oil Paint, Watercolor, and Pop Art — and the background is chosen for your animal and for the room it's going into. A white coat needs a different ground than a black one. A rust wall may want teal hanging on it rather than more rust. That's the part most people can't put into words and can see the moment it's right.

Exceptional detail. Real depth.

Portraits are printed with archival inks on fine art paper, or on archival gallery canvas — acid-free, pH-neutral, and hand-stretched over solid wood on a 1.25-inch frame. Canvas hangs on its own or in a floating frame in black or walnut. Paper can be matted and framed or left unframed. Every framed portrait arrives ready to hang, with the wire already on.

Ten percent of everything I sell goes to Senior Dogs and Friends Rescue, paid quarterly. It's the rescue my own dogs came from. Woody and Farley get me up to Grand Ridge every morning, which is where most of this gets thought through.

With gratitude,

Diane