How to Be a Pet Photographer in a Post Pandemic World | #DingleDaysPodcast 008

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Geryah interviews Monique Renee of silverpawstudio.com about how to be a pet photographer in a post pandemic world. The interview also touches on what it has been like to experiment with new ideas, sessions, and ways of doing business to reach a remote audience and aid pet parents who are wanting to continue, “Telling their tales with tails” and the explosion of pet adoptions in 2020 and how pet photography helps provide reach for organizations, such as the Animal Friends Alliance.

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LET’S TALK ABOUT PET PHOTOGRAPHY IN A PANDEMIC:

During the interview with Monique Renee, Geryah Dingle discussed the Silver Paw Studio approach to pet photography during a global pandemic and how Monique's systems and processes have changed. The interview delves into discussions on studio environment vs. outdoors (on-set) in Colorado, the pros and cons of renting a photography studio, Monique's YouTube video "FaceTime Photoshoot Virtual Portrait Session," pet portraits vs. human subjects, dog photography at-home ideas, and much more.

Background

Monique Renee, Furtographer, is the owner of Silver Paw Studio in Northern Colorado. Her mission is to empower you to tell all your Tales with Tails through photography and videography. Silver Paw Studio emerged from her nearly 15 years in the veterinary industry fused with her experience as a "people" portrait photographer.

Every week Monique volunteers to photograph adoptable animals at Animal Friends Alliance. A member of HeArtsSpeak, she also volunteers for special projects at other shelters and rescues throughout the country. Bailey, her fluffy little mix dog, Bruno & Ingrid, the finches, saltwater, and freshwater fish all share their home with Monique & Steve in beautiful Loveland, Colorado. Monique speaks at local and national conferences, hosts the podcast Tales with Tails, posts new pet photography-related videos on YouTube, started the NoCo Pet Pack group, and can spot a pupper from 1000 feet away in any setting.

Top Three Things To Consider Before You Ever Pick Up A Camera

Safety

Monique considers safety to be the number one priority. As someone who does a lot of photography at rescues, too, even when she's photographing a cat, she doesn't want them to fall or jump off the table. If a dog is afraid of you, what can you do? One should ask themselves, can I put a longer lens on? If that animal doesn't even want to be photographed that day, another thing to consider is rescheduling. You have to think of safety for the people and animals.

With her experience doing a lot of on-location photography and knowing many locations have pretty strict leash laws, she knows clients can leave the leash on the dog, since she can edit it out later in post-production. During the interview, she stated, "I can edit out the leash, don't you worry about it." Safety is number one!

Behavior

Knowing the behavior of different types of animals, especially differences between cats and dogs, is critical. Different things entice them. Monique did a video recently on her YouTube channel, where she explains that dogs love loud sounds, and she depicted this with knocks on the door, squeakies, etc. Cats hate that.

Cats want to see something visual. They don't want to hear the sounds. They want to see something flick and swish in front of their face. So that's the behavior portion from the perspective of a pet photographer.

Patience

Sometimes, you need to let animals settle in. During the interview, Monique told a story about a session where she was with a lot of dogs. She had to have the patience to figure out if this dog doesn't like to be next to that dog, or to recognize when a dog needed more time to settle in, or know when to put a dog away for a little bit.

She noted that it's so crucial for pet photographers to let the client, helper, or whoever you are working with, know "This is normal. We're going to work through this." Even though having a massive amount of patience is good, it's still number three overall on Monique's list of being a pet photographer.

Safety and understanding the basics of animal behavior are the critical enablers, followed very closely by patience.

Things To Consider When Photographing In Different Environments

You have to be careful in the studio that the animals don't knock over lights and things like that. So use weights for your stands and equipment. When available, ensure you close the door and develop a very pet-friendly environment. Having a contained space is critical in the studio environment.

