Meet Charlie and Moxie: the cutest brother & sister pair we’ve had at the Tulip Festival all year! Each year, we visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, Oregon to take in the beautiful sights and create stunning custom artwork for our pet portrait clients. While we do offer Season Mini Sessions at this event each year, we also always open a few spots for our Full Service Portrait Experience to take advantage of the early spring greenery that the farm offers.

People often wonder how much variety we could get from a full session at the Tulip Festival. It’s beautiful, colorful, magical: all of the things. But, is it truly timeless? Yes! That’s because we’ve got plenty of areas to explore around the fields that aren’t all about color. It’s important to make sure we have neutral options that can go up on the wall, or even just your shelves, year round.

We love the blooming tulips, but there are other gorgeous deciduous shrubs and light white blooms around the farm. We can start here for the classic before moving onto the tulips and picking out our favorite colors.

Generally, clients will have favorite colors for each of their pups, otherwise it’s pretty easy to pick out the tones that are going to match each pet’s coat & personality the best. Don’t worry about the posing challenges or height of the flowers: we’ve got all the tricks & optical illusions to make it work!

With so many colors to choose from, we’ll take our time moving throughout the field and stopping in each of our favorite spots as we go. It’s important to have options!

I always map out the new field layout each year so that I know where and when the light will touch last. This gives us the most time together within the best window of natural light for each color!

And remember how I mentioned “having all the tricks and optical illusions”? Here’s one for reference:

Dogs always remain on leash while at the Tulip Festival. The top priority is safety- for your dogs, the other dogs, and even the delicate flowers! I always have Austin or at least one other posing assistant with me who can help hold leashes, get your dogs’ attention, pack all the supplies, and more. I am as much an editor as I am a photographer and these accessories are all cleaned up in no time to leave you with the highest quality piece of art that reflects the perfect moment: even when the perfect moment doesn’t happen all at once.

To learn more about our Tulip Sessions, visit www.ellachedester.com/tulip-festival.