Dog owners know that our pups aren’t just pets, they’re full-fledged family members. And just as we celebrate milestones like marriages and births for our human family, Monica “Mona” Sanchez wanted to do the same for her 6-year-old Daschund Mia, who was just about to have her first litter of puppies. The results of the pregnancy shoot and the follow-up with her new pups were downright incredible.
Read on to find out more about the shoot and see photos of Mia and her gorgeous little ones.
- Belinda Sol is behind the shots. Texas-based photographer Belinda Schenk-Sol runs her own studio, Belinda Sol Photography, which specializes in pregnancy and maternity photos. When she received a call from Sanchez inquiring about photo packages, she thought it was a standard call. Wrong! “I got a phone call one day from a client asking for a maternity session. I explained all about my package I have and she agreed, I was thinking this was for herself but then she mentioned it was for her puppy!” Sol recalled in a conversation with Bolde. “I didn’t even take a second thought and agreed.”
- It took time to plan out Mia’s outfits. “I usually offer nice gowns for my regular maternity clients but Mia, the puppy, was definitely a client I’ve never had before so I got creative and made her a little dress for her session,” Sol said. “She was such a great and well trained little doggy. I would pose her and she would stay as if she knew all the attention was on her and she was enjoying it!”
- As if the pregnancy shoot wasn’t great enough, then came the puppy shoot! As Sol told Bolde, she had an amazing time photographing a pregnant Mia, whose belly was so big at the time that it was nearly touching the floor. However, then the six puppies were born and it was time for the second shoot with Mia and her little ones. “I ordered the cutest little crochet beanies for the puppies and that went so well also.
- It took a little time to plan but ultimately, things went off without a hitch. I asked Sol how long putting together both shoots took, since working with animals can be a little challenging. However, she assured me that in fact, due to Mia’s size and the puppies’ ages, it actually went smoothly. “Mia was so pregnant at the time [of the first shoot] that she didn’t really want to move much as her belly was so big it was touching the floor,” Sol remembered. “Wherever I posed her, she pretty much stayed. I just took a few days planning it out what I’d like her to wear and props to use, etc.”
- The puppies were so tiny! Sol remembered ordering the tiny multi-colored hats for the puppies, which she sized properly by asking Mia’s owner how big their heads were. “The mom of the dog told me the newborn puppies heads were the size of large gumballs, and it worked!” Sol said. “They were so tiny! Mia was such a good mommy to her puppies she was just watching me pose them the entire time. They were so brand new that they didn’t move too much either.”
- Sol could never have imagined the story’s reach. Sol admitted that while she thought people would appreciate the photos of Mia and her pups, she had no idea the story would reach so many people around the world. “It was a great experience overall and I never in a million years thought that it would’ve have become so well known years later,” she recalled. “The night I first posted the photos I thought it would be popular and cute and id possibly get a couple hundred likes on the image on my facebook page, to my surprise by morning I had nearly 100,000 views and messages from all over the world asking to cover the story!” Not only that, but it will always be one of her most memorable shoots. “It has, and will always be one of my most favorite photos and I was lucky to have the opportunity to be able to do it,” she added.
