Dunwich Heath Pet Photo Shoot

Dunwich Heath is an area of low level coastland that provides the perfect environment for heather shrubs to flourish and spread across the landscape like a carpet, creating this beautiful pink purple colour block during the warmer months!

Edyta got in touch with me about a series of pet portrait photo shoots that she wanted to do as part of her promotion for her instagram and facebook campaigns. I was instantly enamored with her after speaking initially, I knew straight away that this was going to be an amazing dog photo shoot as she had so many things that she wanted to cover during our pet photography session.

This big beauty's name is Sweetie, she's a Bernese Mountain Dog - one of the most gentle and nurturing of the large dog breeds! I've kept large breed dogs for most of my adult life, I've grown up with a Rottweiler as a lap dog, so when she told me about her dog, I was instantly excited to meet her and her four legged friend!

We finally met face to face at Dunwich heath which is local to Edyta's hometown of Ipswich, Suffolk. Sparks flew as soon as we met and we hit it off like old friends! We had so much in common and we didn't stop laughing! Her dog was just the cutest, as you can see from the photos!!

Together, we worked really hard to get Sweetie to lay in the grass for a few moments so that I could get some shots of her alone - our perseverance paid off! Look at how good she was! She was so great, so well behaved and a real pleasure to work with!

Once we had done a few pet portraits of Sweetie alone, we decided to set to work with the dog and owner part of the photo shoot! Edyta really wanted Sweetie to put her paw on her hand as it shows how big her adorable feet are! Sweetie wasn't so keen on this one so it took us a few tries, but we got there in the end!

Next was some dog portraits with Edyta cuddling Sweetie - these were super easy - what dog doesn't want cuddles?! These were a quick few snaps as she whispered sweet nothings into her furry friends ear! Wham, bam, Bob's your uncle!

Next, Edyta wanted one of her kissing her beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog, so I set them up in the middle of Dunwich Heath in the heather shrubs and I got her to sit on the floor with her dog. This was a lot harder to get than you'd imagine as Bernese Mountain Dogs are very inquisitive and Sweetie was no exception; she just wanted to watch the people walking past on the road! After a few minutes and moment where we were lucky enough not to have any passerbys, we got Sweetie's attention once more and Edyta planted a big kiss on the side of her dogs face and it's one of my favourite shots from this pet photo shoot!

For the last portion of our photography session, we decided to let Sweetie run around and have some time to be herself. With dogs, especially those of them that are a little hyperactive, it's always best to let them have a little time during your pet portrait session to let off some steam so you can get some candid and natural shots of them. Some of the photos you see on this article are of this big beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog alone doing her own thing for a few minutes, and they're some of the best we took on the day as she was relaxed and enjoying herself!

Sweetie was just the sweetest, when we gave her some time to run around and take a few minutes for herself for a break, instead of frollicing around in the heather flowers she stood and guarded us as you'd expect from these sorts of large breed guardian dogs! It was just the cutest thing ever and it showed you how content she was with Edyta - no lead and she didn't run off, she chose to stay and protect her! Just adorable! We got some of the best images from the whole pet photo shoot at this point because Sweetie settled herself into the flowers and gave us all sorts of beautiful facial expressions as she surveyed the landscape around us!

With dogs, it's always hard to get those alert ears that we all love so much. You have to be vigilant with where the dog is looking during the shoot as it's very easy to lose their attention, and you have to be willing to make lots of silly noises and call their name over and over to get them to look at you. Although this may make you feel a little silly, this is the best way to get a dog's attention as a pet photographer. Calling "Sweetie" over and over was hilarious to the people walking past, I even had a chuckle myself at one point, but I didn't care because just look at the photos we got for doing so! You have to keep a dogs attention which means being the loudest and most interesting thing in a dogs line of vision!

When you think of your dog, you often think of that cute face that they make when they're trying to cadge food or get a treat - ears up and forwards in the alert position. It's really important to get several photographs of every dog you shoot with them in this alert position, as this is almost always the look that the owner wants. Don't forget to check with the owner just incase they have a different facial expression in mind for their pet pooch - after all, we're all different and so are our four legged friends!

Shooting: To shoot this dog photo shoot session I used a mirrored DSLR with a professional grade full Nikon system with an extra strong padded Manfrotto neck strap to ensure that if the dog jumps up, the DSLR is secured. No lighting or reflectors were used for this as it was a bright sunny day.

Lens: For this pet photography session, I used a 24-120mm Nikon Pro Lens which enabled me to get close up's with a bokeh background and wide angled shots when Sweetie was running around or I wanted to show off the heather flowers that Dunwich Heath is so famous for.

Editing: To edit this session, I used the professionally licensed software Adobe Lightroom without exporting into Adobe Photoshop. All adjustments were done in Lightroom with brushes.

Editing Style: The style of the editing for this session is natural warm with a mild matte look in the blacks and a little enhancement to the colours contained in the heather flowers so that they 'pop'.

