Intro by Skip Cohen
Several years ago Tamara Lackey published a blog post about her family’s experience with a new puppy. The short post is below. It’s the perfect reminder of the role pets play in our lives, but like the old expression about the shoemaker’s children needing shoes, so many photographers forget to share their own personal experiences on their blogs.
In the hierarchy of why people hire a professional photographer, the top three are brides, babies and pets. This is from an old Kodak study done over twenty-five years ago and I’m betting the numbers haven’t changed a bit.
Pets become part of the family. From the unconditional love they provide to companionship and security, they fill our hearts with love. As photographers with a blog, they also represent another opportunity for you to share your experiences in posts. Those experiences are seeds of ideas for your clients and put a good blog in a solid marketing role.
As far as dogs go, Molly the Wonder Dog has been by my side for almost twelve years. Fortunately for me, my closest friends are photographers, otherwise I definitely would have been out there with the rest of the population looking for a pro to photograph this special member of the family.
Photo by Cantrell Portrait Design
Two things to think about with this post – first, build your skill set in pet photography. It’s not for everybody, but at the very least you need to know what you’re doing. There are an estimated “78 million dogs and 85.8 million cats owned in the United States. Approximately 44% of all households in the United States have a dog, and 35% have a cat.” *
Second, use your blog to share ideas, not just images from last week’s family sitting, engagement shoot, wedding or other events. Share your personal experiences and the importance of imaging for your own household! Remember, your website is about what you sell, but your blog is about what’s in your heart!
So many of you are always in search of new content when all along it’s been right under your nose!
By Tamara Lackey
After running into two cute puppies in a row – seriously, that’s all it took – we just couldn’t stand it.
We’ve been considering the idea of bringing home a second dog for a while, possibly around the holidays, and we were lucky enough to find this so sweet little pup, who needed to find a family quite quickly. So the date just had to be moved up to accommodate the opportunity.
Not that I’m complaining – also, I’m now considering a full-time job in pet photography. 😉 Our brand new 9 week-old baby is a mix of Australian Shepherd, Boxer, a sliver of Labrador, and who knows what else. And wow is he just all kinds of affectionate snuggliness. It was pretty amazing to surprise the kids with their first gift of the season.
We set up a tree, brought in a wrapped large box – and he just popped out. After the initial shock of “WE HAVE A PUPPY????? ARE YOU SERIOUS????? IS THIS REAL????“, we scoured through tons of names – and we all decided on Dasher. We haven’t done a real photo shoot yet, and omg we will quite soon – but this is his first morning with us, and I just had to break out the big camera. 🙂
Meet the newest member of our family:
