This is a Flashback Interview from 2010 featuring Jamie

Part I: About Jamie Pflughoeft

JM: Hi Jamie, Would you be willing to tell us a little bit about yourself?
JP: I have always loved animals. When I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian, and had pet cats, gerbils, rats, frogs, goldfish, and even friendly squirrels we named who swung by the house every day. They were very cute. My favorite squirrel we named Scrappy - because he was missing part of his ear.

I was also always a very creative kid, if not a bit eccentric and moody. I was always drawing or painting or creating something. My parents kept all kind of fun art I designed over the years. I was always winning little awards for my art in grade school. It’s in my blood as my mom was a fine art oil painter and I remember visiting her studio from a young age. I fondly recall the smell or turpentine, and the big coffee cans filled with various brushes.

So my mom was the artist, and my dad has worked in business his entire life, and has an MBA from the same university I graduated from – the University of Washington. It would be fair to say that I got my creative genes from my mom, and my business mind from my dad. It’s an awesome mix and I thank the two of them profusely for hooking up.

It was entirely upon accident that my creativity and love of animals came together to form this pet photography career. I did it as a hobby for a few years before starting a business, never planned to become a professional photographer (it wasn’t even my idea), and never could have imagined myself here, but am so grateful for the path life took me down, because I absolutely love what I do.

JM: What does your family look like today?
JP: Outside of my immediate family (parents and sister), my family consists of me and my sweet little furry girl Fergie. She may have 4 legs, but she’s like my kid and I’d do just about anything for her. (Follow her on twitter at @MissMonkeyPants)

JM: Tell us a bit about when you began to photograph?
JP: I started doing photography with an SLR in 1989 when I was 17. My dad bought me a Pentax film camera for a black and white darkroom class I took. I loved the process of taking pictures, and hated the developing. I was broke and couldn’t afford to develop more than a contact sheet or two at a time, so I put photography on a shelf until about 11 years later when I picked up my camera again when I was working as a dogwalker and petsitter. I loved - loved - taking pictures of my furry charges and did it merely as a hobby for 2-3 years. It was just pure fun. That was the beginning of the path that brought me here.



JM: What formats (eg. Medium, digital, 35mm, etc). do you use for your current work?
JP: Full-frame DSLR, digital all the way. Aside from getting the wide angle shots that I love and capturing loads of detail, I love full frame because it means never having to do math, which I'm terrible at. :P

JM: Photographic education?
JP: My education was one photography class in high school where I shot with black and white film and did my own developing. Beyond that I am self-taught. The long, hard, challenging and interesting way, just the way I like it!

JM: Did you have a lot of photographic influences?
JP: I didn’t really have any photographic influences. I loved taking pictures when I was a teenager, but never followed any other photographer’s work until very recently. You could throw out all sorts of famous photographer’s names and I’d stare at you blankly. I guess for me it’s always been a personal process + personal expression, and not about what other people are doing. It’s also fair to say that my interest has always been first and foremost in animals, and photography is just a way I get to work with them in a fun, creative way. So photography has always been a secondary interest of mine.

If you’d like to know who my favorite photographer is, I can tell you: Stephanie Rausser. She’s based in Sonoma County and does mostly commercial work. Her work is fun, fresh, modern, and gorgeous, and her use of light is phenomenal. She is definitely an inspiration to me. She occasionally photographs the cover of The Bark magazine and did the most recent cover, which I adore (the one with her white dog Harry with the watermelon). I get happy feelings inside when I think of her work. I hope that others feel the same way about mine.

JM: Is fair to say that photography is your 'first' career than? If not, how did you get to this point?
JP: I don’t think I’ve ever had a ‘career’ before. I’ve had lots of fun and interesting jobs, and have done all kind of wacky things in my life. I’ve worked as a focus group recruiter for a marketing research firm, managed snowboard departments in retail stores, worked in a fishing cannery in Alaska, baked muffins at a bakery, worked as a lift operator at a ski resort, and spent a summer abroad in France where I thought I wanted to move to become a teacher. I’ve been all over the map and this is the single thing I’ve done the longest. And after 10 years of shooting animals, 7 of them professionally, I still love doing it, which is a good sign, because I bore easily.

