Professional photo shoot?

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Kimma
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:46 pm
Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Professional photo shoot?

Post by Kimma »

I do photography. I'd really like to make a career out of pet photography. But part of starting a business is finding out if there are potential customers out there.

So if you have a few minutes to answer some questions for me, that would be fantastic. I promise not to try to sell you anything.
  • Would you be interested in a professional photo shoot for your bird/s?
  • Assuming a guarantee of high quality photos, how much would you consider a fair price for a photo shoot?
  • What sort of photos would you prefer? Natural light? Studio shoot? Candid? Documentary (as in an accurate representation of colour)? Action?
  • Do you think your bird/s would be ok with studio photography?
  • Would you be more likely to want prints, digital copies for use online, or both?
  • Would you be interested in a calendar or book of photos which included your bird/s?
You can have a look at the photos I've done on flickr
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: Professional photo shoot?

Post by MissK »

Hi Kimma,

* I can take my own bird pictures (Really, stop laughing you people who know who you are!) but what I *can't* do is take great posed pictures of my bird together with me. That is where I would be wanting help, and since not everybody's buddies are so great at photography, a professional might help. Also, a studio or on-site photographer's props could make my backgrounds nicer (prettier, tidier, fancier, fantasy-oriented, whatever) than what is lying around in my house.

*Not sure of a fair price, but I think you might investigate what the less expensive human portrait studios charge and consider adding a fee if you leave your studio and go on site. I consulted a photographer regarding a simple home portrait of me and my dogs on the sofa (in pre-bird days) and was quoted a price of $200 - it would be a bit more now, due to inflation, I assume. He assured me it would be a high quality product, "something you could hang over the sofa". I pretty much died laughing. I think I would not consider it if the price were much over $60 American. Maybe I'm cheap, but that's how I feel - and understand, no matter how much money people have, everybody pretty much feels broke a lot of the time.

*As noted, I would want a family group portrait with professional studio lighting making the most of us (dogs, birds, me together). This would be outstanding for Holiday photos. In my situation, a studio with a Christmas tree would be nice. An everyday flock-only shoot would be nice, too, and a pro might help since I would need to be wrangling the birds into position if I did it myself. For my Budgies with the assortment of interesting mutation colours, I would really prefer natural lighting. Natural light would, I think, be best for the bird for colour, but there might be some safety issues shooting outside and technical issues shooting inside. Action shots of birds in flight are always stunning, more so if it's your own bird. I would think this could be a niche market for you due to the difficulty the average person might have getting the bird into motion and running the camera at the same time.

*MY bird is sort of OK in new places, in the way he would be concerned about finding a safe place to sit or land. So, really, HE wouldn't feel that great about it, but he would behave nicely unless he got up in the air. In the air, he would have trouble finding a place to land, since he only want to come down onto familiar things. It would be a great opportunity for action shots, but probably would not want to subject him to that fright. I would need to inspect the studio carefully for safety before bringing him out of the box, and I might not accept just any closed room as safe.

*I would want at least one large print for display in the home, maybe another for the album, a handful of 5x7 to send to friends (in or as holiday cards), one for the vet to have on file, and a digital copy to email to everyone I thought would look at it since I love so much to show off my pets. I would really like to have a photo of me with the various animals to help provide proof they belong with me in a dispute. For a photo like that it would be nice to have a white bar at the bottom with the leg band information. Not everybody is going to think like me, but some people will.

Another thing to consider is that I might want to order a few prints and then later, maybe months later, I might feel I needed more. You could consider offering a bare bones intro package with add-ons available, and a deluxe package that's more inclusive, with the option to order more prints any time in the future. You would have to be sure not to lose the image in your technology if you did that. You could offer the digital image for sale, but you would have to protect yourself from people like me who would order the bare minimum and then go into production printing their own at home. If you sold the digital image you might want to price it pretty high unless they bought a lot of copies or some alternate merchandise.

*I get to see the bird every day so a calendar might not be so exciting, but a book of photos, especially including a variety of action shots and poses that display different aspects of the bird (under wing, tail spread, etc) would interest me a lot. Because I so much like to talk about my pets and share their photos, other merchandise might be intriguing as well. I don't keep a mug at work, for instance, but if I had one with a group shot of the pets, I might start. Back in the day I made Tshirts with my dogs on them, and it was a lot of fun. My favourite was a tank top with my dog yawning in what looked like a happy, wicked grin. It was a great shot, and that's what made it a great Tshirt. I wore it to pieces.

Kimma, I hope my opinions are helpful for you! Right now I'm looking to be adding a big time commitment to my life for the rest of November and December, but if I don't do that, I will be trying to get my photographic butt in gear. The dog isn't completely well, so I'm really invested in getting Christmas photos in the home this year. If I make some good photos, you can bet I will be putting them up here, so the whole internet can see how stunningly, amazingly fantastic my little group is. :D I mean, how do you people make it through every day without pictures of my pets? Really! :lol:
-MissK
Kimma
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:46 pm
Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Re: Professional photo shoot?

Post by Kimma »

Thank you. This is just the sort of info I was after.

By calendar or book though, I was thinking more of where your bird was just one month/section and it included others. So other people would buy it too.
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: Professional photo shoot?

Post by MissK »

Personally, I would not buy such a book/calendar unless I knew the birds or their people --like, if they were my birds, Skyes_Crew's birds, InTheAir's birds, Ranechild's birds, Ellie's birds, etc. Maybe that's just me.
-MissK
InTheAir
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: Professional photo shoot?

Post by InTheAir »

I'm too cheap to spend money on photography, but we are planning to do a comical Nila calendar for our family and friends this year for Christmas. If Nila obliges, we will send you one too missk!

I probably wouldn't take either of my birds to a studio, several reasons for that. Safety, disease risk, they aren't accustomed to being loose in new places and it takes a while to warm up to strangers so they would probably be frightened by the whole experience. Both are fully flighted.
If I wasn't so cheap, I would consider a photographer who brings disinfected gear to my home. Nila is a nightmare to photograph, most pictures are of his tail as he is landing on the camera!
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: Professional photo shoot?

Post by MissK »

I love those BIG BEAK INCOMING Ringneck photos as well! I would love a Nila calender - never get to see Him! Rocky's not that ambitious, but I did take some photos (bad ones) of the new Budgies....... wonder if I can locate that plug-in thingy to put them on the computer and email them to somebody who is more willing to do the work.
-MissK
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