Gold Coast pet photography - frivolous or necessary?
I love finding dog people kindred spirits in the wild. The truth is; sometimes I think what I do is ridiculous. Pet photography on the Gold Coast? How absurd. What an utterly frivolous venture. What a superfluous calling. The Gold Coast is full of people who are struggling with cost of living and finding secure affordable housing, how can I be out here peddling DOG photos??
Then I encounter someone who validates my very SOUL and reaffirms that I’m not the only person whose chaotic scary world is safely, lovingly anchored by four paws, and suddenly I don’t feel quite so foolish – or rather, I feel foolish for daring to doubt the importance of pets in SO many peoples’ lives!
Some stats for you to prove what I mean!
The Gold Coast is a dog-friendly city – there was literally a golden retriever behind the counter at my local PHARMACY this morning, AND in the time I was there, an elderly chihuahua popped in to visit him.
Three quarters of a million people call the Gold Coast home as of 2025, and according to the excellent, extensive survey “Pets in Australia: a national study of pets and people” conducted by Animal Medicines Australia every four years, dogs can be found in almost half (48%) of all households.
According to the 2021 Australian Census, there are approximately 270, 760 households on the Gold Coast – a number which is thousands short of the 2025 numbers, but regardless – by those figures, around 130, 000 households on the Gold Coast have dogs.
The average number of dogs per dog-having-household is 1.3, meaning there are easily around 170, 000 dogs on the Gold Coast!
(Only 60-odd-thousand of which are registered with the Gold Coast City Council, fun fact.) (Maybe if the registration fees weren’t OUTRAGEOUS those numbers would be a bit closer!) (NOT fun fact: it costs $157.95 for a 3-year QLD driver licence. It costs $198 for 3 years of GCCC dog registration if not desexed!) (I WILL NEVER NOT BE MAD ABOUT THIS.)
That’s 170,000 dogs, around 680,000 paws (give or take a few tri-paweds) walking all over Gold Coaster hearts. How DARE I get to thinking I’m the only one who loves their dogs with absolutely everything in me! Every single client I shoot with I hear story after story about how their dog saw them through unfathomably difficult times.
Through the throes of cancer treatment, through domestic violence situations, through abject loneliness, through family emergencies, through post-partum depression, through debilitating anxiety, through deaths and births and everything in between.
They exist for a disgustingly small fraction of our lives, and yet the impact they have and the love they inspire lasts decades after they’re gone. Who WOULDN’T want photos to commemorate that kind of service?
Thus, to the lady in my appointment this morning who asked what I did for a living, exclaimed in delight and then immediately referred to her dog as her “firstborn” – thank you for reaffirming what my heart knows but my anxious, autistic brain often forgets; pet photography is absolutely a necessity for more people than I will ever even know.