Lessons

Lesson Info

Working with Animals

I'm so excited to be here. Thank you guys for all being here. Um, and thank you to create a five. This is, like, so exciting. And you're sharing a pet photography workshop with the world. So thank you for that. Um, like he said, I'm Arkad Or if I own photography, We are a petting family photography studio located in Las Vegas, Nevada. I have a ton of information that I'm gonna be sharing with you guys today over the next two days, Actually, everything that we're gonna be talking about today I want to help you guys as photographers, Like he said how to charge and volunteering, and that actually is really helpful for things like marketing. So we're gonna be talking about everything that I do when it comes to pet photography and also everything that we do at photography on a daily basis, day to day. We're actually gonna be live shooting today. Within the first hour, we're gonna be doing a bunch of life shoots, but one within the first hour today. But before we do that, I want to go throug...

h all of my tips and tricks that I use when I'm working with animals just to kind of help you guys understand my thought process, and I want you to understand what animals are thinking as well. So I teach a lot of animal psychology. So if you can understand animal psychology and follow all of these tips, that's my foundation for having successful pet photography sessions. So let me get started. Okay, so working with animals, animals pick up on the energy around them. So if everyone involved in the portrait session is calm, it's much more likely that the animals are going to be common relaxed. So I have a lot of people who come to my studio and they were driving in traffic. They forgot their dog's leash. They come into the studio there, flustered because they're nervous about doing Portrait's, and sometimes they come in and they're like, OK, I'm here. What do you need? You need me to dio and I'm like, Just hang out. Just calm down. Can I get you a bottle? Water? Show me to put some water down for the dogs, and one of the things I talk about is I don't set any backgrounds or any lights up until clients get to my studio. Even if I know what client, what kind of background or couch we're gonna be using because I want animals toe have time to calm down. I also want people to have time to calm down. So just make sure that everything is always common relaxed when you're working with animals. So, like I said, let animals calm down before you start shooting. We do consultations with all of our clients, so I usually do know what kind of background and all that. But today it's a little bit different, cause we're kind of winging it with the people who are showing up. I'm not sure what they're going to be wearing. Usually I know that before I'm doing a session, but I want that time for animals. Just run around, calm down because you guys know when you first meet animals or if you're shooting in a home or in your studio. Um, they're running around there panting and everything is new, and it's so exciting if you start a session right at that time, there's just too much going on. So I want animals to get bored before I start shooting. Plain and simple. The reason I do that is because every little noise that I make is going to be interesting to them when we start shooting and when we actually live. Shoot. One of the things I'm gonna tell you guys is if you can ignore the animals yourselves because if animals come in and you're playing with them and then someone else is playing with them and they jump in your lap, that's just way too much stimulation. So I want to try and simulate a real studio situation, so shooting in a calm environment. So this applies whether you're shooting sessions indoors or outdoors. So, of course, when you're in a studio, you don't have toe fight with the distractions like you do outdoors outdoors. There's cars and birds and other dogs, and you just have to work a lot harder to get animals attention when you're outdoors. But still, if you're shooting sessions outdoors, just pick an area where, um, if you're at a park, just don't be right next to baseball field. Don't be right next to a Children's playground or something like that. So even if you're not in a studio setting, you can still pick a calm environment when I'm in my studio. I actually booked my sessions pretty far apart. I don't want animals overlapping when I'm doing sessions. I don't want to be photographing one animal. And there's another client who's waiting to do their session and their dogs barking and this animal's distracted. So I just always like it to be nice and calm in my studio. Sustained control When families air doing sessions, it's a big deal. Clients have, AH, lot of times gotten their hair done. We got their makeup done. They've rearranged their schedule. I know the last time I did Family Portrait Sui close a studio early cause the only session that photographer had was during my studio hours, and that's a big deal for me to close my studio early. But people are doing things like this, so it's understandable when their animals aren't behaving or they think they're not behaving. It's easy for people to get frustrated. That's our job is photographers to make sure that we're keeping everything in control and we're keeping everyone calm. This is totally normal. It's okay. This they're not acting crazy. We're going to get the shot. I promise. I don't let clients leave my studio until I get the shots that I want. I don't know if it's going to take 15 seconds or if it's gonna take 15 minutes for that one shot, but I'm going to get the shot. So a lot of times clients are telling me they leave my studio. You're the patients of the same and I do when it comes to pet photography. Not always with my own animals sometimes, but I do with pet photography because it doesn't work any other way. So just make sure you guys air staying calm. We're going to get the shot, you know, and just keep stay in control with that. Don't give into the craziness this. It