Alex Cearns, based in Perth, Australia, is the founder and Creative Director of Houndstooth Studio, and specializes in creating animal portraits that convey the authentic character and personalities of her furry, feathered, and fanged subjects. She photographs in the studio and in the wild, serving clients ranging from engaged pet lovers, to corporate brands in Australia, the USA and the UK, to more than 40 Australian and international charities and conservation organizations.
Her charming and incisive minimalist animal pictures have been published worldwide in media, books, magazines, and ad campaigns. She has been honored with more than 200 awards for photography, business, and philanthropy, inspiring countless others with her passionate advocacy for the world’s creatures. Not surprisingly, Cearns has over 120,000 followers on Facebook, is a frequent radio and TV guest and lecturer, and is a published author with two new ABC Books/Harper Collins books due out in 2018.
Cearns’ lifelong love of animals began during her formative years in the South Australia outback where her father was a sheep shearer and wool valuer. Playmates were often hard to come by as an only child living in a succession of speck-on-the-map towns, so dogs, guinea pigs, horses, rabbits and bottle-fed lambs became her best friends.
“I still speak to animals like they’re people,” she says with a smile. “In fact, to me, animals are just as unique as humans, and I feel the distinctive character of every creature I meet.”
Guided by her family’s great affection for Australian wildlife, she gained an early education on how to care for injured marsupials, birds and other creatures. “My childhood memories are of orphaned joeys (baby kangaroos) and baby possums wrapped up warmly in front of the fire,” she recalls, “and various types of lizards rehabilitating in boxes in the kitchen.”
At age 10, Cearns and her family moved to the rugged iron ore mining town of Tom Price, in Western Australia, where she spent much of her spare time exploring the surrounding red desert area with her dog, Ally. At age 19, she decided to follow her favorite aunt’s footsteps, joining the Western Australian Police Service, serving as police officer for seven years, and another seven as a crime analyst.
In 2005 she changed course, transferring to the Australian Federal Government and working for the next five years as a Senior Transport Security Inspector, auditing country and remote airports in Western Australia (WA) on their counter-terrorism security measures.
“Meanwhile, my love of animals never wavered,” she reflects. “And when the huge amount of travel my job entailed sparked an interest in photography, my lifelong passion of animals and my new hobby unexpectedly collided.”
Fortunately, many of the airports she audited were situated in some of WA’s most beautiful locations, and when a friend lent her a digital SLR camera, she began to appreciate the unlimited visual scope digital photography afforded and became fascinated with the possibilities. She eventually invested in a complete DSLR outfit and accessories, and spent every spare moment studying photographic literature and practicing her craft.
“Animals became the focus of my newfound passion for photography and I eagerly took pictures of my own dogs and cats, my friends’ pets, rescued companion animals from local shelters, and rescued wildlife from sanctuaries in Perth,” she says. “I also tried photographing in other genres, but animals gave me the most joy, which is what you need to feel to get the best results.”
Signs of a future career in photography emerged during a work trip to the Cocos Keeling Islands in 2008 when Cearns visited a remote breeding facility for giant blue clams. Mesmerized by their vivid and distinctly different colors, and hoping to capture their extraordinary beauty with her camera, she stood silently over the breeding ponds waiting for the clams to open when the water was still enough for a clear shot.
“My patience paid off,” she happily notes. “One of the resulting images received so much positive attention from friends and other photographers I felt encouraged to enter it into several major photo contests. ‘Blue Clams’ placed in several competitions and that led to my work being represented by two art galleries. That was the turning point, the moment I realized that for me photography had become something more than just a hobby.”
Right after her “aha” moment, Alex Cearns was clocking 100 hours a week, working on her animal photography while maintaining a full-time government job. After several months of careful planning and converting a small back room in her home into a purpose-built photography studio, she resigned from her government job and launched her new business under the name Houndstooth Studio. Eight years later, Houndstooth Studio is a well-established, highly-esteemed enterprise operating in a large, well-appointed off-site space—and it keeps Cearns very busy photographing roughly 1300 animals per year, both in the studio and on location.
