Americans spend an estimated $41 billion dollars on their pets every year. That’s right, 41 billion. Between vet care, premium foods, grooming, toys, clothing and other pampering…this number only proves to me that in most families, animals are just as important as anyone else in the household. However, I don’t need statistics to prove anything. I see how much people care for their animals on a daily basis.

People hire photographers to document their families…but what about the four legged kind? After a few years of photographing multiple subjects with no general focus in my work, I decided to focus solely on pet photography…more specifically, where my passion was; canines. Not everyone I knew was exactly thrilled with the change, (as a matter of fact, I have been called naïve for taking such a leap) but in the last few years I have learned that being a photographer…an artist means following your heart… and when you do what you are passionate about, it reflects in the quality of your work!

Not everyone is willing to pay to have their pet photographed. This is something one has to come to terms with when starting a pet photography business. It can be slow at first. You have to find the right area to market your business. When photographing people, you are guaranteed sessions such as maternity, senior portraits, weddings, and other life events. But with pets? It takes a special type of owner or family to want to immortalize their furkids in portraiture. I have photographed it all- from new arrivals, middle aged dogs, and the hardest sessions of all; the dogs whose days are numbered. Either way, to give the gift of imagery is extremely humbling. 

Being a pet photographer has its perks, but it definitely is not always easy. It requires a lot of patience! With children, (but not always) you have the advantage to give them instructions or direction during a session. With pets this isn’t necessarily the case. My method is to let the dogs do their thing while I wait for the perfect moment, rather than creating that moment. I enjoy taking my subjects outside, at a location where they are comfortable. Natural scenes such as fields, forests, lakes and rivers allow them to have fun while I stay on the sidelines, and get to know them as individuals, photographing them accordingly. It is a different approach than most people treat pet photography in my area, but the response from animal lovers to my work has been amazing! Documenting people’s pets in this manner means no stress on me, the owners, and more importantly- the dogs. Every session is different and exciting.

After several years focusing on canines, it has opened doors to other opportunities I could only dream of- working regularly with other canines such as wolves, dingos, and foxes. Remember, if you pursue your true passions, people will notice!

You can view more of Rachels work on FB: https://www.facebook.com/rachellaurenphoto

Or check out her website: http://rachellaurenphotography.com/

Commitment…you’ve got to have it when you’re a working artist, right? You’ve got to commit to a difficult career path, an often uncertain one to boot. You’ve got to commit to money management and important business decisions and who you are as an artist. All of that is a mountain to climb on your own and maybe it’s got you thinking “I could really use some help.” Maybe your husband or girlfriend or best friend is a photographer as well. Should you team up? Maybe.  Maybe not!

Commitment is terrifying! At least for me…personally I toil over the smallest of decisions, like what I’m wearing on any given day because I know once I choose I’m stuck with it the whole day! The horror! But even considerably less neurotic people fear commitment, so choosing someone to share in your passion, your work and your (gulp) financial future is really scary, and nothing to decide without serious thought and caution.

I went through all the questions, the fears, the worst case scenarios and I write this a couple of years into my business partnership and without a single regret over my choice to team up. Frankly, I lucked out. My partner James and I met on The Hideout’s first incarnation, a close-knit forum started by Michelle Black back in 2008. We got to chatting and discovered that while we lived on opposite coasts (James from Arizona and I from Massachusetts) I actually lived in the same city as his parents! What are the odds, right? Anyway, when James decided he needed a big change, he moved to Massachusetts and the rest is history. Within six months or so, we were shooting weddings together and I have no idea how I managed without him.

Chances are life may not drop a perfect partner into your lap like it did to me, so I’m here to help! What follows is the advice I give when asked “how do I find a great business partner?”

Do you have a similar vision?

Vision is the most important thing in photography, and it’s also the most important thing in business.  Repeat after me! “Without vision, you have nothing!” Vision is what drives us to get out of bed every morning. Vision is likely what brought you away from “safer” jobs behind a desk and into the crazy world of entrepreneurship and self-employed tax status!  Most books on starting a small business start with formulating your vision for a reason! Before venturing into any business endeavor, you should have a clear and easy to explain vision. You should know it by heart. Your reasons for doing what you do should be so crystal clear that you mutter about them in your sleep.  Vision is the first thing you’ll read in an effective business plan, and often the last thing composed when writing one. If you want to work with a partner, you need someone that will share your vision and add to it with their own. This is the highest and most important hurdle to jump if you want to be part of a truly dynamic duo.

The first thing I would ask a potential business partner about is vision. Ask them what they want to bring to photography, who they want to photograph and where they see themselves in five years.  Ask many, many questions!  Here are some examples of good questions to ask a potential partner:

“Who is your ideal client? What does she want from her photography?”