kind of goes with that same thing. Ah, lot of people sometimes assume just because we're doing portrait sessions with animals that it has to be crazy. They just assume it's dogs that's going to be crazy. And sometimes I have clients who come in and a lady will be like dragging her 45 dogs or they're dragging her and she's holding a cat in the carrier and they're crisscrossing and you can over here her saying, You don't don't pee on that. What do you doing? Stop. You're crossing your leash. Hey, no, Sit down. Come here. And this is what your overhearing. If you walk into that session going on, this is going to be crazy. Well, it's going to be crazy, but if you walk into that session common relaxed. Hey, let me open the door. Okay? I'm gonna close the door. Just so it's safe. No one can escape. Let's take all their harnesses off. Let's take all of their leashes off. Same thing like I said before, can I get you a bottle? Water? I know it. Background were doing I'm just going to set everything up if you just want to relax. So just make sure that you don't give into the craziness. Another example of that is when you have clients who have, like, a litter of puppies or litter of kittens and that kind of sounds like a crazy session. Ah, lot of people will say, you know, I don't know how this is gonna work, and sometimes because they have that mindset, they don't help us much with portrait's not because they don't mean to, but sometimes they're just like I don't know that one walked off, and I don't know that once peeing and I don't know, it's just not working. So just make sure that you're always coaching people. It's OK, we're going to get the shot. I'm gonna have one of you here. I'm gonna have one of you here. Just keep your hands on them. Hope that one's walking off. All right, put him back. Put his bottom down. But this one's paws up. No, it's OK. Yep, having walked back. Perfect. I'm gonna make a noise and just stay in control. I'm not saying it doesn't have to be fun. We're doing pet photography. It's cute animals. It can be fun, but it doesn't have to be crazy and chaotic. So this is an image of my playroom and my shooting area. So those of you who saw me speak on creative spotlight, you heard me refer to this as my calm down and get all of your P out room. And that's what I designed this for. But it's a lot nicer, obviously if I call it a play room and I talked to clients. So about a year and 1/2 ago, back in 2011 we moved from a 1300 square foot studio to a 25 100 square foot space. So when we were building our studio, it was brand new. No one was there before us, so we got to build the whole thing and say, I want my office here. I want the shooting area to be this big and we actually designed this playroom area because their studio was going to be so much bigger in my old studio is a smaller, more intimate space. So if you guys they're shooting in a more intimate space at home or in your garage or something like that, you might not need a playroom area. You can always create one. Using like Baby Gates are kind of blocking things off. But the point of having a playroom is if you look on the other side of the half wall, I have all my couches over there. All of my props were there, and I could said it's a lot bigger than the old studio. I don't want that to turn into doggie daycare for one, because there's so much room and to I don't want animal smelling all of my backgrounds and props because it's too overstimulating. Like I said before, I want them to get bored before I start shooting. I don't want them boredom or photographing them, but if they're bored, before we start every little noise that I make, they're gonna go. What was that? What's going on? But if they were stimulating, there's always smells and I make a noise like what you doing there still smells. I'm looking around and there's too much going on. So I created this playroom area, and I purposely make it very boring. There's no rugs in there. There's no area rugs. There's no fabric furniture. There's no big plants in the corner. If you put a plant in the corner of your studio, it will get peed on. So if you want animals to pee or dogs to P, put a plant outside the door and they'll pee on it. But I do keep this area very boring. My number one rule and pet photography and I will say this many, many times, no toys or treats before the session starts. This is my biggest rule ever. The reason for that on a lot of people think when you're doing pet photography. Handful retreats, handful of squeaky toys. And that's kind of people's go to thing when animals have and a lot of people say, Um, my, my dogs, their food motivated, though, do anything for food that's a huge red flag. If you start that session with food, you and they're telling you that, do it well. It's not that they'll do anything for food. You're going to get their attention with food, but it doesn't look good for a portrait. So when I'm photographing animals, I want them to be relaxed. I wanted to be calm when I'm making noises. I want them toe tilt their head. Be inquisitive when there's food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food, food. That's the look that you get. You don't get common relaxed, so no toys or treats, and I always tell people when they come into my studio, if you have toys or treats, please keep them hidden because I don't want to scold people. If you don't say that and you forget to and they take treats out and you're like, Oh, can you not use toys retreats? So I always try and say it ahead of time. I don't even like owners to use toys, retreats to get their dogs up in place. So for photographing them on a couch or an Ottoman, I don't want them to use that, because what happens is the dog just goes on there, just staring at the owner. More food, more food, more food. And I'm not interesting anymore to them. But if they call them up and there's no food involved there, just like, what am I doing up here? What's going on? And I start making noises. I'm interesting to them. So, like I said, you can