Portuguese Water Dog Photography: New England's Dog, Finally on the South Shore
The Portuguese Water Dog has a special place on the New England coast. The breed was historically used by Portuguese fishing fleets — working alongside fishermen, herding fish into nets, retrieving gear from the water, and swimming between boats to carry messages. The New England coast has always felt like natural habitat for them. The Kennedys had Portuguese Water Dogs. The Obamas had them. And the breed is unusually common on the South Shore, where the coastal lifestyle matches the breed's personality perfectly.
I've photographed Portuguese Water Dogs at Duxbury Beach, along the Scituate Harbor tidal flats, at Plymouth Long Beach, and at World's End in Hingham. Each location brings out something different in this breed, and the variety of conditions on the South Shore — from saltwater shoreline to open meadow to wooded trail — gives me a lot to work with. When a PWD owner contacts me, I already have a session plan forming in my mind before we've finished the conversation.
What makes Portuguese Water Dog photography genuinely rewarding is the combination of physical beauty, working dog athleticism, and deep responsiveness to their handler. These dogs are connected to the people they love. They look back. They check in. That quality — the attentiveness — is visible in portraits in a way that's hard to manufacture with breeds that are less people-focused.
The Wavy Coat — Beautiful in Motion and Still
Portuguese Water Dogs come in two coat types — wavy and curly. The wavy coat is the more photogenic of the two for most conditions: it shows individual wave texture, catches directional light along the waves, and moves in wind in a way that's genuinely beautiful. A breeze off the water that ripples a PWD's wavy coat in the right light is one of those moments I'm always positioned to capture.
The curly coat is more compact and responds differently to light. It works exceptionally well with backlight, where the tight curls glow individually at the edges and create a soft halo effect. In flat frontal light the curly coat can look dense and undifferentiated, but backlit it becomes three-dimensional. I adjust my positioning for the coat type within the first few minutes of a session.
Both coats come in black, brown, or parti-color (black-and-white or brown-and-white). Black PWDs require the most technical care — I'll cover that in a dedicated section below. Brown dogs are among the most beautiful to photograph in warm late-afternoon light, where the chocolate tones take on a richness that's genuinely striking. Parti-color dogs present the contrast challenge common to any dog with highly contrasting markings — exposing for the dark regions will blow out the white, and exposing for white risks losing detail in the dark. I bracket exposures and use graduated adjustments in post to resolve this.
Water Sessions — The Natural Environment
Few breeds take to water as enthusiastically as Portuguese Water Dogs. This is an animal that was bred to spend its working life in the ocean — swimming between fishing vessels, diving to retrieve gear, working alongside fishermen in cold Atlantic conditions. That heritage is completely visible in how a PWD moves in the water: confident, efficient, joyful in a way that land-based movement sometimes doesn't fully capture.
If a session permits water access, I always try to get at least one water sequence. The dog wading at the shoreline is straightforward — shallow water with paw splashes, the coat wet at the legs, the dog's attention on something at the waterline. A full swimming sequence — dog in motion, water streaming from the body — requires fast shutter speeds (1/1600 or faster) and a position that puts the dog against sky or a clean water background rather than a busy shore. Emerging from water is the most technically demanding: the coat plastered to the body reveals the musculature beautifully, and the dog's expression is often at its most focused and alive in that moment.
Duxbury Bay, Scituate Harbor's tidal areas, and the beach sections at Plymouth all work well for water sequences. Timing matters — I plan water sessions for low tide when there are more gradual entry points, and I always check whether dogs are permitted in the specific area during the time of year we're shooting.
The Athletic Intelligence — Responsive Working Dogs
Portuguese Water Dogs are working dogs — athletic, highly intelligent, and genuinely responsive. They take direction well and don't need extensive warm-up time the way some more cautious breeds do. Within minutes of arriving at a location, a well-socialized PWD is typically engaged with the environment and ready to be photographed. The combination of responsiveness and energy means sessions can cover a lot of ground and produce a genuine variety of images in a single outing.
