The Pet Photographers Club Podcast Archives

As a pet photographer and an animal lover, you’re painfully aware of the limited lifetime that we get to spend with our pets. We all wish that they could be around forever - and we all know they won’t be.

It’s often one of the most powerful reasons our clients hire us for a photoshoot - so how do we communicate it with sensitivity?

In today’s interview with Sam Jacobson of Ideaction Consulting and the Own Your Business Podcast, we dive into this and so many other questions about navigating buyer psychology for higher conversions. He’s an absolute expert in sales, pricing and communication, you definitely don’t want to miss this one!

So you haven't entered the International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards yet. I get it - it can be overwhelming trying to decide on which photo to pick, finding the time to enter - or maybe you're experiencing a lovely dose of imposter syndrome "there's no way I'd ever win, so why bother . . ."

Well, I'm just popping on today to be your own personal cheerleader. You can do this! You LOVE photographing pets. You work hard to constantly improve your business and your photography. Whether you've been doing it for 10 weeks or 10 years, there's a place for you in these awards. Believe in yourself and your art.

Let me tell you, we had so many messages of joy and surprise from photographers around the world last year as the Top 100 and Top 25 shortlists were released. A common response was "I never expected to be shortlisted!" Pet photographers seem to be a humble breed! So if checking out the previous years’ winners has you doubting yourself, set your goal this year to make it into the Top 100. Remember, you’ve got to be in it to win it!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

✔️ Entries are open from 1st - 31st May 2022
✔️ Entry is FREE
✔️ Two experience levels: Emerging and Professional
✔️ Enter four images: Portrait, Action, Pets + their People and Open.
✔️ Club Members get four bonus images to enter
✔️ Six judges: Alex Cearns, Bud Thorpe, Caitlin J. McColl, Charlotte Reeves, Jessica McGovern and the 2021 Winner, Veronika Shandor
✔️ Images are judged on Visual & Aesthetic (e.g. design principles, creative editing, style, composition), Technical Execution (e.g. exposure, focus, lighting, colour + tones) and Judge’s Response (e.g. emotion, mood, creativity, originality)
✔️ Sponsored by The Hantler, Photomechanic, Studio Ninja and The Pet Photographers Club
✔️ Read through the Entry Guidelines here:

Links:

Awards Website: https://thepetphotographersclub.com/awards
Entry Guidelines: https://thepetphotographersclub.com/entry-form
Get Seen - the Step by Step Guide to Getting Publicity with the Awards: https://thepetphotographersclub.com/get-seen

Imagine building up your pet photography business so that you had a luxury studio space with three employees, photographing 250 clients a year - and then closing it all down to roadtrip with your dog across the United States for three months of the year. Terrifying? Amazing? Our guest today swapped her high-end studio for the travelling van life, and doubled her earnings with the transition. She’s built a successful business that supports her adventurous lifestyle - stay tuned for our interview with Arica Dorff as she shares all her secrets and tips for making pet photography roadtrips work. 

If the extent of your branding stops after logo, colours and font, you NEED to tune into today’s interview with Abby Grace Springmann. She is an expert brand photographer, speaker and educator and in this interview Abby Grace teaches us all about how to build a brand that is deeper than just the visuals - including the test to take to find out your superpower and how to distill your communication into 3 key messages.

I challenge YOU! Whether you are just starting out in the world of pet photography, or you’re a seasoned pro, we could all use a little creative challenging. Pushing our photography not only benefits our client work and our portfolio, but it’s good for the soul. You’re a photographer after all - sometimes it’s too easy to get buried in the business, but you wouldn’t be reading this right now if you weren’t, at the heart of it, an image maker.

Challenges force you out of your comfort zone, pushing you to experiment with new ideas and techniques. They can be difficult, forcing you to stretch your artistic muscles and test your skills. But they are so, so rewarding!

Tune into the latest episode for six different challenges for your pet photography. And if you're serious about challenging yourself and improving your photography, don't miss out the next round of Embark by our friends Charlotte Reeves and Craig Turner-Bullock at Unleashed Education.

With six months of fun, creative and education challenges, plus videos, competitions and daily encouragement, it’s the perfect way to push your pet photography to the next level. Embark kicks off May 1st and enrolment closes April 30th. Head over to https://thepetphotographersclub.com/embark to find out more!

Beautiful albums filled with portraits of their beloved pet are the perfect keepsake for our clients to treasure for a lifetime - but if you’re not currently offering albums it can be overwhelming to know where to start! What’s the best size, how much should you charge, how do you design them? We chatted to album expert, Alexandria Baugh from Queensberry to answer all these questions and more.

In the extended episode, we dove into pricing albums. If you don’t yet know your Required Average Sale, there’s a free calculator available to download - just head over to thepetphotographersclub.com/freebies to grab that one!

Also, Queensberry have kindly extended an offer to our listeners for 40% off any sample albums! Just click here to email Alex and find out more.

Listen to the extended episode in the Member Zone

The International Pet Photographer Awards have received global attention with articles in the New York Times, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and more to celebrate the winners and the pet photography niche as a whole.

With this years awards soon approaching, we wanted to give you a bit of insight into what to consider when choosing your images.

Tune in to this weeks episode for a reminder of how judging works, and some of the conversation from our Peer Review last year!

If you haven’t already, be sure to grab your ticket at: https://thepetphotographersclub.com/peer-review-2022

Pugs, Labradors, Dachshunds, Rottweilers - whatever the breed, there are crazy proud pet parents out there excited to celebrate them! Rebecca Kostka of Shy Wolf Photography has tapped into this breed enthusiasm with a marketing strategy that is bringing in new clients each month - tune into today’s episode to hear all about her Breed of the Month campaign. 

p.s. If you love what you hear and want to implement a Breed of the month campaign too, you’re in luck! Bec is currently working on a resource to share all the steps involved so that you can implement your own Breed of the Month campaign. Join the waitlist at thepetphotographersclub.com/breedofthemonth

Our guest today has raised thousands of pounds for dog charities with her trademarked “Catchathon” events and her latest event is garnering attention from news outlets all around the world. So we caught up with Carolyne Cowan of Carrie Southerton Dog Photography to ask her all about Catchathon, charitable marketing and how to host successful photo events.

Click here to listen to the extended episode in the Member Zone, where we dive into the specifics of pricing and marketing fundraising events

Links:
Catchathon
Carrie Southerton Facebook Page
Catchathon Food Banks GoFundMe Page
Get Seen: How to Write Press Release for Pet Photographers
The Pet Photographers Conference - Use Code: LISTENERBONUS to save $50

Have you started thinking about your entries for The 2022 International Pet Photographer of the Year Awards? Entries open on the 1st of May and we’ve got you covered with extra insight into what to enter and how to improve your potential entry, with our Peer Review session on 4th April (EST): https://www.thepetphotographersclub.com/peer-review-2022

In the meantime, tune into this video episode with last year’s winner, Veronika Sandorova of Ve Shandor Photography in Slovakia. She pulled back the curtain to give you behind the scenes insight into her award winning images.

P.P.S. If this interview has inspired you to push your own creativity, one of the classes at the upcoming Virtual Pet Photographers Conference is all about pushing your creativity with Karen Alsop- a master of compositing! Find out more about the Conference and all the classes here: http://thepetphotographersconference.com