The key elements that define Cearns’ style and make her images stand out are minimalism and graphic simplicity. As she says, “I don’t like a lot of background distraction and I’m quite a purist when it comes to my animal subjects — I prefer them to be collar- and accessory-free, not wearing outfits, adornments, etc.”
In the studio, she typically shoots against black fabric and white paper backgrounds, and lately she’s been leaning toward black-background images. “I find that a black background emphasizes coat color and looks quite arty, which is great when you’re providing artwork for people’s homes,” she observes. “It’s a bit of a fine art touch to shoot light-dark-coated animals well against a black background, and I love photographing black dogs against a black background.”
For her outdoor images she favors clean block-color backgrounds, blurring them out to create even patterns and tones. They’re quite similar to her studio images that also have clean, distraction free backgrounds. “Overall, I’d say I’m mostly a portrait photographer, not an action photographer,” she remarks. “I aim to capture the osprey sitting in the tree or holding the fish, not the osprey catching the fish. I love big close-up face shots, and character filled portraits showing an animal’s distinctive personality.”
We asked Alex Cearns how she sees her mission, both as a photographer and as a human being, and she simply said: “The aims of my photography are to capture uplifting and positive images that evoke a heartfelt connection between the viewer and my subjects, to celebrate the unique personalities of beloved ‘fur kids’ for their ‘parents,’ be a vocal advocate of animal rescue—to speak for those who can’t, and to provide excellence in everything I do as a professional photographer.”
She’s also very passionate about animal rescue and conservation, and uses her photography as a powerful medium through which to communicate, connect and educate. She also provides pro bono photography services, and spearheads fundraising projects and sponsorships, working with approximately 40 state, national, and international animal charities, farm and wildlife sanctuaries, and rescue shelters.
“I believe that all businesses, no matter how big or small, have the ability to help those in need and to make a difference by offering something of themselves,” she adds. “I know that the right image, viewed by the right person can lead to more adoptions, greater awareness for the cause, and increased donations to promote the preservation and ethical treatment of animals worldwide.”
Alex Cearns’ camera outfit consists of a Canon EOS-1D X Mark II camera body () and a full complement of Tamron lenses.
“As a Tamron Pro Team Member, I’ve been using Tamron’s Super Performance (SP) series lenses exclusively now for the past 4 years, and I shoot thousands of images a week using them,” she explains. “I’ve been with Tamron since the inception of their SP series and I love their lenses because they help me get the shots I need.” In the studio her go-to lens is the Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 (), and when shooting outdoors she relies on the Tamron SP 70-200 f/2.8 Di VC USD G2 (), Tamron SP 150-600 f 5.6-6.3 G2 (), and the Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro lens ().
“In the studio I use Elinchrom lighting equipment,” she says, “and I wear a Spider Holster camera belt when I’m traveling or working off site (it saves stress on my neck and enables me to be hands-free) and I back up my images using Seagate and LaCie drives. I only endorse products I trust and use regularly. I’m also a creature of (bad) habit and I never use a tripod and rarely use on camera flash when working outdoors.”
What motivates Alex Cearns and fulfills her dreams? She says it best herself: “Animals are vulnerable, precious and need our care and protection, and that’s why I’m driven to use my images to assist rescue organizations all over the world. Along the way I’ve met incredible people who dedicate their lives to helping animals, and have come to know many incredible animals. I’ve had some marvelous experiences and I know some people St. Francis of Assisi would be honored to meet.”
The first of Alex Cearns’ new books for 2018, to be released in March, is entitled Perfect Imperfection. It showcases the intrinsic beauty and spirit, sweetness, resilience and strength of dogs with disabilities. “It’s inspiring and heart-warming. They all live happy, full lives and are loved by their humans,” notes Cearns. You can now preorder the book. To learn more about Alex Cearns and to see more of her work visit her website, Facebook, or Instagram @houndstoothstudio.