use Baby Yates if you're doing something like that at home, another trick you can do if you're shooting to get a home studio. If you don't have the space to make a separate player, or if you don't want to make a separate playroom, you can turn all of your couches around and have them face the wall so the dogs can't jump on them. So that way they can smell the back of them. But it's not like a playground up and down, up and down, up and down. So your stuff is still out. Another thing is, if you have a wall of props like we have back there, don't start everything on the bottom because the dogs can smell everything on the bottom. If you start everything going from here up, you still have all of your stuff out. You don't have to hide it. You have to separate the dogs from it. But that way they're not getting over stimulated smelling all the other dogs that were there before, All right, so human psychology verse animal psychology has a huge difference between the way that humans think and the way the animals think. So a lot of people when you're working with humans, you talk to them. You want to get them comfortable before you start shooting, because if you ignore people that's not comfortable for them. But talking to them and chatting with them gets them comfortable. A lot of people want to apply that thinking the animals and it has the opposite effect on animals if they're nervous animals because some people want to make friends with them. Some people want to go come your buddy and they think that they need to make friends with animals before they start shooting because that's what works with people. But if you have a nervous animal, all that does is make them more nervous and they kind of cling to their owners. So, um, my first rule when it comes to animal psychology is you can greet pets after they greet you. So if there's animals that come in on a lot of times, I'm talking about dogs with psychology like this, because cats kind of have a mind of their own. But with dogs and dogs come up to you, I had a nudge your hand and want you to play with them. And if they're not overly hyper, if they're pretty well balanced animals, you can play with them all you want. That's fine. But if you have an animal comes into your studio. When I say studio, this could be your home. This could be when you're going into a client's home. This could be when you're shooting outdoors sessions. I just say studio a lot cause I shoot in my studio a lot, but giving attention to a nervous animal will only make them more nervous. So if there's an animal, say, sitting, you know in the corner there kind of hiding from you. They're not sure a lot of people want to go in your body. It's okay. And they do the baby talk, and they want to go up to them. Well, that animals not gonna magically jump up and be like, Great. You want to play with me? Not It's not gonna happen. The more you ignore that animal, they're going to be inquisitive. They're gonna want to come out. They're gonna want toe check things out. That's animal psychology. Ignoring them, Human psychology is going. Come your body play with you. I actually have my studio manager. Her name is Ali. And she had her dog tango that she adopted from the shelter and she would bring him to work. And he's super nervous. Yes, to wear a diaper at the studio because he just parties. If you make eye contact with him, he just parties. I mean, he's just like he's so nervous. And the thing with him when he sees me now he attacks me. He's so excited to see me, he jumps all over me, and I didn't do anything special as far as trying to make friends with him. I didn't cuddle with him. I didn't play with him. I ignored him. And over time he just realized. And for him, of course, it took a lot longer in a studio setting. You have maybe 10 15 minutes. But for him, he was, you know, had such issues that ignoring him, he just realized You're not here to harm me. You're not invading my space. And he loves May. And again, that's not giving him any love. That's not cuddling with him, but it's just letting him get comfortable. So giving attention to Ah, hyper animal will only make them more hyper. So hyper animals are the opposite of nervous animals. They want to play with you. They're not trying to hide from you. But what happens when you give attention to a nervous animal? They just wiggle even more rights. You start playing with them, they get even more excited. Let hyper animals calm down and let nervous animals get comfortable. So that's animal psychology, complementing pets without giving them attention. So a lot of times the first question I get from pet photographers is one. Do you tell owners that you're ignoring their animals because it's totally weird? Your pet photographer and you're ignoring animals. And people are like, Dude, what are you doing? So the answer is No, I don't I don't explain that to people unless I have to. Some people are like, Oh, can you meet them? Can you? You know, can they smell you or whatever, But what I do is I compliment. Pets says, satisfy the owners. So say Wow, I love her coloring. I love how her paws air two different colors. I love how her back is Roque early. Oh, that's spot on her chest is so cute. And these owners, they're doing professional photography. They love these animals. They're not just going to go. Oh, yeah, they're like, Oh, I know. Isn't that so funny? Cause when she was younger, the spot was like, this size. And then as she got bigger, the spots like this size and then she has one on her tail and they're all over it. I mean, there, you know. So that's satisfying the owner without having to physically give the animal attention. So again, when they're comfortable, give them attention. But that's a way to use human psychology photographing animals important images first, So I always shoot in order of priority. That is one of my number one things besides no toys and treats as animals hear noises over and over, especially cats. Cats are very visual. Dogs are very audio cat, sir. Visual. So when I'm trying