OK, this was a super fun project for me to do and I'm excited to show you. I've been to Arizona about a dozen times this year for various reasons and on my last drive back, I stopped in Redlands, California, which was known for years as an agricultural area. In the front of a store, I saw a faded tile vintage fruit crate label. I love fruit crate labels! I bought several from eBay along with a fruit crate and I've been meaning to attach the labels to the crate to do a shoot. I just never did.

I jotted a note to myself. Make vintage fruit labels for dogs. So when I got home, I sat down at my computer to create a dog label because, you know, I'm a pet photographer.

I searched vintage fruit crate labels on Google images, then decided some of the elements they needed to have. And I found a fantastic Photoshop tutorial on putting the labels onto a crate that actually look like they're worn and bam, Bob's your uncle, I got to work.

I've mentioned her before but Luna, Chris Nguyen's dog, is my muse. She is so expressive and I've photographed her a few times on solid seamless so that makes her easy to cut out to put on a different background. Plus, Chris is a trainer so that makes it even better to photograph her. Plus, I mean, just her looks. Those milk blue eyes. Gorgeous. But back to my label.

There were many complexities to doing this but I finally got the hang. The harder part was putting it on the crate but I got that, too. It was truly learning as I went along. I loved the results so much, I immediately made a sardine can label of my cat Kiwi. I think the funniest part about his is Port of Van Nuys because if you know Van Nuys... there's no waterfront. Many miles from the ocean.

Anyway, here are a couple of labels I created. I think they are a perfect addition to the Storytelling Sessions I offer, don't you? Want your own label? Give me a call, 818.481.5214, and we'll dream up one for you.