My 2nd pet photography day

[pake]

I've been waiting for two clients to finally make their orders but I guess I should just go ahead and post this already. So... It was time for my second pet photography day at a local pet store. (You can read about the first one here: https://www.mu-43.com/threads/my-first-pet-photography-day.111156/ ).

The location was the same but this time I was shooting on a Friday instead of Saturday and had a bit longer day (ie. more customers). The gear I used was the same as before:
- Olympus E-M5III
- Olympus M.Zuiko 12-100mm f/4 PRO
- 2x Godox AD200 with 43" umbrellas (+ Godox TT685o for a couple photos)
- two stands for the backdrop and one c-stand for the AD200s (one on top of the model, one next to the camera at 40-80cm height). Actually the stands were different ones than before but you can't tell it from the photos so that's pretty irrelevant.

Last time my very first model decided to pee on my backdrop but this time I was lucky enough to avoid such incidents. And none of the models tried to hide under the sofa either so I really can't complain about anything. Everything went smoothly and got plenty of good photos. Even though I had raised my prices from the previous shoot I still got plenty of orders. Actually I think I even got more orders per customer than last time...

Anyway, I'm sure people want more pictures and less mumbling so let's get started then.

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Eddie - EM533584 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Eddie, a Newfoundland puppy.

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Nipsu - EM533647 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Nipsu, a Newfoundland adult.

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Domi - EM533708 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Domi, a 7-year-old Newfoundland.

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Miki - EM533837 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Miki, a 2-year-old poodle.

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Maukka - EM534038 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Maukka, a 5-year-old mixed breed.

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Sofi - EM534211 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Sofi, a 5-year-old Pomerian.

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Zeta & Fili - EM534298 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Zeta (9.5-year-old) & Fili (~2-year-old), two Lagotto Romagnolos.

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Pipsa & Tessa - EM534429-edit by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Pipsa (~3-year-old) & Tessa (6.5-year-old), Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.

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Pipsa - EM534444 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Pipsa, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.

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Tessa & Pipsa - EM534466 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Tessa (6.5-year-old) & Pipsa (~3-year-old), Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.

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Lupu - EM534498 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Lupu, a 17.5-year-old mixed breed.

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Waltteri - EM534708-sepia by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Waltteri, a 3-year-old Mastiff.

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Waltteri - EM534726 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Waltteri, a 3-year-old Mastiff.

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Waltteri - EM534802 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Waltteri, a 3-year-old Mastiff.



Hopefully the two clients who haven't yet decided which photos to buy, will be giving me their orders too so I can add them to this thread as well. They were both gorgeous dogs (an Akita puppy and a Rottweiler) and I did get good photos of them as well.

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EDIT:
Got the order from the Akita puppy owner so here's a couple of shots of Hiro the puppy as well.

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Hiro - EM533979 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Hiro, an 11-week-old Akita

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Hiro - EM533965 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Hiro, an 11-week-old Akita

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More texts and photo of the event can be seen on my website: https://teemup.net/blog/lemmikkikuvauspaiva-kapalavaessa-2021-05/

Hope you enjoyed these and there will be more soon as I did have another similar event only a week later.

 

[John King]

Congrats, Teemu.

 

[pake]

Congrats, Teemu.

Cheers!

 

[retiredfromlife]

Very nice pet shots.

I think I like the ones best that are not as tight in the frame, especially those two brownish dogs

 

[pake]

Very nice pet shots.

I think I like the ones best that are not as tight in the frame, especially those two brownish dogs

Thank you!

I think I agree with you but the owners didn't. More tight crops sold than loose ones. I try to cover everything when shooting and let the clients decide which ones to edit/finish. And more variety means more sold photos as well.

 

[szczepanl]

Outstanding shots. I think I agree with @retiredfromlife and you about the tight vs. wider pictures but at the end the customer has to be happy.

 

[PakkyT]

I think I agree with you but the owners didn't. More tight crops sold than loose ones.

I would suspect that this is because owners get lots of wide angle shots of their pets so those seem common to them and either can't get tight shots for whatever reason (slow equipment, lack of technical ability, lack of flash equipment to make a black face show up well, etc.) or never really thought of it until they saw yours. The tight shots are a novelty to them.

 

[Apollo T.]

EXCELLENT
I think you have found YOUR niche.

 

[demiro]

Great stuff Teemu. I hope you kept that Mastiff happy. He could end your E-M5iii in one big bite.

Is this sort of pet photography common in Finland? It seems like a great way to offer the service, at what I'm sure is much more reasonable price than scheduling a basic portrait shoot for your pet.

 

[pake]

EXCELLENT
I think you have found YOUR niche.

Thank you very much! Made my day.

Great stuff Teemu. I hope you kept that Mastiff happy. He could end your E-M5iii in one big bite.

