God, you guys are all great!!! I am serious about shooting pets. Very serious. My day job is a landscape architect/planner for the National Park Service, and I am about two years from retirement. So, I don't need to make a gazillion bucks doing this. But, I do want to supplement my retirement income, as I will be taking quite a hit. And, the fact is, I LOVE photography. It's my passion. My day job is for the money, quite frankly. If I can get as much equipment as possible (I just replaced my old Sigma 70-200 2.8-4.0 with the newer constant aperture OS) before I retire, then I'll be good to go.
Julie, I'm going to check out all those links you posted. I will also need to hire someone to revamp my website to something more professional. Right now, it's a mess, which undoubtedly you've all noticed already. :-)
Also, about 10 miles from here is the national headquarters of the Guide Dog Foundation. I think I could start there, and of course, the rescue dogs. The chocolate poodle is a rescue, the largest poodle I EVER saw, about 8 months old, untrained, and very wary. He was a challenge. I did charge a very minimal amount for the job - Would you believe $40 for the sitting (for 6 nutso dogs) plus her cost for any prints from my website, which she has yet to order. She was really happy with that. Suffice it to say, I took a loss on this job. hehehe.......
I have owned dogs, but not now. Zuki, my dusty dog, was a rescue, shepherd/wolf mix from a no-kill shelter. I was her fourth owner, and she was only 18 months when I got her. A huge, 110 lbs scared, obviously beaten, severe separation anxiety, car sickness like you wouldn't believe, and just beautiful. It took 2 years of real work to train her to live in a human world. I loved that dog like you wouldn't believe. We worked it out, and in the process, I learned a lot about dealing with difficult dogs. Not that I'm an expert, but I do know a few things. :-) She was euthanized at age 7, after a fibrocartelagenous embolism (FCE) rendered her a quadriplegic. It broke my heart.
http://www.dustydogdigital.com/Pets/Pets/4194759_wG8Ax#136171263_Jn7gD-A-LBI am so glad I started this thread. I did so rather tentatively, expecting to be somewhat trashed for putting up something so "unprofessional." You all are great. Thank you so much.