As for how it became a business, it’s kind of a long story, so I’ll see if I can make it short. I mentioned before, I transitioned to professional pet photography accidentally after doing it as a hobby for several years. I was working as a dog walker and live-in petsitter and would photograph all of my client’s pets when they were away on vacation. Still using the ancient Pentax film camera and black and white film. It received rave reviews and I would sell my clients an 8x10 print or 2 for the cost it took me to have them printed at Ivey Seright. I created a little printed portfolio and carried that around with me. It was all for fun, to fulfill a need in me to express myself creatively.

I had graduated from college at the age of 30 with the intention of becoming a dog trainer (I studied animal behavior in school- a division of the psychology department at the UW). The economy was horrible, I really wasn’t very good at training, and so I continued my quest to find the perfect business to start, all the while photographing animals, never once considering that as a career option.

I was bemoaning my situation for the umpteenth time when a friend suggested I turn my pet photography into a hobby. I was like “is that even a job?”. I had NO idea. So I googled it. And was amazed that people were actually making a living at what I had been doing for years for, ahem- free.

So within a couple of months I had a business license and started working on some basic crappy branding and promotional materials, had set up an awful website and stared booking paid shoots. Ok, actually, at that point it took me 6 months to be ready to do paid shoots, but by then I had clients ready and waiting for me. It was the perfect storm. I’m proud to announce that in my first month of official operation I grossed over $4k.

That was 7 years ago, and after many ups and downs, countless challenges, a couple of burnout periods and a lot of self-doubt, I now have a business I am proud of. It has been totally worth all of the blood sweat and tears to get here.

I now have fantastic clients, a great schedule, and just the kind of balance in my life I had hoped to achieve as a business owner.

JM: What is it that you feel draws you to pet photography versus other professional photographic ventures?
JP: Easy- Dogs! I can’t imagine my life without working with canines. Given all of the other options out there to work with animals, I think photographing them is a natural fit for me given my creative proclivities. It’s non-invasive, I don’t need to see animals in pain, I get to work with awesome people who love their pets as much as I do mine and I get paid to do something I love. I can tell you for sure that if I wasn’t photographing them I’d be working with animals in some way. At least, I would hope to be. I think a little part of my soul would die if I didn’t get to meet and work with various pooches on a regular basis. To me they are a little piece of heaven on earth.

JM: Are you doing other paid portrait/professional work?
JP: I do commercial photography too, but that’s also all of pets. I also design art from the photos that I take called ‘Decopaw’ and provide that as an option to my clients as giclee prints on canvas. I don’t photograph anything other that pets- specifically dogs and cats (it’s about 85% dogs; 15% cats), never have and probably never will. Pets are my passion! I’m also, ahem, pretty bad at photographing other things, because I have little experience aiming my camera at anything that doesn’t have fur on it. A recent little photo shoot to get pictures of my mom’s ring to use on Ebay took me 5 hours and multiple tries. All I needed was 3 decent photos. So yeah, it’s gotta be pets.

JM: What made you feel the confidence in order to go pro?
JP: I think the fact that I had been doing pet photography for several years, and was getting really great feedback on my images, and my petsitting clients were paying me for prints really helped me feel confident enough to charge for my services. I guess you could say I ‘accidentally’ built it and they came. I had no idea that what I was doing was portfolio building, and went about so many things in the wrong way. But I really never set out to be a professional photographer. Like I said it was just fun. It was something I did between school and ‘the next phase in my life’, which ironically turns out to be this. I could have never predicted that this career would be the next phase in my life. I still pinch myself at how awesome that is.

In terms of when I made the move to full time, I felt that I didn’t really have any choice when I quit my ‘day job’, which didn’t really count as a day job anyway considering I was working as a part time dog walker and making maybe $850 per month. But hey, it was still a steady paycheck!