Is this sort of pet photography common in Finland? It seems like a great way to offer the service, at what I'm sure is much more reasonable price than scheduling a basic portrait shoot for your pet.

Thank you! Oh yes, I kept him happy. He did scare the **** out of one other customer who came into the store after the photo shoot though! The Mastiff (Waltteri) took a couple of quick steps towards the customer who came in and barfed once. The guy was literally climbing the walls and didn't seem as amused as we were afterwards...

Now that I've started studying my competition I know there are a few "famous" pet (mostly dog & horse) photographers here. A couple of them have gained name abroad as well. But in general this a genre where I have a chance. It feels like there's a million (good) photographers shooting people here but pet photographers seem to be missing. And to be honest, most of the pet photographers here aren't that good. At least based on their galleries. But the best ones are really good.

People do seem to organize these pet photography events every now and then (at least on Valentine's Day, before Christmas etc.) but I haven't seen that many close by. I saw an opportunity and took it. Three events in two months. Had enough clients every time. And I can now use the photos I've taken to promote upcoming events much more efficiently. Wait until you see the photos from my latest event! I can confidently say that I took my photos to the next level.

I have tried to get clients to come to my garage studio but that hasn't worked as I hoped. But that's OK since I've now learned I can earn as much (or even more) per client with these events at pet stores - even with lower prices (compared to the single/private photo shoots). And I also don't have to spend 15-30 minutes per client to set up the studio as I get 8-12 clients per event and only have to do it once.

I have thought about organizing these events once per 1-2 months and see if I can get enough customers with such pace. And I've already been invited to go and shoot in two other towns as well. So who knows how this will evolve...

 

[demiro]

Very impressive Teemu. And I'm sure your love for dogs makes this seem a bit less like work. I think we see it in your images as well. Please keep us posted, and share those 'next level' shots!

 

[Kalifornier]

Lovely set!

 

[pake]

Very impressive Teemu. And I'm sure your love for dogs makes this seem a bit less like work. I think we see it in your images as well. Please keep us posted, and share those 'next level' shots!

Thank you! I do enjoy every minute of it so I can hardly call it work.

Yep. Those "better ones" will pop up here eventually.

 

[pake]

Just added two more photos as I got the order from one of the clients. Two photos of an adorable Akita puppy added to the opening post.

 

[gwydionjhr]

Great job!

I did a Christmas shoot at a pet store pre-covid. For what it's worth, my AD200s got me through 500-600 shots, I was using HSS. These were for Christmas cards, so customers were generally only looking for a single image. One customer every 15 minutes for 6+ hours. I kept some Nature's Miracle (odor neutralizer) handy, I found once one dog had pee'd on the set, the other dogs went straight to it and were likely to try to life a leg on it as well. A nervous/scared piddle was worse as the following dogs got a whiff of it, and reacted to it.

For dogs that ignore squeakers/whistles try some animal sounds with an app on your smartphone.

One thing I like about the AD200s is how modular they are. The ADB2 allows you to combine two together so you've got a 400W flash.

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Another way I use AD200s is with the cable extensions, the heavy head units are in the backpack and I only have the very light flash heads (right) mounted to my camera on an L-bracket or (left) held with my hand. I figure OCF is one of the few things we've got left that can separate our work from what folks can get with their smartphones.

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[BrentC]

Excellent photos! Only criticism, maybe a little too sharp?

 

[Bob in Pittsburgh]

Great portraits!

 

[pake]

Great job!

I did a Christmas shoot at a pet store pre-covid. For what it's worth, my AD200s got me through 500-600 shots, I was using HSS. These were for Christmas cards, so customers were generally only looking for a single image. One customer every 15 minutes for 6+ hours. I kept some Nature's Miracle (odor neutralizer) handy, I found once one dog had pee'd on the set, the other dogs went straight to it and were likely to try to life a leg on it as well. A nervous/scared piddle was worse as the following dogs got a whiff of it, and reacted to it.

For dogs that ignore squeakers/whistles try some animal sounds with an app on your smartphone.

One thing I like about the AD200s is how modular they are. The ADB2 allows you to combine two together so you've got a 400W flash.

View attachment 898747

Another way I use AD200s is with the cable extensions, the heavy head units are in the backpack and I only have the very light flash heads (right) mounted to my camera on an L-bracket or (left) held with my hand. I figure OCF is one of the few things we've got left that can separate our work from what folks can get with their smartphones.
View attachment 898749

Oh yes! Those AD200s are indeed great and versatile. I think I might copy your ideas too so thanks for sharing.
And I love that Christmas photo!

Excellent photos! Only criticism, maybe a little too sharp?

Thank you! Well... Quite possible as I'm kind of obsessed with getting maximum sharpness for my photos...

Great portraits!

Thank you!

 

[curtisls87]

Very nice work!

 

[pake]

Thank you for the feature