to get attention with cats, I'm doing a lot of visual things to get them to look. But either thing, whatever tricks you're doing, whatever noises you're making as the animals here them over and over and see them over and over there. Not as interested. It's the same way with Children. If you keep doing a trick to try and get a child to laugh, it's just not funny after 15 times. So, I always ask people, is a family portrait. The most important? Are the dogs alone, the most important individual shot? What's the most important? I want to start with that if for some reason animals really nervous, that is when I will break the rule. I don't want to start with an animal by themselves if they're extremely nervous because I don't want them to be feeling like, why are you pushing me away? I want the owner to kind of be with them until they figure out Oh, this is fine. We're not the vet. We're not getting shots, you know? So mouth noises. I think that somebody should win a prize. One of our giveaways if they can come up with the phrase that's better than mouth noises because it's like, so not attractive. But I don't know what else to call it. I'm referring to noises that I can make with my mouth to get animals attention for the camera, Okay, that you've been challenged, right? Come up with something like eloquent. I'm, like, melts noises. So, um, what I dio I always recommend that you guys practice noises that you can make with your mouth. The worst thing that you can do to start a session is to hold a physical toy. Sometimes it's fine, but if you have animals who really ball obsessed or really interested in something, it gives them something to obsess over. So if I see you and you're holding a toy and like toi, toi toi, toi toi. But if you start with noises and something like, that's my noise, that's what I start with a lot and the animals will go, Oh, what was that what's going on? But they don't have a physical thing so obsessed over, so there's no reason for them to jump off the background. There's no reason for them to attack you. They're just going through What was that noise? What's going on? If you ever have a client who says, Um and I always tell people toys and treats keep them hidden, but some people will go. So I brought their favorite ball. That is a red flag. If someone says like I said before, this is their favorite ball, the worst thing you could do is start that session using that ball because all that animal's gonna focus on is the ball. So I'll tell people all that's perfect. I'm gonna try some noises first. If it's not working, then we'll use that. So I addressed it. I'm not ignoring them, but I do want to try my things first. I want a trial, my mouth noises first. So today, when we're shooting, we're doing a bunch of sessions. Today, I'm going to try and shoot them like riel sessions in the sense were like when I did the spotlight event, it was a shorter, like 15 minute shoot, and I wanted to show people all of my tricks. If I can get through an entire session with mouth noises, that's what I'm gonna dio if I have to use 45 noises or different tricks. I'm gonna do that, too. I'm a couple other noises that I'll do. Um, has anyone, Um, that's a popular when it usually gets ears to go right up, Um, and that usually get dogs to do. If you have dogs who bark, don't do it again. So when I know that sounds silly. But sometimes I forget and I go and will be like toxins and like that gets Doc, since every time I don't know what it is with that breed in that noise, that fire ever in the jump off the background. And then I'll be photographing them again. And they're getting bored with my other noises, a knuckle and the barking like stop, you know, stop making that noise. It's the same thing if you're doing something like knocking on a wall behind you to get an animal to perk their ears up. If it's working totally fine. But if it got them to bark, just don't do it again. That's gonna make them crazy. Arca Yeah, There are several people in the chat room that are saying when you're making those noises, their pets are at home at home. That's also, uh, I always say, If you want pets to perk their ears, go And if you want to head tilt, go go. Captured by Just said, my dog just came to attention from a full sleep that awesome. And the thing is with animals like they know what a squeaky toy is. You know what that is? I know what it sounds like. So even if they don't see a talk to some people go, Oh, no, I don't have a toy. I just have the squeaker in my hand. The plastic. They still know that it's a squeaky toy. They know that sound, so if you can make different noises that they're not familiar with that way you're getting them super without associating that sound with the ball. So attention getting tricks start small, so this just basically means start with things like your mouth noises. Don't start a session with your loudest squeaky toy. Or don't start with knocking on a wall behind you, because that is just way too much for an animal who doesn't need that yet. Start with the smallest things you can, and then if something's not working, move on. But start with small things. So mouth noises. Sometimes I'll do shaking treats in a jar I don't like I said, I don't like to use treats unless I have to. The time I really like to use treats is actually with nervous animals. That's when I, like, break all rules like nervous animals, because sometimes they're like, Oh, gosh, I don't know What are you doing? And they're crawling towards their owner. And as soon as you not shoma treat like this, that's kind of the problem. Don't show him a treat and go. Here's a treat. Just kind of adjust them a little bit. Have the tree in your hand with it by their face and they go, Ooh, what was that? Where is it? And it took their mind off of being nervous, and then you can use noises to get their attention. So when you do introduce treats, try and do that first just with it by their nose so they don't actually go treat treat, treat, treat, treat their like. I think I smell