The intelligence cuts both ways. A bored Portuguese Water Dog will invent its own entertainment, and that's not always compatible with a photography session. I keep the session moving, vary the locations within a site, and use novel sounds and objects to maintain attention. PWDs are curious enough that a new environment keeps them engaged for longer than many breeds — but I don't take that for granted.
The handler relationship is a major asset in PWD sessions. These dogs check in constantly with their owners — making eye contact, returning after exploring, positioning themselves near the person they love. I use that connection deliberately: I position the handler where I want the dog to look, and the dog delivers the attentive eye contact that makes a portrait feel genuine. This is different from breeds that require treats or noisemakers to create the same effect.
If you're booking a Best Dog Ever session for your Portuguese Water Dog, I recommend building in time for both a water sequence and a land sequence — the two sets of images are visually complementary, and together they tell the full story of this breed.
Black Coat Photography — The Technical Challenge
Many Portuguese Water Dogs are black or black-and-white, and photographing dark dogs is a genuinely demanding technical challenge that I take seriously. A photographer who doesn't understand black dog exposure will produce portraits where the dog looks like a dark void against the background — no texture, no dimension, no visible expression. Getting a black dog right requires a specific set of decisions at every stage from shooting to post-processing.
I overexpose slightly for black dogs — exposing for the dog rather than for the bright background. This is counterintuitive because it often means the background is slightly brighter than ideal, but the dog is the subject, and if the dog is underexposed the portrait fails regardless of how beautiful the background is. I then bring the highlights back in post and recover background detail.
Backlight and side light are essential for black coats. The light wrapping around the dog's outline creates rim detail and separation from the background — you can see the individual waves or curls of the coat, the profile of the ears, the shape of the body. Without rim separation, a black dog in shade disappears. I also look deliberately for backgrounds that are lighter than the dog — pale beach sand, overcast sky, light-colored grasses — to create natural separation.
For a more detailed breakdown of my approach, see my post on photographing black dogs on the South Shore. The same principles that apply to black Labs and black Poodles apply directly to black Portuguese Water Dogs.
Best South Shore Locations for Portuguese Water Dogs
Given the breed's coastal heritage and love of water, I default to waterfront and coastal locations for PWD sessions. The South Shore has excellent options at various times of year.
Duxbury Beach — Off-season (October through May), dogs are typically permitted on most sections of the beach. The long barrier beach offers expansive views, ocean background, and the tidal zone that PWDs instinctively gravitate toward. Morning light from the east hits the beach at a low, warm angle that's ideal for coat texture.
Plymouth Long Beach — Similar character to Duxbury Beach, slightly more accessible. Off-season dog access is good. The jetty area at the north end provides interesting structural backgrounds as an alternative to pure beach shots.
Scituate Harbor tidal flats — At low tide, the tidal areas near the harbor create shallow water access that's ideal for wading sequences without requiring a full water entry. The harbor background — boats, weathered wood, fishing gear — suits the breed's working heritage aesthetically.
World's End, Hingham — For non-water sessions, the open meadow and glacial drumlin landscape at World's End provides a beautiful contrast to the coastal options. The stone walls, hay fields, and ocean views in the distance create a New England landscape backdrop that suits the breed beautifully.
For beach photography considerations that apply broadly to South Shore sessions, my post on beach dog photography on the South Shore covers the timing, access, and technical factors in detail.
Photographing a Portuguese Water Dog on the South Shore?
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About the Author
Chris McCarthyProfessional Dog Photographer · Rockland, MA · 11+ years experience
I've photographed hundreds of dogs across the South Shore and Greater Boston since 2014 — every breed, size, age, and temperament. My own rescue, Sully, was reactive and anxious when I got him, and working with him every day taught me how to photograph dogs that other photographers find difficult. I specialize in reactive and shy dogs, seniors, and memory sessions — the sessions that matter most and need the most patience.