Hi I am Judi, the owner of Mannequin Madness in Oakland. I am holding Ringo who helped me start Furtography Pet Pics during COVID19. That is why I am wearing a mask
While self-sheltering I realized the importance of having a dog around for my peace of mind. Ringo is actually my neighbor’s dog. While I always LIKED to dog sit him, but during COVID19 I NEEDED to dog sit.
I brought Ringo to my mannequin warehouse which was then closed except for shipping our online orders. To pass the time, I started taking photos of Ringo in our photo studio.
Being in the visual display industry we have lots of props at our warehouse, especially faux flowers. Normally we use the faux flowers for our Headdress Workshop classes. But since that too was closed, I asked my resident designer, Hector, to make floral collars for Ringo.
Then I read this article in Vogue which says it scientifically proven that flowers make you feel better.
I started having Hector make more floral collars for Ringo and a matching floral headdress for me.
It was true, flowers lifted my mood! And when I would take Ringo out in public with his floral collar on, everyone who saw him started to smile. Considering what a stressful time Covid19 was – especially in the Bay Area where we one of the first cities to self-shelter and one of the last to come back.
It was AHA moment, why not combine three things that make people feel better – flowers, fur babies and fotos!
So every other weekend I decided to turn our photo studio into a Furtography Studio to give people a chance to smile. They can bring their fur baby in (dog only) for a 30 minute or 60 minute photo session with our photographer. The space is large enough to maintain a social distance and we all wear a mask.
We have fun props (a lot of which involve flowers) that we recycled from the window displays of retail stores.
AND we include a free floral collar for each dog to wear during the shoot and to keep as a souvenir.
So it is possible to find something to be happy about in the midst of COVID19. If you
have a fur baby, give us a call at 510 444 0650 or schedule an appointment online.
