Meet the award-winning Columbus photographer specializing in pet portraits
Whether you have a basset hound or a bearded dragon, local photographer Erica and her camera are ready for your pets.
A hospital employee, Erica turned to pet photography as a way to remember her late dog, Kaya, before she passed. She quickly learned she had a serious talent for pet photography (she even took home multiple International Pet Photography awards in 2024 and 2025), and that she seriously enjoyed it. Her company Ash & Alder was born shortly after this in 2021.
“I didn’t start out as a photographer. I got a dog and started photographing that dog, and I loved it. That’s Ash. That’s the basis of my business,” she said, noting the concept was named after two of her labs, Ash and Alder. “I was working at the hospital at the time, but it wasn’t my passion anymore. The art of photography is my passion now, and animals are my everything now.”
Her sessions, which can be shot outside, in her mobile studio or her warehouse studio, typically last an hour per pet, but each animal is different. In fact, she embraces the personality of each pet, and works hard to make sure all of them are comfortable and in their element in order to best capture their essence.
“I’ve really immersed myself in the dog world, and I find dogs tend to really like me too. I’ve had reactive or difficult pet shoots, and the photos turned out great,” Erica said. “Each shoot isn’t all photographs, either. I want to make sure the dogs are enjoying themselves, so we’ll stop to play, or to run around, just making sure they’re having fun too.”
If you’d like to book an Ash & Alder shoot, you can contact Erica here.
While you can purchase prints from your shoot, she also offers a unique service that transforms photos of your pet into a physical “painting” using digital editing tools. She can create these using a photo from an Ash & Alder session, or she can make one of these “paintings” using a photo of your pet you already have.
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