30 joy-filled dog portraits that will bring a smile to your face (PHOTOS)

April 04, 2014

30 joy-filled dog portraits that will bring a smile to your face (PHOTOS)

By Dogs Are Family | March 21, 2014 | Comments (2)

These striking and playful dog portraits are by professional photographer Elke Vogelsang and feature the German photographer's favorite models - her dogs Noodles, Scout and Ioli.

All three of Elke's dogs were rescued.

Elke told DogHeirs, "Noodles is 7 years old, female, Galgo Español mix and rescued in Spain from a kill shelter. She was brought to Germany and joined our family when she was 8 months old. She's the eager beaver, a clown, calm, worldly-wise, cool, eager to please and to learn, loves every being."

"Scout is 5 years old, female, Galgo Español mix, found somewhere in a Spanish field next to her seven brothers and sisters and her dead mother. She came to Germany to find a home, and joined our family when she was 5 months old. She's the sensitive one, Madrileña mia, metropolitan girl, hunter, single-dog wannabe, beautiful, wary, alert."

Ioli is 2.5 years old, male. He's a mix of everything that passed the promenade and was born in Germany. His mother came from Spain [when she was pregnant] in a very bad condition. He joined our family when he was six months old, one eye had to be removed, because it was sore and swollen and had developed a tumor before he joined us. He is sweet as honey, possessive, alway happy, always funny, sometimes cheeky and insecure, charming, energetic, diva, and born to be a photo model," Elke told DogHeirs.

Elke said she's always loved photography and always enjoyed the company of dogs. She told DogHeirs, "I feel very blessed to be able to turn my two passions, dogs and photography, into a fulfilling profession. I worked as a technical translator, which is a quite monotonous job, to be honest. So after a stressful time due to the illness of a family member, I needed something like a creative outlet, which I found in photography. I fell more and more in love with photography and am addicted to it now."

Elke has also extending her passion to help animal rescues and offers to do portraits for homeless dogs for free.

Of the dog portrait pictured above Elke wrote, "He is more or less 18 years old and his family's pride and joy. Today he posed for my cover photo session for an animal welfare organization as if he was born to do this. Last winter some strange people abandoned him, chained to a tree in a park."