These days, more and more of us are investing in professional portraits of our pets. What better way to forever preserve the memory of our nonhuman family members? If you offer pet photography either as one of your services or as your sole specialty, you can appreciate that photographing animals professionally brings forth a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Delving into animal photography opens the doors to channels for marketing and networking that are specific to pets. As a dog photographer, one activity that has given a huge boost to my business is volunteering my services to a local dog rescue organization.
Dog rescues benefit immensely from working with photographers. Although showing photos of a sad-looking puppy in a cage can get us a little choked up (cue Sarah McLachlin’s “I Will Remember You”), it’s not the best way to get that puppy into a new home. For the most part, rescued dogs are happy, playful animals, and photos that convey their spirited personalities will drive applications for adoption.There are several reasons why working with a rescue group can be one of the most critical activities to the growth of your business.
Photographs portraying the happy side of adoptable dogs, like this rescued pomeranian mix, can get them into a home quickly.
Three Benefits of Volunteering for a Dog Rescue
- It will give you practice with photographing dogs of all temperaments. Rescued dogs can be reactive to people and other dogs, have issues with obedience, or can be especially camera shy. If you can manage to consistently get quality photographs of even the wildest, most unruly dog, you will gain the confidence of knowing that you can handle anything that your client’s pet throws at you.
- It will raise awareness about your business. Many rescue organizations are overwhelmed with the number of animals they foster, which means there will be opportunities to photograph many animals. You can promote your brand by including your logo and website link as a watermark on your images. Don’t hesitate to encourage the rescue group for enthusiastic comments on social media when they advertise their animals; in a way, these shout-outs act like testimonials from satisfied customers.
- It will give you event marketing opportunities to get new clients in the door. By running occasional charitable fundraiser events, such as a mini-session day, you will give yourself the opportunity to meet many potential new clients face-to-face. If carried out correctly, these events can be both profitable and generate new clients for life.
Even if there were no business-oriented advantages to working with a dog rescue, volunteering is a great idea, since you’ll feel awesome every time you hear adoption news about one of the dogs you photographed. Volunteering for rescue organizations does not have to be time-consuming, as most groups just want a photo or two to promote each of their adoptable animals. To maximize the use of your time, try to schedule multiple dogs within the same session.
If you are a pet photographer and have ever tried volunteering for a rescue, did you find it helped your business? I would love to hear about your personal experiences.
Great article Jordan. I have applied to help out rescues local to me before but strangely they have refused, stating they already have someone come and 'take pictures' for them. Sadly the images are obviously taken on either a mobile phone or by someone who works at the centre and has a camera.
It's a sad byproduct of our feel-good culture. Everyone can do everything as well as everyone else. :-/
Hi Phil, I've also encountered this kind of issue from rescue groups, and I can't say I have an answer to why they are sometimes reluctant to accept voluntary work from professional photographers. Personally I had offered my services to a few rescue groups before one would take me on. I did find that speaking to them on the phone is more successful than email.
One tactic that could help establish a relationship with them is to offer to host a short mini-session event (even if just for a few hours), with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the rescue. This way you would get to spend time with them in person, so they could clearly see the difference that professional-level photos would make in getting their animals adopted more quickly.
Try shelters instead of rescue groups. It is a tougher gig - you will see the worst cases of animal abuse and cruelty, but those dogs need help too.
Rescues get the "best" from the shelters. Lots are still left behind.
I have been volunteering at my local shelter to take portraits of the animals for over 7 years now. The shelter tells me it helps a great deal in getting the animals into their forever homes. It took some time to convince the shelter that my photography would help the animals, but I did, and now they want me there whenever I have the time. A video from a shelter photographer helped me win them over. Here's a link to the site (I don't know if the link to the NBC story still works:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/pfsp/
However, I am a cat person and I really dislike the people that think only dogs are worthy of professional portraits. Come on, all the animals do.
Hi Michael, yes I definitely agree that this applies to any kind of rescue or shelter. It is interesting that it also took some "convincing" on your part to get the shelter to accept your free services. I guess it's part of our job description to be able to effectively communicate the value of professional photography, even for unpaid work!
Jordan: I just noticed the link I provided above does not work. I have corrected it in the original post. And yes, it was interesting that I had to convince the director of the shelter that better images would help get the animals adopted quicker. And that I would do it as a volunteer - for free.
Good pointers and I agree with the other comments. I found a new website though that is linking volunteers to rescue groups and shelters. www.doobert.com - It's not just photographers but all types of things but it seems to have potential to bridge the gap.
This is great, thank you for the link Chris!
I had a rescue tell me that it was too much for them to have me take pictures, even though I pretty much do everything. They gave every excuse under the sun, so I moved on. Unfortunately, so many groups don't see that having professional quality images of their adoptables get them adopted that much faster. As for getting business out of volunteering, while that is nice and may possibly occur (I've only had it happen once), that shouldn't be why you volunteer to begin with. Also, as Michael says above, all the animals deserve quality portraits. Sadly, cats are often overlooked, because people don't take the time to work with them.