What happened was, my client load and responsibilities with Cowbelly got so great, and so overwhelming, that I wasn’t doing anyone any favors by trying to work both another part time job and run my photography business. And given the fact that I had a filled pipeline, and an extremely busy business at the time, it made saying goodbye to a consistent paycheck a little less scary. It was easier knowing that I had a high demand for my services as it made me feel like I might actually be able to make it over the long term. And in terms of being ‘pro’ I didn’t call myself a photographer until I had been running the business for over 4 years. I was a mental block I had to get over. Because I had no formal photography training I felt at times like an imposter. I’m over that now. After running this business since 2003, and making a full time living at it since 2005, I can now (finally) proudly say I am a ‘professional photographer’. (


JM: What motivates you in the work that you do?
JP: All kinds of different things. Mostly it’s just observing animal behavior and being inspired by who my subjects are. I majored in psychology with an emphasis in animal behavior in college as an adult student, which was shortly before I started my business, so that is something I take into my shoots with me. I love watching how canine (and feline) minds work, and just getting to capture them being themselves is so cool. I am pretty much a fly on the wall in my shoots. Ok, well, an interactive fly, but I generally let them do their own thing.

I am also greatly inspired by nature. I love just being outside. I think that comes from my days as a dogwalker because I was outside for hours every day just observing and taking things in, breathing the air, sensing the space I was in. I get inspired by bark, and trees, and the colors of houses, and flowers and the color of pavement when wet, all kinds of random things.

I am also inspired by really urban environments because I am also a city girl through and through. I have been working on what I call my ‘Graffiti Dogs Project’ since 2008 and it’s the marriage of two of my favorite things: graffiti and dogs. And all of the shoots are always in really gritty (sometimes sketchy) environments. That’s one of the things that gives the shots their ‘cool’ quality. It’s authentic, which is something I strive for in all of my work. I am like the ‘anti-pose’ ‘anti-produced’ shooter. I think I’d do well as a photojournalist if I couldn’t photograph dogs and cats. Perhaps a job as a photojournalist who covers the drama and late-breaking news at a dog show like Westminster would suit me well.

JM: You are talking about what inspires you, but what motivates your work?
JP: If I had to pick a one-word answer, it would be: fun. For me it's fun to photograph dogs and cats. It's fun meeting them, it's fun interacting with their parents, it's fun seeing the images afterward, it's fun processing them in Lightroom. It's fun seeing the finished products. I guess I'm a little bit spoiled in that I think, and expect, life to be fun. Now, life isn't always fun, and sometimes it's really really (really) hard, but the more fun I can create in my life, the happier I am. 
If I had to pick a two-word answer, it would be: fun and creative expression The creative expression part is more complex and hard to define. I've come to the point, good or bad, that I can't fully experience something cool without needing to take a picture of it. It's a drive inside of me that I suspect will never go away. I don't know why it's there, and I don't really have an objective when it comes to the outcome of the photo, but I guess it's the process of taking photos that is now hard-wired into my brain. The best I can understand it is that drive is from my innate need to express myself creatively. A drive that has been there since childhood. Perhaps it's hard-wired into my genes? Hmm, that could be a great topic of philosophical discussion! Anyone care to start a forum post on topic?

Part II: The Business Aspect of Photography

JM: Talk to me as if I were just starting today to start my own business - focusing on pet photography. What are the basic steps to getting started (besides having the raw skills to provide the images)?
JP: I personally recommend to anyone starting a business to take business classes. It seems like a no-brainer but I’m always surprised by how few folks starting businesses actually know anything about business. Boring, basic, generic business classes are very valuable. Having really good, sound business knowledge is what sets the successful photographers apart from those who struggle. Being successful has less to do with talent and skill and more to do with strategy and knowledge. If a new photographer takes a business class they will learn everything they need to know to get up and running- marketing, determining costs of goods sold and profit and loss, creating financial statements, getting licenses and insurance, etc, etc. This information is the same for any type of small business and is absolutely necessary in order to do it right. At the very least one should buy every ‘Idiots Guide’ to starting a business they can. It will make a big difference.

