Integrating Animal Photography into your Business
This course is fantastic. Norah is incredibly open and so easy to listen to and understand. The course is comprehensive from start to finish covering all aspects of a pet photography business. I especially loved watching the live shoots. Getting to see her process on location was priceless.
-Jo Wilkens
Pets play a large part of every household, be it the best friend or first “child.” Yet capturing their personalities is often more difficult than just a click of the shutter. Instructor Norah Levine’s photographs are often defined by her clean compositions and authentic moments shared by people and their pets. Now you can join Norah as she shows you the basics of pet behavior and how to get animals comfortable with the camera. After this class, you’ll be able to capture great images of pets AND learn how to to incorporate them into your family photography.
In this class you’ll learn:
How to incorporate pets into your family photography.
Gain an understanding of animal behavior and key body language cues.
Build a business model that allows you to appeal to commercial, private and nonprofit markets.
Lessons
Class IntroductionGetting Started: Understanding Animal Psychology & Behavior
Animal Behavior: Differences Between Dogs & Cats
Guidelines for Horses and Other Animals
Studio vs. Environment: Lighting and Gear Choices
Pre-consultation: Getting to Know Your Clients & Their Pets
Pet Portraits: Dogs, Judy
Pet Portraits: Dogs, Kobe
Pet Portraits: Cats
Live Family Shoot: Couch Set Up
Live Family Shoot: Standing & Chair Set Up
Live Family Shoot: Single Family Member
Shooting Segment Follow Up
Business Goals
Customized Business Model
Stock Photography
Commercial & Editorial Work
Fine Art & Personal Projects
Working on Location
Making The Session Personal & Comfortable For Pets & People
Finding Your Favorite Spots at The Location
Awareness of Your Own Energy
Directing Subjects
Planned vs. Spontaneous
The Studio vs. Non-Studio Experience
Culling Images
Final Image Presentation
Sales
Pricing
Volunteer Work
Portfolio Building Plan
Reviews
- This course is pleasant, and contains fundamentally sound information. My issue (and the reason I can't broadly recommend this course) is due to the fact that there is a lack of detail with regard to technique and mechanics - specially, those which could benefit an intermediate to advanced amateur photographer who would target this course as a helpful stepping stone toward starting an actual business. There's a lot of pleasant discussion relating to "energy" and "approach", but there is very little specific instruction toward using your space and equipment to create and sell high quality pet portraits. This is, simply put, a "feel good" course. You'll enjoy the flow and experience of this course, and you'll like the presenters, but you're not likely to come away feeling as though you've acquired a resource you can consult in order to put it all together. I felt as though I had attended a high-school club meeting full of good friends, rather than an enlightening, information filled course taught by a strong expert in the field. Buzzwords such as "organic", "creative", "in the moment", "freedom", and "emotionally true" populate the landscape of this course, unfortunately, things never really get down to business in a way that seems to matter.
- Norah is really great and I learned a lot watching her. Even non-pet related things, like how she's continually trying to better herself were really inspiring to me. Since watching this, I've learned to take every shoot as a learning opportunity by evaluating what went right and what didn't, and thinking of what I can do next time to do better. I liked the way she showed interacting with animals in a way that doesn't stress them (well, depending on the animal there may be some level of stress anyway I guess...) too. Great class.
- So inspiring! Great information on both family pet photography as a craft as well as the business side. Norah obviously knows what she's doing and has tons of experience, so it's a good chance to hear/see what it's really like to take this on as a specialty whether it's the focus of your work or one of many parts of your work. She focuses not just on the mechanics, but on the personal side of working with people and animals. You can tell she's passionate about what she does, too. It's only been one day of class and I already feel totally inspired!