“Where do you want to be in five years?” (If they answer “working alone in Kansas shooting landscapes” and you live in Mississippi shooting weddings…well…this may not be your best match!)

“What do you believe you bring personally to photography? What is your primary reason for doing what you do?”

Even if you’ve known this person your entire life, you will learn something new from asking deep, probing questions about their intentions and dreams. An hour of this kind of back and forth (because you should be talking about these things too!) will leave you with a clear picture of whether or not this person will fit into your own dreams and your business. Like most things in a life worth living, I advise doing this in the presence of delicious coffee.

That said, you don’t have to agree on everything…but having the same overall dream is important, no, VITAL in a business partnership.

So what if you share a similar vision? Is it safe yet? NO!

Do you work well together and complement each other’s visual style?

You and your partner-to-be can have matching dreams of grandeur, but that is only the first step. Step two requires an experiment! Shoot together. You wouldn’t buy a pair of shoes without trying them on, right?

There are two areas to consider.

Style. Do you shoot with a similar flavor? No two photographers (at least I hope) will ever be the same. But when presenting yourselves as a single business, you will need consistency in your work to attract the ideal client. A super traditional wedding photographer probably won’t mesh well with an edgy, modern wedding photographer. It may seem like common sense but you won’t really know until you can view both photographers’ work side by side.

Here’s an example from a recent wedding’s “First Look”, the top is James’ and the bottom is mine.

Technical. When you show your clients their images as a solo photographer, they’ll all (ideally) flow together and have a clear, distinctive style. The color temperature and contrast should not jump around from image to image. When you work as a team, achieving this is a bit harder because you have images from two different photographers, with two different perspectives and often two different monitors in the digital darkroom. Similarly, you should have a consistent final output in terms of post-processing. James and I are test driving the processing services at Shoot Dot Edit and purchasing an Expo Disc this season for this reason to help keep our images consistent in color and processing.

Another technical aspect to consider is using the same or similar camera bodies. James and I have been shooting with different cameras (he’s a Nikon, I’m a Canon) for years and if you’ll allow me to be blunt, it SUCKS! We can’t share anything! We’ll be going all-Canon soon as well…sorry Nikons! I just have more gear!

REMEMBER: This is a relationship.

This is important. Many photography duos are also life duos, husbands and wives, dating couples, best friends and the like. Business partners, like life partners and friends, require open communication and constant upkeep. A married couple may have a date night once a week, and for the same uplifting purposes, I think all business partners need work dates. Take the office to a restaurant or swanky coffee shop and brainstorm over your plates.  Take trips to conferences and workshops, visit exhibits together and get inspired. Running a business can be a stressful career path and you’ll have plenty of late nights and slow patches to add tension to your working relationship, but they don’t have to! When you’re facing the same direction, and motivating each other, there really is no stopping you.  James and I have weekly work breakfasts to catch up on what each other is planning for the week and to bounce new ideas off each other. We shoot models together and separately in our spare time to keep things fresh and are in constant communication about Altared Visions.  If you’re not excited to work together, find someone else.

model photographed by Pam

Have an exit plan.

Eventually there may come a time where one or both of the partners want to move onto other things.  Someone may get a great opportunity in another location or decide to break out on their own and it’s good to have a conversation about that from the start. Decide how you will handle the business name, client lists, and image rights should you ever decide to part ways. Not all partnerships last forever, and they don’t have to. Good partners will support each other no matter where the road leads and the work you do together will be a part of your life’s work forever. That’s pretty awesome.

model photographed by James

Lastly, my number one tip…

Have fun.

This is the most important one! You have to love what you do because life is too short to struggle through a bad career path. James and I have tons of fun working together and the back catalog of goofy light testing photos and funny stories to prove it. Best of all, we have an endless list of new goals to reach in the future and a great support system to stay motivated. Sometimes, two heads are just better than one.

With the help of Tami Jean and Mike Payne of Artistic Cliques Photography, and the many original members clamoring for the return of our beloved online community, we are now just a few weeks away from opening the doors on the NEW and IMPROVED Hideout forum.

New features, new categories, an awesome gallery and a much friendlier interface are just some of the exciting new things happening in The Hideout forum… and some things remain the same: A safe place to make supportive connections, build friendships, and to learn and grow as an artist through peer support. (workshops, tutorials, critiques, resources…and more!)

The biggest new feature is that we are becoming an industry inclusive community. We are pleased to open our doors not only to Photographers, but to Models, Makeup Artists, Hairstylists and the Vendors who supply us with all the gear we need to create our art!

We welcome all levels of experience!! You don’t have to be a professional, or even want to be one in order to join us. We have many hobbyists within our community. All you really need is a passion for your creative photographic expression, behind OR in front of the lens!

We look forward to seeing you VERY soon!