Aside from business classes, I recommend portfolio building until the photographer’s skills are good enough to be consistently saleable to many people. One of the best ways to do this is to work with shelters and rescue groups and photograph animals that are either in shelters or in foster homes, in order to help them get placed in new adoptive homes. I am a huge proponent of adopting instead of buying, because of the large numbers of homeless animals that are needlessly euthanized every year. Photographing homeless animals benefits the animals and shelters in obvious ways, but also helps the photographer build their skills, learn to work in unpredictable environments, learn to work with different personalities, in sub-optimal light, and get great shots for their portfolio. It’s a win-win-win situation. Win for the photographer, win for the shelter, and of course, win for the animal. Yay! (

Providing photography to rescue groups is also great because it opens the door to networking, which is the single most important way to market a new business. The more people a photographer knows in their target industry, the more work will come their way (assuming they are producing great work).

JM: What do you believe are common mistakes that beginners in the business make?
JP: Number 1- Making a decision about starting a photography business without educating themselves first about the basics of business or being aware of the realities of business. (See above).

And #2- trying to sell a skill that is underdeveloped in regards to having little experience before selling a service. The best way around this is, before starting a business, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. And unfortunately with so many people owning digital cameras these days, and so many new photographers sprouting up, it’s no longer acceptable to produce average work. Or rather, it may be acceptable, but it will be very hard for a new, or even established photographer to make a living if they aren’t doing something remarkable, or innovative.

Each new business owner needs to determine what sets them apart from others in their area. If they have no unique style, look, or skills, and quite a bit of competition (for example in the Seattle area there are 25 pet photography businesses), they need to develop a new look or style before they can expect to make a living at photography and get hired by lots of clients. I only say this because I’ve seen so many photographers get discouraged, and the sooner a person can identify their strengths, the easier it will be for them to be unique, and set themselves apart from others. Each person has a special gift to offer, and it’s just a matter of finding out what that is.

JM: Let's talk about networking for a bit. What are the sorts of connections people should be making?
JP: People should be making connections with other business owners in their industry. They should be pushing away from their computers, twitter, forums and photoshop, getting out there, in person, and meeting people. Shaking hands, smiling, selling themselves and their businesses. Getting to know what’s going on in their community, in their industry, and becoming a familiar face to many people. The more a photographer sells themselves (in a non-aggressive way), the more business they will have. Networking can’t be undervalued for a personal service like photography. It’s also very very important to have good social skills and a pleasing personality, because photography is a personalized service. People- both businesses and individuals- generally like to work with people they like, so having a great attitude and good social skills are critical. And being genuine and authentic are so important in the pet industry.

JM: How did you go about making those initial contacts when you first started?
JP: It was easy for me because I was already entrenched in the pet community in Seattle. I worked for years as a dog walker and worked in a dog daycare, and knew many people who worked with dogs in various capacities when I was studying animal behavior. I knew all kinds of different people in my community. I was friends with dog daycare owners, rescue group employees, shelter volunteers, animal trainers, behaviorists, you name it. If I hadn’t done it this way I would have in the very least been a volunteer at a major shelter and been very involved and active in the rescue community (see above).

JM: If you had to look at goals for future connections today, what are you looking for say 12 to 18 months down the road?
JP: My goals are about maintaining the relationships I’ve already built, and continuing to meet new people in my community. I have also branched out to networking with more national businesses, and given how much I’ve been traveling the past year and a half for workshops, I hope to do more work with other parallel businesses around the country. I’ll be in NYC this August teaching a workshop and there are a couple of dog businesses in Manhattan I’m super excited to work with while there. I always get excited when meeting new marketing partners.

