Kevin,
my evolution into "pet" photography is a bit unconventional: I was working as a commercial photographer to support our ad agency's clients. Then, we got a show dog -- a Rottweiler. And the first thing I noticed is that the show photographers -- shooting medium-format film at the time -- were incapable of exposing both the judge and the handler as well as a black dog properly. So, naturally, you'd have these great shots of the judge and handler with this big, black blob.

This was in 1999 and digital was just starting to become affordable. I discussed the issue with a friend of mine who also showed Rotties and, together, we developed a business plan to get into the show photography business. We bought two Canon D30's with all the accoutrements including 28-70mm zooms and 70-200mm zooms and started pitching the local All Breed Clubs. Once we got our first few gigs, it became clear that we could get great exposures of dogs plus the people, including black dogs. Of course, our PhotoShop experience with our Agency artists didn't hurt but we also knew how to light the dogs. Then, in 2002, we got the contract for our first American Rottweiler Club National Specialty, the first of 8 Rottie Nationals, and our reputation as show photographers was pretty well established.

The show photography, led to photographing these same dogs for advertising in the major All Breed and Breed Magazines and since we could also design the ads, that became a major piece of business. And advertising portraits brought in pet portraits which has become a relatively small but important part of our business. As breeders, we also have a lot of "pet" clients that come to us for their Holiday portraits simply because we bred their puppy. And since puppies you breed never forget, we tend to have excellent rapport with these guys and get some really nice stuff that isn't always possible with dogs that don't know you.

As I said, my path to pet portraiture has been pretty unconventional. I've been a professional photographer for over 40 years so it was really a matter of where I wanted to focus my energy and pets -- primarily dogs -- have been a central part of our lives for over a decade.

I hope folks like Julie Poole respond to this post because they can share a path that is more conventional and, especially in the case of Julie, far more successful in terms of marketing approaches and use of social media.

Jim