You have an adventurous spirit and a deep, soulful bond with your dog. If that sounds like you, we’re meant to create something special together.
Your love story ... unleashed
Big White Dog Photography tells the epic love story between you and your dog – muddy paw prints, slobbery kisses and the wild freedom you only find together.
Mountains. Forests. Back roads. Parks in Coeur d’Alene. Doesn’t matter where. If it matters to you, it matters here.
You and your dog share something deep. Raw. Unapologetically real.
I’m Angela. Dog photographer.
I create art for the kind of love that becomes your heartbeat.
The story of Big White Dog Photography
See that big galoot?
That's Shep.
My friend in Calgary called him “that idiot hairbag” because he wouldn’t leave her cats alone.
I called him my soulmate and my copilot in life. He was there for me on days when no human was. He made me feel less alone.
He took me from the big city into the Rocky Mountains where we hiked the Foothills and Banff National Park. He put the camera back in my hands after I’d tossed it several years prior.
How can you be in the most beautiful place in the world with the most beautiful dog in the world and not want to take pictures?
He left my world on Aug. 20, 2014, the worst day of my life. My body still shakes with sobs sometimes when I have days where I miss him.
I have pictures. Hundreds, thousands of images that memorialize our adventures.
And he lives forever in my heart.
See that bitch?
That's Bella.
She came into my life nine days after Shep left. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up and yet I was riddled with guilt about replacing my boy so quickly.
She has never replaced him. She instead has helped me heal from losing him.
We are best friends, glued together as we hike and explore throughout the Inland Northwest. In our free time, we’re location hunting around Spokane and Coeur d’Alene to find epic backgrounds for portrait sessions.
She is fierce, defiant, stubborn and independent – and every one of these traits makes me love her more.
I grin from ear to ear when she’s giving my husband the what-for because it’s time for dinner.
She fills my heart with love every stinkin’ day.
And then there's this jerk ...
Hi, I'm Angela Schneider — storyteller, adventurer, lover of dogs
My mother wanted a pretty little girl she could put in dresses and patent shoes. She got me.
With three brothers, I didn’t stand a chance of being anything but a tomboy. I’m messy. Rough around the edges. I swear a lot … like, a lot. Blame the newsrooms and the hockey players from my former life as a sportswriter.
I’m happiest when I grab Bella and my camera and head for the trails around Spokane and North Idaho.
I’m a recovering journalist who briefly detoured into marketing. Journalism was never just a job. It was a calling. I told stories of athletes, coaches, wins and losses.
I didn’t think I’d get two dream jobs in one lifetime.
Then I found dog photography.
Now I tell a different kind of story – the one between you and your dog.
The one you choose, every single time.
Little bits ... some important bits
- I studied English literature in university. I wrote my senior thesis on dream analogies in Shakespearean works. In two days.
- I own a Nikon M3, a Minolta Maxxum 7000, Pentax K-1000 -- all film cameras. The K-1000 is the first camera I worked with in my journalism career.
- My dream vacations are: the Tuscan region of Italy to visit the homeland of the Maremmano-Abruzzese sheepdog; Greece, because holy shit, they know FOOD; and Australia, because I've met online so many amazing Maremma lovers that I must visit.
- I believe in responsible breeding and in the necessity of rescues and adoptions. If it wasn't for the opportunity to rescue, I never would have met Shep. If it wasn't for responsible breeding, I never would have met Bella.
- I'm LGBTQ2S+ friendly. Nah, I'm LGBTQ2S+-fuckyeah. I love your community. and all of my friends who belong to it.
- Black lives matter. Indigenous lives matter.
- I was bullied and ostracized by the cool girls in junior high and high school. No one gets to feel like a wallflower around me. I will fix your crown.
- I've lived in five Canadian provinces — Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, British Columbia and Alberta — and one U.S. state, beautiful Washington.
- I've visited nine Canadian provinces; I'm missing Manitoba and all three territories on my list. I've visited or driven through 24 states.
Honoring every chapter
Loving a dog always comes with a goodbye. As a certified grief coach and pet loss companion, I offer end-of-life sessions that honor your dog’s life and everything you’ve shared.