Well, we're back and we survived!

Things went really well, though it was certainly a learning experience.

18 of the 23 dogs in the event had portraits made so I was much busier than I thought.

I potentially booked two more events from today's interaction.

Things I would / will do differently.

1. Get a stool! My knees are killing me
1b. Get Knee-pads!

The review sessions were hardest as I was kneeling. The actual portrait sessions were not so bad since I was laying on the floor most of the time.

2. Go with after the event proofs. Reviewing everyone's images on the spot took a lot of time and backed up the line.

3. Get a Spider Light (actually, I'm building one). I had three more dogs that were afraid of the flash (rescues that had been abused in the past).

4. Bump my print prices up by about $2.00 each. Even for a charity event I think I was a little on the low end.

Things to think about:

Some sort of non-slip thing to go under the Muslin (I was on a smooth, sealed basement floor and it slid around a lot). Maybe a rubber non-slip piece for area rugs?


Other things I learned.

What I like and what others like are almost never in the same ball park. I tried really hard to talk someone out of a print that I thought was out of focus. They, however, thought it was "dreamy" and soft. They win!

I can actually do this.

My wife and lovely assistant deserves a raise!


Quote of the day:

"Honey, lay down over there and reach your arm BEHIND the basket (a prop) and scratch the dogs butt to keep him still." And she did it!

Biggest surprise:

A really large order for prints that included some B&W conversion as well as some cosmetic retouching. The most surprising part was that the couple didn't even bat an eye when they saw the fee for the retouch. There dog had a tumor removed from it's eye and isn't quite healed yet.