When you are on location, there is often a significant natural area. There may be trees and fields and ponds and water and eagles and bunnies. There are so many distractions and other people walking by or riding their bikes. So Monique recommends photographers frequently watch the periphery for all of those things- this relates to safety being number one.

You might find yourself in the middle of a photo session, and someone's coming down the trail. And you have to see that because if you are working with a reactive dog or an excitable dog, you may find yourself like, "Darn it. I just got him [the dog] in position, and here comes this jogger." It would be best if you always think of the safety element out in public

If you're photographing dogs at someone's property or their yard, that's a little bit different, but there's still bunnies and birds and neighbors and bodies of water. So, it would help if you still were continually thinking about safety. Once you know all of the technical pieces, it's much easier to be aware of all that. So, safety.

It would then help if you tried to match your energy to your desired state for the dog. If it's a dog that's kind of like, "Doop de doop de doo," but the owner wants a little bit more oomph, "You got to sit up now, honey," then you should be a little bit more, "Woo hoo, come on, let's go!" If it's a puppy going a little too high, then you should bring yourself down, "This is how we're going to be."

And then, of course, the patience. Sometimes, those parks and natural areas have a lot more people in them, even though you should try to find those quieter places and times.

Things Dog Owners Can Do To Prepare For A Pet Photography Shoot

Understand that the session may look chaotic, but it will be fine. The photographer has a very different view from behind the lens.
Try to relax and be as comfortable as possible.
Take your dog for a walk or exercise them before the shoot.
Don't bust out the treats right away; you may not need them!
Don't feel obligated to go out and buy new collars and leashes and bandanas if you do not want to.
Wear something that contrasts, but compliments
Expect the sessions to be about an hour - it can be both exhausting and fun.

How Some Pet Photographers Are Accommodating the Covid Environment

Conduct consults by phone, Zoom, or another remote platform
Wear a mask, whether outside or inside
Use a long lens (ex: 70-200mm zoom lens), so you can move further away from the subject.
Offer shorter shoot sessions - target puppy milestones or other aspects of a pet’s life
Complete questionnaires ahead of time
Conduct the gallery review online - you want a lot fewer in-person meetings
Have some fun and do virtual photo sessions! Just keep your expectations in-check concerning the resolution quality of your photographs until remote mobile technologies advance a bit more.

📲 Connect with Monique Renee Online & Social Media

Tales with Tails Podcast here: https://anchor.fm/taleswithtails/
Photography tips and pro-insights: https://www.youtube.com/c/SilverPawStudioFortCollins
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silverpawstudio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silverpawstudio/
Join The Pack Bulletin: https://bit.ly/THEpackbulletin
Join Pro Pet Photographers email group: https://bit.ly/petphotobiz
📺 FaceTime Photoshoot | Virtual Portrait Session https://youtu.be/swwd0ug4UEA

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD MY FREE K9 SCENT WORK SCORESHEET!

HERE ARE THE KEY TAKEAWAYS OF THIS EPISODE:

[00:00] Intro

[04:13] How the Silver Paw Studio /Dingle Days Connection Happened

[05:52] What made Monique want to transition from the veterinary space to the pet photography space?

[08:21] Monique’s experiences as a pet photographer and some of the things newbies need to think about when getting started.

[09:21] The top three things to think about before you ever pick up a camera

[09:26] Safety

[10:11] Dog behavior

[10:43] Patience

[12:27] Pet photography pros and cons (studio environment vs. the great outdoors)

[15:01] Working with distractions

[15:51] How to prepare for first pet photography shoot

[17:08] Pet photographers making the client feel comfortable

[17:43] The importance of exercise

[20:23] Changes due to COVID environment

[22:57] FaceTime Virtual photo sessions

[26:07] Pet photography Rapid Fire Questions

-Toughest part about being a pet photographer

-Favorite pet photographer resources, YouTube or otherwise

-Thoughts on Instagram for pet photography?

-Advice to her younger former self just starting out in pet photography

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