JM: What types of advertising do you use to promote your business? Is it mostly google (or equivalent) advertising? Or are you using direct mailing, commercials or other forms of media (such as bill boards, etc)?
JP: I don’t do any paid forms of advertising, except for the occasional Bark magazine ad for my workshops. I get most of my business through word of mouth referrals, and the rest come from a variety of avenues including web searches. I’ve never done direct mailing or commercials and don’t see ever plan on doing them, given the strength of my WOM.
JM: When you say that you don't spend money on advertising, are you excluding google, displays at veterinary/pet facilities, etc?
JP: I don't spend money on advertising, at least, as much as I can help it. I DO however, spend money on marketing (advertising and marketing are two very different things). My marketing budget is actually higher than any other budget I have (gear, computers, software, etc), because (good) marketing produces revenue- and none of the aforementioned things do.  It always pains me when I hear photographers complain about not having any clients, and then go and drop hundreds or thousands on new camera equipment. I always like to say: cameras and lenses do not produce clients, good marketing does. Case in point: I just invested $1650 into a canvas order, with another large order slated for later this year, so I can display those pieces in marketing partners' spaces. I've never spent money on google or any pay-per click (with the exception of some facebook advertising for my workshops back in 2008), but am no stranger to dropping a good deal of cash on promotional pieces. BUT, the irony here is that I get *most* of my business through word of mouth- as much as 75% or more. So although I'm always looking for the next 'marketing piece of the puzzle' to spend money on, the reality is I don't really need to. And most people don't need to, because word of mouth is hands-down by far the best way to grow a new business. 

JM: How have you worked to brand yourself? What makes what you do different from the scores of other pet photographers out there?
JP: I’ve branded my business over time through trial and error and by asking myself what I like, and I guess to some degree using some innate creativity to help me determine what looks good. But my brand is also in large part my personality, which I inject into every single thing I do- from the style of my images to the feel of my website and the language I use on it, to the experience the client has with me during the shoot and beyond. To me my brand goes so far beyond the visual and my clients ‘get’ me, my style, and what I’m all about before they even pick up the phone to call. And that’s just plain awesome. I want to work with people I can relate to, and my branding draws those people to me.

I think if I’m different from other pet photographer’s out there it’s only because there is only one of me. I am always, through everything you see of me, myself, authentically. I don’t put on any airs, have no shield of mystery like many photographers do, and am just who I am- nothing more and nothing less. Because of this, I have a unique expression of who I am that can’t be duplicated by anyone else. And the awesome thing is that will never change.

JM: How have you worked to develop your pricing structure? What do your photographic packages look like?
JP: Well, I used to look at what competitors were charging, but not anymore because I realized that’s a bad idea and really gets you nowhere. There are so many subjective variables that come into play when pricing, and since I don’t know the inside workings of other businesses or what they offer in terms of experience and product, I can never know if their pricing will work for me.

So I determined what I need to make on both a monthly and hourly basis, calculated time invested per client in terms of hours, really dialed in my processes to decrease that number, and threw in some subjective decisions based on value and experience, and came up with my pricing.

I also had some (great) help from Alicia Caine’s Easy as Pie pricing guide, which really helped me finalize many loose ends I had had difficulties tying up over the years. ( HYPERLINK "http://www.served-up-fresh.com"
www.served-up-fresh.com), specifically collections, which I had never offered before working with Alicia. My pricing was 80% of where it needed to be, but I wanted to do one major tweak so I could finally leave it alone for awhile. A LONG while, lol.

JM: What sorts of packages are your clients purchasing? Why do you think this is?
JP: Most, if not all of my clients purchase multiple products- a handful of prints, a collection of canvases, or a photobook and prints or a CD and canvases, etc. They usually purchase larger prints and canvases and I no longer work with clients who only want to buy a single 8x10 print or a few 5x7 prints. The clients that I work with greatly value high-quality photography of their furry loved ones, and their orders and the products they purchase reflect this. The days of $300-$500 orders are (thankfully) over. It’s normal now for me to pull in $1500-$2250 orders from clients, exclusive of my $350 sitting fee. A $1k order for me is on the low end now. The clients that I work with aren’t wealthy, but they do place a high value in what I offer, which is awesome because it means their values are perfectly aligned with mine. I think when you get to a place in your business when you and your client’s values are on the same page you know you are doing something right. I have been teaching photographers in my consulting and workshops for the past three years that it’s not about what a client makes, it’s about what they value. The key in making money in this business (aside from producing unique and great work), is targeting those clients that place the same high value in pet photography that we do as professionals.

