By Mimi Pollack
Times of San Diego
SAN DIEGO — Imagine being able to combine a love of photography with artistic expression and a love of animals and make a good living at it. Photographer Terran Bayer, does just that with her pet photography business Westway Studio.
Bayer is a pet photographer who comes to you and travels the country. Although San Diego is her home base, she and her husband spend a better part of the year traveling the country in their Airstream, taking photos for both private and commercial clients.
She has both professional clients, including the Wellness Pet Company and West Paw, as well as private clients who hire her for pet portraits. Her work is natural and colorful as she strives to create a piece of art. She wants to create loving memories for dog owners.
Bayer is originally from upstate New York and as she says, she practically grew up in a barn, surrounded by dogs, cats, and horses. Animals were a big part of her life, although she didn’t have any of her own. She mentioned that she was often found caring for neighbors’ dogs, favorite horses at the barn, and rescuing lost pets and injured wildlife.
At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, she studied photography and graphic design, ultimately earning her B.S. in Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication.
After school, she was ready for a change from the snow and cold of the northeast, and San Diego seemed like the perfect escape. In addition, she met her future husband and business partner in college, and he was from San Diego, so they moved west.
When asked how she got into pet photography and her current profession, she replied, “Early in my career, I worked as a graphic designer at a few marketing agencies before moving to the corporate space. Although I made good friends at my corporate job who I enjoyed working with — and keep in contact with today — it wasn’t the right fit for me overall. I ended up taking a big leap of faith and starting Westway Studio, focusing on creative design and marketing.
“Shortly after that, my husband and I adopted our sweet pup, Roxy, from the Helen Woodward Animal Center since I was home all day by myself and wanted some companionship.
“I had kept photography as a hobby all these years and began taking photos of Roxy. One day, a friend commented, ‘you could be a pet photographer!’ This stopped me in my tracks. After some Googling and research, I learned that being a pet photographer was, in fact, a real thing and the course of my life was forever changed.”
Bayer continued by saying that she began her career as a pet photographer by working alone, but soon got her husband, Greg, involved as an assistant. “Now I can’t imagine shooting without him! In the beginning, we focused mainly on photographing dogs for private families and eventually moved into the commercial space, putting together photo shoots for brands.
“No matter if we’re shooting privately or commercially, we aim to tell stories of the relationships we share with our companion animals. When the pandemic hit, Greg and I came to the realization that ‘life is too short’ and we didn’t want to look back with regret, so we decided to move forward with a huge dream of ours: to buy a truck and trailer and travel the country taking photographs.
“I pivoted my business once again to focus more on commercial work — but with a travel twist. We gained three travel sponsors who we shot for every month in new locations. We found dog models and created marketing and advertising images for them in all the new places we went to! It was a win-win: they received beautiful photography that reached a wider audience, and we got to travel the country, living our dream.
“When we began our journey in 2022, Greg left his corporate job of 21 years to join Westway as the official ‘Great American Road Trip Travel Planner and Treat Holder.’”
Together, they traveled all over the country from Florida to Maine with stops in New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Their travel has also led them to the red rock regions of Utah and to the wilds of Wyoming and Montana. They just wrapped up their third season to the Pacific Northwest, spending time on the sprawling beaches and among the tall trees in Oregon and Washington. This year will take them to Arizona and Colorado.
Bayer focuses mainly on dogs and when asked if she had any special tips for photographing them, she replied that meaty treats and cheese helps! It is important for her that the canine supermodels have fun, so they do whatever it takes to make them happy. Sometimes dogs need a little time to warm up or sometimes they need a little space. Sometimes they love people and are happy right out of the gate. It is important to maintain a calm energy, get down on their level, and listen to them and what they need to have a good time.
I first met Bayer about ten years ago when she was doing pro bono work for Lionel’s Legacy, a local non-profit that specializes in rescuing senior dogs. Bayer continues to work with them by taking pictures of dogs up for adoption and more importantly, every year, she helps them by producing a calendar of all the adorable senior dogs. That calendar helps Lionel’s Legacy raise critical funds.
Bayer and her husband also worked with a shelter on their 2024 Great American Road Trip. They photographed 17 dogs and one kitty in a single afternoon to help them all find their forever homes.
Bayer believes that eye-catching photographs are a huge way shelters can help their animals find homes. By getting the animals out of the kennel and into a different environment, potential adopters can get a better sense of an animal’s personality and more easily see that animal as part of their family. She believes photography can help save lives.
With her cheerful, winning personality, it is easy to see how Bayer appeals to both the dogs and the humans helping them. For her, creating photographic art that celebrates the relationships and the bonds we share is so much more than just taking a picture.
Finally, on a sad note, Bayer’s contact companion of 16 years, her dog, Roxy, crossed the rainbow bridge in 2024. Bayer called Roxy an adventure dog to her core, and she had the very best life. She visited 29 states, eight National Parks, and absolutely loved to explore. She was the greatest road trip companion, protector, and adventure buddy.
Hopefully, Bayer will find another furry co-pilot soon to keep her company on her pet photography adventures. Her website is westwaypets.com.
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Mimi Pollack is a San Diego-based freelance writer. This article appeared initially on Times of San Diego, a website with which San Diego Jewish World trades news and features under auspices of the San Diego Online News Association.