A bit over a year ago I noticed there were waaaaaay too many great portrait photographers in my home town and decided to focus on something else instead. The choice was pretty easy and obvious: pets. I have lived with dogs for over 33 years now and I've always felt "at home" around them. Not all the photographers have this advantage and I thought I should definitely exploit that.
So... I started asking for clients who would be willing to bring their dogs/pets to my studio and get free photos. In return I got more material for my pet portfolio. I think I now have enough material to showcase my competence and have started to advertise my work too (no paid ads though). Even though most of my pet photo shoots have been TFCD (ie. not getting paid), 2020 was the first year I managed to earn more money from photography than I spent on it! That's a huge deal for me. If I remember correctly the balance was around 200 EUR on the positive side but you gotta start somewhere, eh? Most of the income came from other shoots though and I the money from these pet shoots were only "peanuts".
I would like to think I could make another positive year in a row but I'm planning to buy the 12-100mm f/4 and the new 100mm macro lenses so I don't think I can earn enough to cover for those two purchases. But that doesn't stop me from trying! I do have a couple of ideas how to get more paying clients (e.g. pop-up photo shoots at pet stores etc.) and need to work hard to achieve the goals I've set. I've already spent weeks on optimizing my website to climb up in the Google rankings with certain keywords but still got work to do. Also, I've been more active on Instagram and started using Pinterest and other services to gain more visibility and linking sites/profiles/posts to my own website. It certainly takes a lot of time and effort and I do hope it's worth it.
So anyway... Enough with the chitchat and on with the show. Here's photos from all the pet photo shoots I did last year.
"Mila" (Rohmutassun Poppanen) - EM508204 (edit) by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Titta - EM508619-2_b&w by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Viehku & Maija - EM510933 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Luna - EM518080_4x5 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Rambo - #skeittaavakoira - EM518414 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Carlos - EM520941 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Carlos - EM521908 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
EM525065 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Carlos - EM525835 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
EM526312 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Nelli - EM527364 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Jalo - EM528356 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Vida - EM528624 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Vida - EM528876 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Max, Malla & Viivi - 092-EM521183 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Max - 159-EM521628-vintage by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Vilma - EM5A4022 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Pätkis - EM5A5120 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Paco - EM525381 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
Samppa - EM525690 by Teemu Paukamainen, on Flickr
If you want to see more, you can visit my website and see the current pet gallery at: Lemmikkikuvaus - Tampere. (Yeah, I know... A cheeky way to earn some SEO-points for my website. Sorry! )
PS. And I also know I need to cull my photo galleries more. I'm so terrible at it...
So... I started asking for clients who would be willing to bring their dogs/pets to my studio and get free photos. In return I got more material for my pet portfolio. I think I now have enough material to showcase my competence and have started to advertise my work too (no paid ads though). Even though most of my pet photo shoots have been TFCD (ie. not getting paid), 2020 was the first year I managed to earn more money from photography than I spent on it! That's a huge deal for me. If I remember correctly the balance was around 200 EUR on the positive side but you gotta start somewhere, eh? Most of the income came from other shoots though and I the money from these pet shoots were only "peanuts".
I would like to think I could make another positive year in a row but I'm planning to buy the 12-100mm f/4 and the new 100mm macro lenses so I don't think I can earn enough to cover for those two purchases. But that doesn't stop me from trying! I do have a couple of ideas how to get more paying clients (e.g. pop-up photo shoots at pet stores etc.) and need to work hard to achieve the goals I've set. I've already spent weeks on optimizing my website to climb up in the Google rankings with certain keywords but still got work to do. Also, I've been more active on Instagram and started using Pinterest and other services to gain more visibility and linking sites/profiles/posts to my own website. It certainly takes a lot of time and effort and I do hope it's worth it.
So anyway... Enough with the chitchat and on with the show. Here's photos from all the pet photo shoots I did last year.
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If you want to see more, you can visit my website and see the current pet gallery at: Lemmikkikuvaus - Tampere. (Yeah, I know... A cheeky way to earn some SEO-points for my website. Sorry! )
PS. And I also know I need to cull my photo galleries more. I'm so terrible at it...