Pet Photography classes?

[MissKitty]

Has anyone ever taken a pet photography class?

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

I haven't but it does sound fun---a nice addition to your groom salon!

I wanted to tell you I like your screenname. My husband's nick name for me is "Miss Kitty." He always calls me Miss Kitty and I have NO idea why. I asked him once and he said "Because you look like a kitty." But I just asked him again a moment ago, and he said, "Oh, I don't know." We arrive at the store or restaurant and he says, "Here we are Miss Kitty."

Tammy in Utah

[Pixie]

Haven't taken any but I play around a little with it in my shop.

I noticed on the TV, I think it was, where they had an advertisement for Pet Photography classes ( Now I think I saw it in last monts Groomer to Groomer Mag.) It was a LOT of money!!!!

[mskittylitter]

I have a professional photographer come in 3 to 4 times a year and do photo's. He has been in the business over 20 years. He does a great job and its too much work for me to have all the equipment he has to make the pictures look natural. He uses digital (doesn't everyone) and downloads them on his laptop, clients pick and choose from there. He then crops and fixes them at the studio, prints and mails them to you. He is amazing, we even got all 5 of my cats in one photo! Talk about good!
I take pix of all the pets that come through the salon, put them on my PC. I run my screensaver as a slide show using the folder where all the pix are and the monitor sits on the counter. Clients love seeing their pets "on the screen" Each photo rotates every 8 seconds. Amazed at how much the clients enjoy this and gather round the screen and watch.

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

I have a professional photographer come in 3 to 4 times a year and do photo's. He has been in the business over 20 years. He does a great job and its too much work for me to have all the equipment he has to make the pictures look natural. He uses digital (doesn't everyone) and downloads them on his laptop, clients pick and choose from there. He then crops and fixes them at the studio, prints and mails them to you. He is amazing, we even got all 5 of my cats in one photo! Talk about good!
I take pix of all the pets that come through the salon, put them on my PC. I run my screensaver as a slide show using the folder where all the pix are and the monitor sits on the counter. Clients love seeing their pets "on the screen" Each photo rotates every 8 seconds. Amazed at how much the clients enjoy this and gather round the screen and watch.

Do you make any revenue off of this? If so is it that beneficial to your business? What are the benefits of having an outside photographer come in? This is something I Have thought of, because I am NOT the pet Photrapher type, lol.

Tammy in Utah

[hairdevil]

Tammy? do you call your hubby Marshall Dillion? rofl ms kitty sounds better than dog lady! LOL

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

Tammy? do you call your hubby Marshall Dillion? rofl ms kitty sounds better than dog lady! LOL

Call me dumb, but who is Marshall Dillion? Never heard the name.

Tammy in Utah

[rapuzzled]

Call me dumb, but who is Marshall Dillion? Never heard the name.

Tammy in Utah

it's a gunsmoke reference! ms kitty ran the local saloon.

(I'm 24, so waaaay before my time, but my grandparents are big fans, so I've seen more of the show than my fair share, lol)

[Admin]

Pet Photography Ideas

I've known groomers that moved on to becoming pet photographers. One of the best in the grooming industry is Ren Netherland at www.animalphotography.com who does most of the photos at the various trade shows in the pet industry. He even did our photo of the bichon on the notebook above, and we have a gallery of his work here at www.petgroomer.com/galleries.htm and occasionally Ren teaches as well. I think the key is that the photographer has to have a remarkable way of controlling and animating the pets...you can see that in the photos in his gallery here and at his web site, he has that talent.

I know quite a few groomers that have a pet photographer come by their medium or large size salon once a month and spend a few hours taking pictures of freshly groomed pets. Then the pet owners can order sets of photos. This day is usually booked solid. Pet owners sign up days or weeks in advance. The grooming business owner gets a percentage of sales.

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

Ahh, that is why I'd never heard of him.

Wait, there is a country song where the singer says, "Have you ever heard ol' marshall Dillon say, 'Miss Kitty have you ever thought of runnin' away, and settlin' down, would you marry me...if I asked you twice and begged you pretty please" (or something like that.

Ah ha, now I know where that line came from. My family was never into westerns except Bonanza and a few John Wayne movies, but that's about it!

Thanks for clarifying

Tammy in Utah

[mskittylitter]

Tammy: Our photographer petpix.com gives us $5.00 for every sitting. He gives us our session free and hooks us up with whatever photo's we want. We get them taken about 2 times a year and can choose from anything he offers...8x10's or cards or ?? We get to pick. He is really great and we have a good time when he comes to the salon. He also promotes us on his website and provides all the brochures and signs and flyers. Nice guy, great with the pets and better with the clients which is harder!!!

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

Tammy: Our photographer petpix.com gives us $5.00 for every sitting. He gives us our session free and hooks us up with whatever photo's we want. We get them taken about 2 times a year and can choose from anything he offers...8x10's or cards or ?? We get to pick. He is really great and we have a good time when he comes to the salon. He also promotes us on his website and provides all the brochures and signs and flyers. Nice guy, great with the pets and better with the clients which is harder!!!

If only he were in Utah...

Sounds like a winner to me, and a good situation, too. Thanks for the information, I had heard of taking photos of pets at salons but I wasn't sure how the "pay" went.

Thank you again.

Tammy in Utah

[mustluvdogs1]

Miss Kitty

I would like to see a photo of Mr Kitty. Maybe someday I will do oil paintings of my clients dogs, I am not a photographer, but my neice Elena is taking photo classes at Long Beach City College. If I ever see her again I think she woulkd not be interested in photographing dogs.I thinbk it obviously could be a lucritive business.....and creative. All my Schnauzer pictures are amature, but they were fun.

[MissKitty]

[QUOTE=Admin;32653]I've known groomers that moved on to becoming pet photographers. One of the best in the grooming industry is Ren Netherland at www.animalphotography.com who does most of the photos at the various trade shows in the pet industry. He even did our photo of the bichon on the notebook above, and we have a gallery of his work here at www.petgroomer.com/galleries.htm and occasionally Ren teaches as well. I think the key is that the photographer has to have a remarkable way of controlling and animating the pets...you can see that in the photos in his gallery here and at his web site, he has that talent.

I looked him up and I did email him on Friday but I did read that he only holds classes once a year in Florida but its in the mid summer. Thats just too busy a time of year for me to take off for classes. I was hoping he would offer some class at Groom Expo in Hersey or even the one Las Vegas in September. Thats a much better time of year for me to take off. For me to go away for a week or so in mid July would cost me three times as much as it costs to take the course. I would however sign up for a class in fall or winter or even early spring but not summer.
Is there someone that does it for the Las Vegas trade show? I did email Barkleigh. I probably wont hear back from them till the weekdays.