I’ll never forget meeting Luigi for the first time- it was actually by chance. I was walking my dog in one of my favorite “secret” spots in SE Portland when we came across this amazing bundle of awesome personality and all the impressively beautiful dreads that is named Luigi. Of course, he happened to have the most incredible human, Amy, and because I could not contain myself with how much I immediately loved both of them, we kept in touch and eventually planned what became one of my top favorite sessions of all time.
I shoot at this location often, but hadn’t ever before done so at sunrise. We met a little before the sun came up and were graced with a full moon and candy skies to start our photo session adventure. It was marvelously foggy, but the sun kept gorgeously peeking through. It felt like the absolute perfect place and time to photograph such an exceptionally interesting dog. Luigi is a Bergamasco from Italy and he has more stamps on his passport than most 🙂 His multicolored dreads were amazing to watch flying around as he ran through the beautiful hills of the Columbia River Gorge. By the way, the coat on these herding dogs is for protection against the cold and predators in the mountains of Italy. I loved seeing Luigi’s goofiness come out, seeing occasional peeks of his beautiful eyes, and watching him play with Mikko, his 13 year old big brother. Bergamascos are great with children and Luigi is a loyal and delightful friend. He is so much fun in addition to being so stunning. Enjoy the photos from our adventure!
I just delivered their album yesterday, filled with all their favorite images from our photo session, and I recorded myself opening it for the first time, which you can watch below. Amy told me that she gave it to Mikko, who was so very surprised and teary eyed. He even slept with the album. That of course made me cry too 🙂
It also happens to be Luigi’s 4th birthday today! A very happy birthday to an extraordinary dog of delight and wonder!
