Thanks for the suggestions Dee Dee, I do need to sit down and do some pp on my better photos so I can get my portfolio together. LOL and I must leanr how to use the clone tool to get rid of the twig that is growing out of my cat's ear!

At the moment I am using a prosumer camera - a Canon S3is, the zoom is excellent and the manual settings are all pretty good and it prints up to 8x10 beautifully, and apparently larger but I havn't tried that yet, but not having a professional dslr is the main reason I am not jumping into pro photography too soon.

So far everyone has been very impressed with their pet photos so I am hoping that will be enough to get me started towards an entry level Canon DSLR in the next month or two -I am looking at a 400d/Rebel XTi and a decent lens or two to start with.

Of course I would love to go to the next level dslr but as all income will go directly back into the business, I am hoping to fund most of my equipment purchases as I go along and want a dslr ASAP:) I figure that the 400D is a decent enough body and I can put more money into lenses as I go along.

Oh yeah, you have probably already seen some of my art - my username on WC is darlingart and I usually hang out in the AW forum:)

Actually Dee Dee, it was your experience of adding to your equipment list as you go along that made me realise that it was possible to build a pet photography business that way - the advice from most pro-photogs is don't bother starting until you have outlayed the money for all the proper equipment.

Its kind of like saying to an artist - don't bother planning to be an oil painter if you can only afford a graphite pencil. While having the proper equipment/training/experience might get you where you want to go quicker but passion, determination, and commitment are just as important in the long run:)

Michelle