The problem with "effective" marketing is that we promote what we want to do and don't always know what our target market wants us to do. Like with wedding styles: I love the documentary style and, as a former photo-journalist, I do it fairly well. But when I get hired and show the prospective couple a range of images, they always pick the more conservative, traditional images. That's their vision of their wedding.

For pet portraits, I must admit that I like traditional looks that show off my pets for my purposes -- which is why I do stacked shots and headshots that really show off the dog as attractively as possible. Keep in mind that MY pets aren't just pets: some are show dogs and some are stud dogs and brood bitches. So I need to show off their structure and best features from a reproductive view point.

Yes, I can create images that focus on particular body parts or selectively focus on the dog in its environment, but my clients tend to like what I like of my own dogs. Beauty shots. Portraits in the traditional sense of portraits.

A creative difference doesn't always mean a different genre. It may mean doing the traditional better. Giving people the image they have in their heads and in their hearts. Artistically, I like to see different approaches but I don't know if I'd buy those types of images of my dogs. What I like as an artist is different than what I like as a dog owner. And, lest we forget, we are selling to dog owners.

Jim