Ryan Erickson has photographed a lot of subjects in his career: brides, families, the full parade of human milestone moments. But somewhere along the way, he found his true calling: dogs.
Fetch Photo Truck, his one-of-a-kind mobile dog portrait studio, is exactly what it sounds like. Ryan converted a travel trailer into a fully equipped professional studio, climate-controlled, perfectly lit, and ready for its close-up, then parks it directly in your driveway. “I knew there were parts of traditional portrait photography that I didn’t want to go back to,” he says. No brick-and-mortar, no outdoor reshoot roulette, no loading an anxious golden retriever into the car for a cross-town odyssey. The studio comes to the dog.
The idea was born out of COVID, when the event industry went quiet almost overnight. Ryan watched people convert trailers into tiny homes and thought, essentially: same energy, more dog treats. What emerged wasn’t just a clever business concept but a better way to photograph pets. Dogs that might otherwise be wound up in an unfamiliar studio arrive at their sessions already halfway relaxed. “They’re only a few steps away from a familiar environment,” he says. And if someone forgot a favorite toy or a beloved bow tie? It’s only a few steps away as well.
Ryan, a Colorado native who studied fine art photography at CU Denver, will tell you the technical side matters. Professional cameras, quality lenses, carefully crafted lighting. But he’s clear-eyed about what actually makes a portrait great: “Whether they’re shy, confident, goofy, calm, independent, or completely obsessed with their owner, the photograph should feel unmistakably like them.” That’s the bar.
His black lab, Henry, chief treat-catcher, unofficial business mascot, and reigning head of belly rubs, has been both muse and method. Fifteen years of photographing humans, and it took a dog to teach Ryan what a real subject looks like. The emotional payoff comes at the end of each session, when clients gather in the studio for a same-day slideshow reveal. “I have one of the few jobs where it’s actually a good thing when my clients cry,” he says.
Dogs are only with us for part of our lives. Ryan’s whole business is built around making that part count.
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