Cooranbong's Shannon Smith placed top 25 in the International Pet Photography award for 2022. The competition featured more than 4000 pieces from across the world and Ms Smith was shortlisted for the Pets and Their People category.

"I was overjoyed with the result," Ms Smith said. "It has been a really tough couple of years so it made my heart sing to get that recognition."

Following a long hiatus from photography, the 42-year-old started her business La Bella Vita around a decade ago and hasn't looked back. Using the terms "whimsical" and "fantasy", Ms Smith said her aim is to push creative boundaries.

"Life can get a bit boring sometimes so I like to get really creative with my shots."

The image that earned Ms Smith a top 25 place was of Hannah Pikkat and her trained pony Lippy laying with a parachute which had been re-styled for the shot.

"It was an old dirty white parachute I got from eBay that I took to Melissa Waite Couture in Newcastle and she did an amazing job making it into a skirt," she said.

"My original vision was for someone to be wearing the skirt while on a rearing horse but the horse that was meant to do the shot was injured not long before."

The shot wasn't easy, Ms Smith said.

"Most people think I took it with a drone but Hannah was laying under an old cottage and I was crouched down on top of the two old beams," she said.

"I don't care how hard it might be. If I get the perfect shot it's worth it."

Having worked with a range of animals, Ms Smith said the strangest, and most difficult, was working with the marmosets at Hunter Valley Zoo.

"They would try and look at their own reflection in the lens so you were working with a monkey hanging off your camera," she said.

"I live on a property with rescued animals so I thought why not try and bring some of the craziness into my work. If I stopped doing these out-there shots I think I would lose my soul.

"They say not to work with animals or children but I tend to combine the two."

Ms Smith said while the COVID-19 pandemic saw the emergence of a number of new amateur photographers, it wasn't easy for many professionals or their clients.

"It was so hard because we were missing crucial times in our clients' lives because of lockdowns," she said.

"Maternity shots, or newborns aren't something that you can do again. People were wanting shoots of elderly family members and they were passing away."

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