People often ask what actually happens when they book a session. Not the sales version. The real version. What does the process look and feel like, from the first conversation to the moment the portrait goes on the wall?

Let me take you behind the scenes of Ollie's session, because it captures exactly what Wolfe & Fox is about when everything is working right.

It starts with a discovery call.

Twenty minutes, free, no obligation. Not a sales call dressed up as a conversation. Genuinely just a conversation. I want to hear about your animal. Who they are, what they're like, what you'd love to capture. You want to know whether Wolfe & Fox is the right fit.

Most people know within ten minutes. Either there's a click, a sense that this person understands what I'm trying to do, or there isn't. Both outcomes are useful. If it's not the right fit, I'd rather know now than after a session that doesn't serve either of us.

With Ollie's family, we talked about his personality: boundless energy, ball obsessed, happiest when he's running. We talked about what they wanted, something that looked like him, not a posed studio portrait. We booked the date.

Preparing for the session.

The preparation is lighter than most people expect. I don't need your animal to be groomed to perfection. What I do need is to think about where they're most themselves: their favourite field, the walk they love, the place where they're completely at home.

For Ollie, that meant woodland and open grass. Somewhere he could run after his ball, explore, be exactly who he is. A dog like Ollie doesn't need a backdrop. He needs space.

I send a short prep guide ahead of every session. Practical things: what to wear, how to settle a nervous animal, what to bring. For Ollie's family it was straightforward. Bring the ball, let him lead, don't worry about keeping him still. The not-keeping-still was going to be the point.

The session itself.

Sessions are ninety minutes. They don't feel like ninety minutes.

One of the key things about how I work is reading the animal and working with them rather than against them. With Ollie there was some gentle direction along the way, a position here, a moment framed just so, but nothing that felt unnatural for him or his family. The goal is always that the images look like them, not like a session.

The best photographs come when a dog feels comfortable and relaxed, and any direction sits lightly on top of that. Ollie in full flight after his ball, ears streaming, tongue out, completely in his element. That's the photograph. The direction serves the moment, never the other way around.

I get on the ground. I move around. I take a lot of frames. And I watch for the moment when something true is happening. With Ollie it happened constantly, because Ollie is nothing but true.

Watching him interact with his family, being witness to that bond and that love, is always a privilege.

The best photos come when the dog feels comfortable and relaxed. Let them be themselves. That's where the real photographs live.

The reveal session.

A week or two after the shoot comes the design session, held virtually with the beautiful Debbie, who I outsource this to. Debbie is extraordinary at what she does. She walks the client through their images in various room mockups, showing exactly how each portrait could look. It's an experience rather than just a viewing.

During the call, clients choose their images, their framing, their sizes. Debbie places the order directly. The whole thing is considered and unhurried, and most clients say it's the part of the process they didn't expect to love as much as they do. You see your animal properly for the first time, not snapshots, not phone photos, but finished portraits in the rooms.

And then there was the one. The technically imperfect one with Ollie's quirky smile. The one where Natalie said, immediately, without hesitation: that's my boy.

That moment. That recognition. That's the whole job.

Production and delivery.

Every product is printed by the family-run lab in Glasgow I've worked with since setting up Wolfe & Fox. Thirty years of craft, practically down the road. Chosen because quality and community matter more than convenience.

The prints are made to order by the Glasgow lab, checked carefully, and packaged with the care that premium work deserves. Once they arrive, I collect them personally. And then I arrange a time to deliver them to the client myself.

Delivering the framed print and matted prints to Ollie's family was one of those moments, like opening presents on Christmas morning. I brought them over myself. Natalie, her daughter, Ollie right there with them on the sofa, all of them leaning in as the frame came out of the packaging. That personal delivery matters to me. The work doesn't end when the order is placed.

The delight on everyone's face as the wall art is unboxed makes my job the best.

That moment, when the photograph crosses from a screen to an object, from a file to something you hold in your hands, is when the work becomes real. When it stops being a session and starts being something they'll have forever.

After delivery.

This is where most photography businesses stop. Wolfe & Fox doesn't.

Every client stays in my world, through the newsletter, through the community, through the ongoing relationship that good work deserves. Natalie left a review that I still think about. The relationship didn't end with the delivery. It became the foundation for everything that followed.

Ollie showed me what a dog session can be when everything is working right. When the dog is himself, when the family is present, when the photographer gets out of the way and just watches.

That's the session I'm trying to give every client. Every single time.

If you'd like to start the process, the discovery call is free and takes twenty minutes. Click the link below to book your call.

With muddy boots and a full heart,

Jules x