Colour Correction: This album was edited in a natural warm style with my usual matte blacks, however, there were several adjustments to colours. Yellow was reduced and the hue was changed so that it closely resembled brown to prevent the grass showing through on the heather. Greens were subdued to a more natural tone and blues were gently nudged up to give the sky that beautiful colour.

Beauty Retouching: Gentle and natural looking beauty retouching was performed. Standard retouching was maintained with gentle brushes to whiten teeth and brighten eyes.

Sharpening: In pet portrait photography, your images need to be sharp to show off the fur, whiskers and eyes. These images were sharpened using the monthly subscription service software Adobe Lightroom and spot sharpened by hand by using brush adjustments where needed.

Processing: The images were processed into super resolution and exported using Adobe Lightroom which currently sits at around £20 per month for the basic cheaper package. If you're looking to get into pet photography seriously, I can't recommend this software enough for applying localised enhancements and professional quality print grade images.

Quality: A full 300dpi print quality album was delivered to the client with average file sizes of 15,000k but the images uploaded here are reduced to 1500k to ensure fast loading times with a minimal reduction in quality.

Clothing: With larger dogs you know that they're going to end up giving you a cuddle at some point during your pet photography session, so it's always worth wearing some long trousers to ensure your legs stay claw mark free! Luckily, Sweetie was literally the sweetest and she didn't jump up once, but if she did, I was prepared! Otherwise I wore a standard outfit with comfy walking shoes. I did bring a strong padded Manfrotto DSLR neck strap to ensure that the camera was secure, but again, she was an angel!

Time: We were at this location for a total of 60 minutes, allowing us plenty of time with Sweetie to let her calm down once she had been in the area for a while and to open up to me and my camera! We spent roughly 15 minutes on pet portraits of the Bernese Mountain Dog alone, then roughly 15 minutes on pet and owner portraits, then 5 minutes getting some images hugging, 5 minutes getting a kiss and another 5 minutes to let Sweetie blow off some steam and have a break. The final 15 minutes we spent letting Sweetie do her own thing which produced some of the best images from the shoot as this beautiful guarding breed stoically guarded the area around us!

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About Dunwich Heath: This amazing natural beauty spot is completely free to visit with free parking outside the heath. There is so much more here than just the heath, it's adjacent to the beautiful RSPB reserve at Minsmere and it lies within the area of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a special area of conservation and a special protection area. Although I am no wildlife or nature reserve expert, here is some information that I gathered during my visit and some fascinating facts that I found online - if you're looking for a Suffolk beauty spot for your pet portrait photo shoot look no further, this stunning destination may be the one that you've been searching for! To find the Heather in flower, visit from June to September.

Address: Dunwich Heath, Coastguard Cottages, Minsmere Rd, Dunwich, Saxmundham IP17 3DJ

Size: 8.9 Hectares or 22.2 Acres

Trees: The woodland surrounding the heath contain a variety of native species that are regularly maintained to ensure that the heath remains a great walking and beauty spot. Silver Birch and Pine spring up around the heath, and where the sand starts to give way to a more neutral soil, there are several other types of tree species at Dunwich Heath, including Ash, Oak, Sycamore and Chestnut tree varieties. On the topped dead Elm trees, you can spot great nesting sites for Owls and Bats!

Wildlife & Cattle: Dunwich Heath is home to such a large variety of wildlife that I'd need to create a whole new page just to list them! Around the Heath, you can find birds, animals and reptiles who all call the heath home. You can find red deer and the stunning muntjac deer. Water vole and otters inhabit the watery areas around the Heath. For birds, you can find dartford warblers, woodlark, cetti's warbler. owls, stonechats and nightjars. You can find various reptiles such as adders, slow worms, common lizards and grass snakes. You can even find bats nesting in the tops of dead Elm trees! There are a variety of unusual invertebrates living on the heath such as ant lions, bee wolf, digger wasps, mining bees and the hummingbird hawkmoth, emperors and true lover's knot moth. You can also find green tiger beetle, silver studded blue, green hairstreak, grayling, painted lady, In the summer months you can find migrating species such as stone curlew, hobby, sand martins and nightjars. In the winter you can find merlin, hen harrier, brambling, crossbill, fieldfare and redwing cosying up for the colder months amongst the year round inhabitants of Dunwich Heath.

Plants: Dunwich Heath is mostly covered with stunning Heather plants - you can find common heather, Bell Heather, European and Western Gorse. There is also a variety of woodland and grassland areas included in this reserve. The Heather and Gorse flower from June until September. The Heather is purple and pink whilst the Gorse is a stunning yellow. You can see the Heather plants in the photos on this article but the Gorse was not flowering yet.

