CityDog Magazine summer cover 2008 behind-the-scenes: Charlie & Seymour interview

I figure I could tell you all about the interesting experiences we had shooting the summer cover for CityDog Magazine, but I thought it would be much more interesting to hear it from the mouths of the cover models, so I present to you, my interview with the (now famous) Charlie and Seymour (aka Trouble and Chaos). Sorry this was so long coming! Charlie and Seymour were in Manhattan all last week shooting the new Pucci ad campaign and were kind of hard to track down for their interview.  

Below: Charlie (left), Seymour (right)

Cowbelly: Tell us about your experience being cover models for the first time. Where did you go? How long were you there? 

C & S: well, it was a whirlwind. mom didn’t tell us till the last minute since she knew we’d take her amex and go have a spa day. so when she told us we were going that evening to see jamie, we wish we would have had time for that paw-dicure and seaweed deep conditioning fur treatment. so, the first day we went to this awesome park where we got to see jamie again (yay jamie! – pug shout out), mom said it was in West Seattle? we think that shoot was a few hours, but something about the lighting just wasn’t working out. the next shoot was at Discovery Park, and that one was fun since we got to go on a hike to get there, so we got to tone up our muscles for the photo shoots and all those ladies who love us. mom made us get wet on the beach that time. we aren’t too fond of water, so that wasn’t the higlight of the shoot, but mom promised jamie would make it up to us, and oh she did with those salmon treats! the final shoot was back in West Seattle. And let us tell you, we were tuckered at that one. it was so much fun, but we couldn’t wait till we got to lay down, it was hot that day!

Cowbelly: As a cover model, what did you have to do? 

C & S: well, we had to look pretty. which, for us pugs is not too difficult, however it was alot of work to try getting them the right shot. we were frustrating our mommy we think, she kept trying to get us to follow commands, but those stinky treats jamie had were just way too hard to resist. we couldn’t help it.

Cowbelly:  What was your favorite part about being a cover model?

C & S: all the people fawning over us! we loved those treats (another pug shout out to jamie!) would have been better though if our trailer had evian and fresh bagels.

Cowbelly: What was your least favorite part?

C & S: the pressure of making sure we were both on top of our game at the same time. Seymour here- it was hard for me to give Charlie the limelight like that. something about his coloring or I dunno. but I sulked for a few hours after we got home just so mom knew I needed attention.

Cowbelly: What was is like working with Jamie?

C & S: pug-tac-ular. (and we don’t give that honor to just anyone, just so you know) she made us feel right at home in front of that camera. we think that it really helped to show our personalities in the shots. plus, there isn’t a person in the world we’d rather go see, she has the best treats and gives us lovin and tells us we are pretty. we like hearing we are pretty. (have we said that yet? anyone who feels like telling us we are pretty gets a pug smile and cute lil head tilt. we promise)

Cowbelly: Would you ever do it again?

C & S: oh yes! in a heartbeat. (ahem, but see question #3 about the bagels please)

Cowbelly: Thank you Charlie and Seymour! I’ll let you get back to your pug-tinis and pawdicures! (They were on the set of their next film ‘Pugs in Paradise’, taking a break).

And here are a couple of outtakes from our cover shoot. Ah yes, being a model is hard work, as any pooch who has worked on assignment with me knows. 

And below you will find my very favorite images from our shoots, what I call “running dogs’ shots. 
 

A couple of weeks ago when I was in bed with food poisoning I stumbled upon a discussion post on theknot.com wedding forum that was posted by a woman who said she loved my work and was jealous. All of her friends replied with “oh there is nothing special about that photography”, “you could totally do that”, “that’s easy.”. To all of those people, I challenge you to get 31 images like this of dogs running in an 8-minute time span and then tell me it’s easy. You can send the link to your 31 photos to info@cowbelly.com. 😉

Hope you enjoyed Charlie and Seymour!!