By Charlotte Reeves

We’re all guilty of it.

When it comes to social media, we only tend to share the highlights, the good stuff. And it’s only natural. No one wants to see the crappy bits, the bad shots, the epic fails - well not unless they’re funny and it happened to someone else! 😆

And us pet photographers are the worst. How often do you see someone post just one or two images from a session?

When I see that, I think to myself: what did the rest of the session look like?

Was there a variety of different images? Were they all up to the same standard as the shots they posted? I’m always left wondering what the client themselves ended up purchasing! 🤷‍♀️

Sure, if you only had just a few great images, your client might order a piece of wall art - and there’s definitely some profit to be made in that.

But #IMHO if you’re going to become a truly profitable professional pet photographer, you NEED to be creating a set of images that your clients will fall in love with… 

So they end up wanting more than just one.

They end up wanting every. single. one.

When I hear a client exclaim “Oh my god, I love them all! How am I going to choose?” - that’s when I know I’ve done my job properly!

The more they love each image - and the more unique each one is from the others - the harder their decision will be. When a client struggles to choose, 9 times out of 10, they’ll splash out and buy a collection of products because they can’t bear to leave without all the images.

Of course, this maximises your profit per session so you actually make a living in this crazy niche photography industry!

Albums are my most popular product.

Around 80% of my clients order them. Aside from being highly profitable, I find it SO satisfying knowing that all the work I put into shooting and editing a session was worthwhile. Every beautiful image captured, will be appreciated and loved for years to come.

It’s the BEST feeling!

I present images ranging from sweet, soulful portraits to wacky, fun action shots and everything in between. All from a single session.

What makes a successful outdoors, on location dog photo session? Variety.

Variety is what you should be striving for to give your clients a complete, luxury service they will never forget.

But creating variety is not as easy as it sounds.

There are a ton of resources out there that’ll explain how to take a good shot and what to do in the editing stage to push your image from great to spectacular.

But how many show you exactly how to shoot an ENTIRE session with a variety of beautiful images?

Not just one or two but a FULL gallery of 30-50 unique shots. Ones that not only capture how their dog looks but truly tells their story. Images brimming with personality and life.

Your ability to produce a variety of images within one session is EVERYTHING.

It's easy to fall into the habit of shooting the same set of shots at every session - your safe, easy, "go-to" shots that keep you nicely entrenched in that cosy comfort zone of yours. But pushing yourself creatively and technically helps you break the boundaries of your safe creative bubble.

This is why I created the RealShoots Complete Course, a unique online course specifically designed to show you a full client session, from start to finish.

In this course, I take you on a journey through a series of ten real-life dog photography sessions, demonstrating how you can work with the dog to create a unique set of images. There's a special focus on working with light, using the features of the location and getting expression from your subjects - I feel these are the three elements that work together to create amazing dog photos.

I share exactly how to run the session to help you create a huge variety of images, all with different lighting, different focal lengths, different composition, different angles and different levels of interaction with your doggy subjects.

Say goodbye to selling single pieces of wall art. Say hello to selling collections of images that your clients will love and appreciate forever!