Habitat: Dunwich heath has been cared for and maintained by the National Trust since 1968. They worked to clear the landscape back to traditional heathland and it has been maintained by them ever since. This area is so special to the National Trust because the soil that makes up the gentle rolling hills is mainly based on sand which creates the perfect conditions to successfully grow heather over long periods. Heathland areas across the UK has declined by 92% over the last 120 years, making Dunwich Heath one of the very last few habitats of its kind left in the UK that can support so many rare wildlife and plant species that reply on the ecology at Dunwich Heath. Further stretches of land were added in 2002 thanks to Pizza Express who sold their restaurant, 'Neptune' seafood pizza to raise funds for the National Trust. In 2015, they added some more land thanks to the WREN land acquisition fund and the Enterprise Neptune Campaign. This area now forms the acid grassland and heath areas of Mount Pleasant Fields. Heather is a very hardy species of plant but it does require great maintenance to survive and flourish, requiring extreme hours of care to ensure that all of the heather plants do not die back at the same time so that the carpet of colour is retained.

History: First world war trawlermen cleared the mines at Dunwich Heath to keep vital supply chains running and years later, the heath became a militarised zone and one of th emost heavily defended parts of Suffolk during the Second World War. It was at Dunwich Heath where one of the largest military exercises to prep for the D-Day landings took place, named Operation Kruschen, troops carried out exercises that were designed to test how the Germans defences could be breached to allow successful boat landings by allied troops into the occupied areas of Europe. This operation took place in 1943 and it saw the heath contain a full mock German defense position which was constructed to include full trenches and minefields. They even detailed the operation with barbed wire, pillboxes, anti-tank measures and weapon-pits to ensure a realistic exercise in military power.

Time Of Year To Visit: The best time of the year to visit Dunwich Heath is between June and September to take full advantage of the stunning heather flowers in bloom.

Toilets & Refreshments: There is a tea room owned by the National Trust and dogs are welcome inside the tea room, but you must sit at pawprint marked areas. There are toilets at parts of the heath that are open from 9am-5pm. There is hand sanitiser available at the kiosk and several rubbish bins around the site. There are baby changing toilets in the womens toilets, but unfortunately not the mens. Most of the paths at Dunwich Heath are buggy friendly. No BBQ's or fires are allowed at this Ipswich beauty spot.

Dogs: From March to August, all dogs must be kept on a lead at Dunwich Heath to protect the ground nesting birds and you must stay on the footpaths. The purple trail, otherwise known as the 'woof walk' is suitable for unleashed dogs under close supervision. From September to February, dogs can be let off the lead but they must be kept close and under reasonable control. Stick to the paths and watch out for roaming livestock during the colder winter months. If you see any sheep or sheep signs, please put your lead back on your dog until you have passed that area.

Parking: There is ample free parking at either of the car parks outside Dunwich Heath which are currently free with no restrictions at the time of writing this. If you'd like to see more of the heath than just the heather, you will need to pay for parking at different locations, however, you can park at Dunwich Heath and walk for free if you prefer. Paid parking areas close at 5pm.

Travel: There is two car parks, one paid and one free. Depending on which car park you want to go to, there are different routes to get there.

Disabled Access: There is free parking for disabled users at the National Trust car park for the heath. Most of the National trust site is disabled friendly with good wheelchair access, but areas of the heath itself may be less accessible.

Things To Note: Drones are not allowed at Dunwich Heath which is in line with the National Trust policies, so for those of you that are enthusiastic about drone photography, take note!

The Walk: Aside from being a generally beautiful destination for a walk with your pet or family, the heath is home to several guided walks and circular routes, details of which can be found on the maps onsite.

"How to find Dartford Warblers at Dunwich Heath?" - They can be seen all around the heath itself, but the best spots are along the central main path running through the heath and at the top area where the heath meets the trees. Look for stonechats and more often than not, you'll find the warblers! They are quite fragile for birds, so you will find it a lot harder to see them on wet, windy or colder days as they prefer to remain hidden for their safety! For your best chance to find a Dartford Warbler at Dunwich heath, visit on warm calm days when the wind isn't too strong.

"How to find Adders at Dunwich Heath?" - Adder snakes love bright sun to bask in to increase their body temperature to a rate where they can hunt for their prey, as they are reptiles, they're cold blooded and they will usually be found basking in the sunlight amongst the heath in a sheltered but sunny and warm spot. Walk slowly through the sort of areas where birds and lizards would nest and you'll most likely find an Adder Snake at Dunwich heath trying to catch them for their dinner!

"How to find Deer at Dunwich Heath?" - Starting at the heath, if you walk up the diagonal path through the heath and then turn left, you will come to a pink sign posted walk which takes you in a loop back to the car park. Deer are actually surprisingly hard to find so make sure you keep your eyes peeled and listen for breaking brambles as they treat through the undergrowth. The colder months are the easiest to find the deer, especially Autumn when the males start to claim their territory and fight over breeding ready females!

"How to find butterflies at Dunwich Heath?" - You can usually find butterflies all around Dunwich heath, any walk or area should be a good start when looking for them. Some species are so rare that they can be hard to find, make sure to keep your eyes open and you may find one!

"How to find birds at Dunwich Heath?" - The pink walk covers most of the heath area and it gives you plenty of chances to see the large variety of birds on offer here, such as stonechat, skylark and dartford warblers!

Fun Facts: Dunwich Heath was once Suffolk's answer to Atlantis - it was once a popular thriving medieval port and it was on par with London to be the capitol of England with over 3000 residents reported in 1086