I’m in a really great position now with my business where I don’t have to be doing handfuls of shoots each week to survive. Gone are the days of 3-4 shoots per week like I was doing in 2008! My max client load now is 8 clients at a time, which usually translates to 4-6 shoots per month, because I’m frequently filling orders for past clients, or doing an art commission or working with a commercial client, which quickly brings me up to 8 clients at a time. I remember there was a time when I had between 25-35 clients I was working with at any given time. That was nuts!

What’s so awesome about where I am at now is that I no longer have that ‘crazy busy’ life that I used to lead. I watch other photographers around me on twitter and facebook, running around like headless chickens, and I’m so grateful that I’m no longer in that head-space. As of early 2009, I now have the balance I’ve been yearning for for years. And it makes me that much more charged and excited for each shoot. They are like golden nuggets to me now.

Of course, I should say that with higher orders come bigger obligations. I invest time with each client like they are the only client that I have. My whole business focus is now on quality vs. quantity. I’m still learning how to give excellent customer service, and I have a long way to go, but I invest in my clients as I would my friends and family and it pays off.

JM: Would you share your experience with publishing?
JP: As far as magazine editorial, I’ve shot several articles and a cover for the fabulous local CityDog Magazine. My work has also been featured in Bark Magazine as well and this fall will be in Modern Dog Magazine in a super cool article I’m really excited about. I also shot the cover article for AAA’s Travel Magazine ‘Journey’ last year for a fun article on traveling with your dog. That was my favorite assignment to date.

In terms of books, I’m not published yet, but I have two books in the works that I’ve been working on for about a bazillion years. If any book publishers are reading this and interested in talking to me about either one of them, give me a shout!

JM: What experience, if any, do you have selling stock photography, if any?
JP: I do regularly license images to commercial clients, and also do commercial assignment shoots for medium and large sized businesses. I’ve been licensing images to smaller businesses since about 2004, but didn’t start doing bigger assignment shoots until after meeting with my lawyer and drawing up an excellent commercial contract and really educating myself about commercial work, because of the higher legal risks involved with working with medium and large businesses. I license stock directly to clients, and currently have an online searchable stock library that has over 2,000 images in it. I no longer license images to small businesses (and some medium sized businesses) because they usually don’t have much of a budget for photography, and I no longer charge below market value for my work.

JM: Can you talk a bit more about the stock work you are doing?  You mention that you are selling direct - through which portals are your customers coming to you?
JP: I'm no longer listed with any stock agencies, and do all of my selling direct to clients. Art and creative directors, design agencies, etc. I've been lucky in that the work comes to me and I don't have to promote myself beyond the things I already do with my regular portrait business. Clients usually contact me through my website or blog, and in some cases I have repeat clients I work with. In some ways it's not unlike regular portrait work. I'm also a member of ASMP and hope to get more work through that avenue in the future. My dream is to someday be as good as good commercial photographers, who, IMO are a cut above in terms of quality and creativity than your average portrait shooters.

JM: What advice do you have for people who are trying to get into stock?
JP: I recommend to anyone looking at getting into commercial work of any kind, whether it be assignment or stock, to join the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers). The association has sample commercial contracts, great forums, regularly provides workshops and seminars to their members and is fantastic at getting information on commercial work.

Some general research in google on commercial & stock photography is essential as well. Commercial and stock work are like different worlds when compared to portrait shoots for private clients.

Also definitely pick up the book 2010 Photographer’s Market. It’s invaluable when it comes to finding agencies that purchase images.

And most importantly, develop and improve your skills! Stock photography is the cream of the crop, at least when it comes to any agency a photographer would actually want to work for (Getty and Corbis are good examples), and their standards are very high when it comes to all aspects of image quality. There is also a commercial ‘look’ that is hard to define, so studying other commercial photographers can go a long way in helping someone develop their commercial shooting skills and style.

Part III: The ShootJM: Where does most of your work occur, in your studio or on location?
JP: 100% on location at either a park, beach, urban spot or client’s house. Nothing in a studio. Tried it. Hated it. Never again.

JM: Would you please talk about your photographic set-up?
JP: I pull my camera out of the bag and go. That’s about the extent of my preparation.

