One of our favorite locations in Grand Rapids, for a dog photo session during the summer, is on the west side of the Grand River – from the Blue Bridge, down through the Grand Rapids Public and Ford Museums to Ah-Nab-Awen park. This location is for evening sessions only, due to the positioning right next to the river.
At first thought, it doesn’t sound like a great place to photograph, but it is surprising all the little interesting spots we find that have loads of color (especially flowers), reflections and interesting shapes and forms for nice and varying backgrounds.
The other thing we really appreciate about this location is that it works just as well for large dogs, as it does for small dogs. It doesn’t matter if we are photographing a 5 pound Shih Tzu or a pair of 120+ pound Saint Bernards – it’s a great place to shoot for either.
The Ford Museum has a variety of flowering and nonflowering perennials, as well as annuals, which make for great color and background for portraits and headshots alike. Plus there are grassy areas in Ah-Nab-Awen park and near the GR Public Museum to do action shots as well.
The only real downfall for this location is it isn’t suitable for reactive dogs. There usually aren’t tons of people in these areas, but there are enough people walking through (with and without dogs) or hanging out in the park to eliminate this as a possible location for dog or people reactive session spots.
The other aspect of this spot to be aware of is, if you have an elderly dog or a dog that can’t walk very far, this might not be your best option – as we usually end up walking around a mile or so during the course of the session.
There is plenty of parking in the Grand Rapids Public Museum parking garage.
Overall we’ve always been happy with the images we’ve captured in this downtown location. They still have a nice natural feel to them even though it is downtown – a hybrid of sorts between an urban session and a park (or natural setting) session. It’s a great option for color and an urban session without too much concrete. We typically do sessions at this location anywhere from late spring to early fall when there is still some color from the perennials and planted annuals.
Check out our sessions page for pricing and session details. Questions – just text or email us!
