Camera captures canine cutie

Photographer’s studio mascot featured in book

Posted: 9/21/07

Rusty in a soapy tub. Rusty dressed in biker gear. Rusty in a tux, with a glass of pink champagne. The possibilities are endless when you combine an adorable dog, a talented shutterbug and a bit of Photoshop.

Photographer Diane Hagler has published a book of whimsical photo illustrations starring her pet Rusty, the official mascot of Diane Hagler Photography, her home-based Burnsville business.

Maroon and white all over, Rusty is a 20-pound cavalier King Charles spaniel with big almond eyes and long, floppy hair cascading from his ears. Hagler and her husband, Gary, bought him as a pup six and a half years ago.

“I didn’t want a dog so I could leave it alone during the day,” Hagler said. “I wanted it to be part of here, a studio mascot.” The Haglers recently bought another cavalier King Charles spaniel, but the pup, Cooper, is still too hyper to sit for photos. Rusty is a little prince.

“He’s kind of a little icon in the studio,” said Hagler, who specializes in photographing children, families, pets and high school seniors. “He’s been in many pictures with customers. Sometimes he sits there and I have to scoot him out. He knows that if his picture’s being taken, he gets a treat. He’s very patient.”

Hagler, 56, got her start in photography as a child, shooting portraits of her little brother on an old Brownie camera. The camera appears under Rusty’s left paw in the cover photo for the book, titled “Will Work for Bones: Life as a Furry Fashion Model.”

Hagler, who has had the home studio for 19 years, started a Rusty fan club, e-mailing cute photos of the purebred to friends and clients. She launched a line of Rusty greeting cards, available locally at Ficus & Fig in Burnsville.

At a photographers convention in January, Hagler showed her Rusty creations to a former workshop teacher of hers, who urged her to compile them in a book.

Working with Expert Publishing of Andover, Hagler invested in 3,000 copies. “It was just a matter of thinking you could do it, and just taking little baby steps,” she said. “Will Work for Bones” contains about 60 photo illustrations, from “Rub a Dub Doggy” to “Lick or Treat.”

“Roses are red, violets are blue,” goes one of the titles. “If I wasn’t neutered, I’d be after you.”

“He has a lot of expressions in his face, so it’s easy to make captions,” Hagler said.

She’ll appear at a book signing Saturday, Sept. 22, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.at the Burnsville PetSmart store, 14290 Plymouth Ave.

For more information about the book or cards, call (952) 432-2236 or visit www.dianehaglerphotography.com or www.rustyscards.com.

John Gessner is at burnsville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.