If it’s gear we are talking about, I use a Canon 5D, and have several lenses for it that I use in every shoot: a 20mm 2.8, 24-70mm 2.8 L, 70-200mm 4.0 IS L, and a 50mm 1.8. I also have a 580 EXII flash, off-shoe cord and various flash modifiers.

JM: Typically, how do you look to use light in your work? Is it mostly done with studio light or natural?
JP: I use natural light almost exclusively. Sometimes I’ll pull my flash out of the bag if the situation warrants it (like in a commercial shoot or in bright midday sun), but generally I make sure I have enough light to shoot in, and the animal is facing whatever the brightest light source is.

I find it easiest to work with - free lighting- all natural baby. After working outside for years, I’ve developed a second-nature ability to always know where the light is coming from even on overcast days. I’m lucky in that I generally don’t need to try and ‘figure out’ lighting before starting a shoot, or use a light meter, I just sort of always know where to place myself and the dog or cat in order to get optimal results. When you’ve spent thousands of hours outside you really become in touch with nature, the sky and light. And no I’m not a hippy. More of a punk rock girl at heart. A punk rock girl who loves nature.

JM: Do you work with a handler?
JP: Nope. Unless I ask my client to help hold a reflector or the leash or something, it’s just me and the dog. I have found that when fewer people are around, the pet is less distracted, and I can connect with them more. I’m also not a fan of forced sit/stay shots, where the animal is subjected to sitting in the same position for 5 minutes while everyone around them tries to get everything right, while they continually hear “no- wait, sit, stayyyyy” over and over and over. I’ve found that’s an easy way to kill an expression in a dog, and although the shot may look ‘fine art’ and beautifully produced, if I don’t see joy and light in the animal’s eyes I can’t connect with it emotionally. My clients connect with my shots emotionally, which is one of the top reasons why they spend so much money on products. This is why it’s so important for me to let the shots happen organically and not do anything that might damper the animal’s spirit. So no, handlers aren’t needed, since it’s pretty easy for the animals to be themselves all by themselves. I’ve had my assistant Christina at shoots with me before, and most of the time she is just standing and watching. Great for her but not so great for my bottom line, ha! Not only do I not use a handler, but if I had my druthers, I’d send my clients off during the shoot too! My ideal shoot would be me and the dog, or me and the cat. And in case you are wondering, I’ve gotten really creative when it comes to holding flashes and reflectors.

JM: How would you describe your work? Is there a specific 'look' you are trying to achieve in your work?
JP: ‘Happy, relaxed dog photography.’ I always try and capture the animal in their element, and it always makes me happy when they are happy and relaxed, and that is what I always try and capture in my images. Capturing the essence/character/personality of each pet also goes without saying. If I leave a shoot feeling like I didn’t ‘get’ the animal’s personality and didn’t capture it on film I feel like I’ve failed. Each dog and cat is an individual, whether they are rambunctious social butterflies; graceful, shy, delicate athletes; or grumpy, independent yet lovable ‘elders’, and it’s my job as a professional to capture that for my clients. Every animal is so different, and it’s really important to capture the expressions they use that make them who they are. Understanding animal behavior I think is really key to ‘getting’ how they think in a very short period of time. Reading body language, being able to predict behavior in any situation, knowing what an animal is going to do next, and having a sort of psychic sense of their inner workings are all important.

I also love rich, vibrant colors, so I look for that too. I also really like dynamic shots, so I do my best to produce bunches of those in every shoot. I like seeing energy and life and personality in my images, and I have found that those kinds of shots sell the most, so it’s not only fulfilling for me to produce them, but also improves my bottom line, which is just doubly awesome.

Ultimately I do this job for my clients. I want them to be thrilled. I want to see them cry happy tears. I want to give them a gift that is meaningful beyond dollars and products; something that keeps them connected to an amazing special spirit that they love so much, long after the animal is gone, forevermore. The fact that I have the honor to do that is profound in a way I can’t wrap words around. In case I haven’t mentioned it yet, I truly, deeply love my job. It may have taken me a lot of work to get where I am today, but I am still a very lucky girl.