How to get started...

[Sammie_Lou]

I'm thinking that I'd (eventually) like to start a pet photography business. I love trying to capture the personality of animals. I know that I'm nowhere near ready yet and I still have a lot of practicing to do (and a lot of equiptment left to buy), but I thought that I should probably start building a portfolio as I'm practicing. So, a few questions for you all. When building your portfolio, do you have it all electronic or do you have a hard copy?? If you do have a hard copy, where do you get your photos printed?? I don't want to spend all this time perfecting the images just to have them printed at Wal-Mart and come out looking crappy. Also, how did you go about approaching people to ask them to "practice" on them when you started out?? I'm thinking of asking people I know who have pets to let me come over to do some candid shots of them. Would it be standard practice to offer them a disk with the photos of their pet on them as "payment" for letting me practice?? I'm not sure that I'd get enough practice with just that, so I've thought about contacting some of the local animal shelters and rescues to see if they'd like me to come in and do the photos that they put up on their websites of adoptable pets. Having a nice quality photo of the pet might make it easier to find them homes, right?? Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[camz]

Both prints and digital - can't limit yourself to one platform.

Digital portfolio will come in handy if you are going to build a website or a blog which will reach a wider audience. It will probably be the first impression of you by your potential clients and will cut down your labor factor as far as marketing your work.

I think nothing beats a physical set for a portfolio. I don't know how many times I've heard clients and potential clients say that there's nothing like touching and feeling a spread as they turn the page of an album or portfolio. It really puts the concepts and manifests it into tangible terms - to me that's why there is the attraction in physical prints. Not to mention that there are many that still don't use the computer as a main media. Also if they are using a computer, who knows that type of resolution or quality they have when viewing work. Showing a physical album or portfolio is key as you have full control over it. It really closes the deal in my experience.

Do a pilot marketing with your immediate circle first...friends, family etc etc. Do the dry run first and it will tell many things on what you need, what your style is, who to market to, what your product will be. It's tough to give advice on specifics like "product" as it really should be up to you what your business output should be.

Finally rub shoulders with other pet photographers in your area and to get some industry experience added with your own perception of what should be done(your experience from the dry run). You'll probably have most of your answers once you get to this stage.

Good luck!