The Puptrait Studio is a dog-friendly portrait photography studio that specializes in crafting gallery quality printed art of everyday household pets.

Absolutely! Unlike most off-the-shelf props and costumes, our Paper Hats & Ruffs are specifically designed to be photographed. Each piece is hand tailored to the exact measurements of our canine subjects and made in house by our principal photographer, J.B. Shepard.

These unique art pieces are never reused between sessions and are available exclusively on a commission basis. Please allow a minimum of 2 weeks for costume fabrication when booking a Paper Hat or Ruff Session.

That said, we do allow Classic Session patrons to bring and style their own pet costumes. We don't typically recommend it. But we do enjoy a good collaboration and will do our best to support your creative vision.

Yes. We photograph dogs of virtually all training level, temperaments, sizes, and ages.

No, your dog does not need to be specially trained. But it does help if they have a functional knowledge of basic commands like sit and stay.

Please let us know if your pet has any food sensitivities, mobility or behavioral concerns, just so that we can best prepare for their visit to the studio.

No. Unless necessitated by behavioral or health concerns, we do not require dogs to remain leashed or collared while in the studio.

But we do ask that all visitors respect Baltimore City ordinances requiring that all dogs be leashed outside and elsewhere in the building -- including any shared spaces such as our parking lots, hallways and elevators.

Yes and no. It really just depends on the concept.

Paper Hat Sessions are strictly limited to one dog per shoot.

Heart Dog Sessions, Family Portrait Sessions, and Classic Sessions are priced by default for a single dog. But additional pets can be added for $199 per dog.

With that all said, we strongly encourage Classic Session patrons to bring their dogs in individually for separate shoots just for quality purposes.

Working with multiple dogs simultaneously requires creative compromises across the board -- impacting everything from how we handle animals and their expressions to more technical elements like lighting, depth of field, and focus.

Trust us. It's worth the 2nd trip.

Yes. Our Heart Dog Sessions are $499. Family Portrait Sessions start at $599.

Please note we not do provide makeup or wardrobe for human subjects. But we do have a well lit and mirrored private changing room ensuite that you are welcome to use while preparing for your session.

Yes, but strictly on a case-by-case basis.

As a general rule, our studio is not equipped to safely corral any animal capable of climbing or flying. And, we only work with barnyard and farm animals on location which may require travel fees and / or other stipulations.

Please call ahead before booking a session for a non-dog pet.

To help minimize distractions and avoid accidental introductions between potentially leash reactive guests, we allot up to 2 hours shoot per session and an hour padding between sessions.

That said, our goal with every session is to work at the speed of your dog. More often than not, session duration boils down to the temperament, ability, and energy level of the pet.

While we never want to rush a dog. We also don't want to push them to the point of discomfort or exhaustion. This is especially true of younger puppies and elderly or sick dogs, who we try to photograph on more compressed / gentler timelines.

We use bite size beef jerky made from Kosher Salt and 100% USDA Choice Grade Ground Beef.

No. Our studio has tested countless canvas printers over the decade plus we have been in business. And in our experience, the durability and image quality simply isn't up to our standards.

At larger sizes we've found that images often look muddier and less sharp when printed on canvas -- regardless of the resolution of the supplied file. They also tend to chip during shipping and regular cleaning / dusting. And as they're typically stretched over wood, we've found canvas prints to be more susceptible to warping.

Notably our ready-to-hang Dibond and Acrylic mounted prints do not suffer from any of those issues. And, that is why we continue to offer them to patrons as an alternative to traditional matted frames.

No. We firmly believe that matting and framing is one of those things that is best left to the professionals.

That said, we are happy to support those patrons looking to go the DIY / off-the-shelf frame route with a few QoL upgrades -- including adding 1/4", 1/2" or 1" borders to the trim and mounting prints to Gatorboard / styrene foam backings.

No. Our studio does not require a minimum print commitment and we never penalize clients for not purchasing prints.

But with that said, most patrons do order prints following their session. Making physical art is our speciality after all.

Our goal with every session is to capture that single perfect frame-worthy photograph. From the moment we start planning your shoot and every step of production that follows, we are working towards that one gallery quality art print that you will cherish for a lifetime.

But as tastes vary, we aim to cast a fairly wide net and tend to lean towards overshooting. We typically average 200-300 total photos per session. Which we then cull down to just the top dozen or so images.

Part of our culling process is of course removing any files with technical flaws -- such as soft focus, lighting misfires, blurriness, over cropping, etc. -- that may present issues when printed at larger sizes. But mostly we're just trying to whittle the pile down to something more manageable, limiting our final selections to only the most impactful, interesting and emotionally charged images.

All of our final selections are then processed in preparation for printing and resized for online proofing.

Absolutely! Social media / web-ready sized files of all final edits and proofs are included in your sitting fee. High resolution "printable quality" files are also available for purchase.

All post processing can be categorized in one of two ways -- Global Edits and Local Edits.

Global Edits modify the image as a whole, correcting basic elements of a photo such as white balance, exposure, lens aberrations, sharpness, etc. across an entire image. As a general rule, if a Global Edit is necessary to prepare a file for printing it is included in the sitting fee for a pet portrait session.

Local Edits modify specific parts or sections of an image. These are corrections that require manual selections -- such as blemish removal, skin retouching, background replacement, leash / collar removal, etc. -- and includes any digital editing technique that requires masking, pathing, cloning, frequency separation, or image compositing. As Local Edits are generally more time intensive and tend to be more open ended in nature, these services are only available by request and are billed at $200 an hour.

Absolutely. We are happy to shoot in black and white. In fact, we have an ultra premium 305 GSM baryta rag print stock that we keep on hand just for the occasion.

Yes. Our building features free on site parking and unmetered street parking.

Absolutely. That is the best part of shooting in studio -- it is always climate controlled.

Yes. Our main entrance is accessible by ramp, features multiple handicap parking spots, and opens directly to our elevator lobby.

The Puptrait Studio is located within Parkdale Studios in the Woodberry-Hampden area of Baltimore City, Maryland -- roughly an hour's drive from Washington D.C. and northern parts of the DMV.

Our address is:
3500 Parkdale Ave.,
Building #1, 2nd Floor Suite R,
Baltimore, Maryland
21211

The current record for "Furthest Traveled" is 885 miles. The record is held by a French Bulldog named Pawdme, who is the pet of WWE superstars Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae, that made the trip from Orlando, Florida in 2024.

The runner up is a Chihuahua named Oscar that traveled over 700 miles from Chicago, Illinois to shoot with us back in 2016.