something. What's going on? And those air all perky your shots A one trick of noise at a time. This is so important and this kind of goes back to what I was saying with staying calm. Don't give into the craziness one trick of noise at a time. Some pet photographers I'll watch and they're shooting. And they're making noises and the owner standing behind them. And they're like clapping their fingers, going like this, calling the dog. And then another owners standing next, the dog holding treats. I'm just trying to get him to stay here so they don't jump down like that. Animals so confused they don't know what you want. They don't know where you want them to look. So one trigger noise at a time. If something isn't working, then you can move on. And now move on quickly. Sometimes I'll make my mouth noise doesn't work. That was only two seconds, but I didn't work. So I'm gonna move on, but don't go. Mouth, nose squeak, shake a toy. Clap your hands, Owner, Come stand by me. Is that should the dogs What are you doing? What do you want? So one thing at a time. A lot of times I'll have owners try and come behind me and you'll see when we're live shootings. We're doing so many shoots, some probably probably gonna run into everything that you would run into in a normal session. Sometimes people go, Oh, they're totally fine, though. Totally stay. They stand command and they'll come walk behind me. Actually, can you just stay right next to them? If you come behind me, they're just gonna look at you even if you try and, like, hide behind me, they're just gonna look at you. And they're kind of going like, Where are you? What's going on? Where if you stay If I'm the only one in front of them, I'm the only one behind the camera. They have to look at me when I make a noise. That's why I don't like just when I have people standing behind me I actually have one of the things lower on here is no assistant in my camera room and my girls that work for me. I started training them to do adoption Portrait's and we do that for all the rescues and shelters Complementary Help the animals find homes. And we're gonna talk about that tomorrow. Ah, lot, too. But the girls, when I was training them, they weren't full blown photographers. They kind of dabbled in photography a little bit and when I was showing them, Okay, this is what we're gonna dio there. Like I upholding the camera, I'm focusing my lens. I have to make a noise and I have to shoot. And there's times where they're like making noise. And the dog looks perfect on there, smiling. And I'm like, You forgot to shoot because there's and they're just like, Oh my gosh, that's so much thinking to do it once. So what they would do sometimes I say, OK, the rescue person who brought the dogs in. If you can handle them, I'm gonna shoot you, make noises to get their attention And what would happen? I could always tell when they did that because the dogs were looking. The lighting's good. They're perky, but you can just tell they're looking off just a little bit. They're not dead on looking at the camera there, looking off just a little bit. And you really lose the connection with the animal when you're going for a shot, when you want them looking at the camera and they're not. So there are times that you know a profile shot looks good or them kind of gazing off. But especially like if there's owners in the shot and everyone's looking in, the dog's kind of like you over there, you just really lose that connection with them. So I don't mean to throw my girls under the bus, but I make them shoot alone now. Theodore C. Um, the first thing you said was energy and how dogs respond to energy when you come in and then the no assistance in the room. Do you ever run into a situation where you might actually ask the owner to step out because they're the bad energy in the room or not Bad energy? But they're the ones that are actually working up the pet. Absolutely. I would say as much as you can try and coach people call and there cause there's some people who will come in and they're petting the dog like this and they don't realize it, but they're going like this whole time and you're like, slow down, just let them really slow because they're transferring that nervous energy to them. So I think that's a case where you can just coach them. I would say in seven years I've probably had two people leave the room, so it's not something that I do often it all, and usually when you have them leave, it doesn't work. The dog never just sits there and goes, Oh, I'm calm now, like they're just gonna be like Where they gone, What's going on? I mean, if they're that nervous with the owner there, they're probably going to be that nervous with the owner gone, I have had situations where I had people leave the room and the pets just kind of what, But it's very rare, so as much as I can, I want owners to stay in their partly because I want them to be involved. There's more of an emotional connection when they buy. The portrait's like one of the portrait that I sell cells every time. If you're shooting and the dogs were sitting here in the owners here, when the dogs look up with their owner, I'm not shooting the owner. I cut them out, but that shot cells every time they can't see themselves, but they know that they were looking at them, so it sells every time. So it's just that emotion. So I don't love the idea of them leaving. And usually, like I said, when they do, they're just like trying to jump down and run to the door and look for them. So I would say, Unless it's an extreme case with someone who's just like ah, like, coach them as much as you can just, you know, if we can calm down, I want them to get really quiet. And I need that everything to be really quiet for my noises toe work that answer your question. Yeah, Thank you. Okay, um, timing is everything. So when I say timing is everything, what I'm referring to is when you call a dog in place same thing with cats, but more so with dogs when they're smelling dogs. Don't just usually jump up and go. All right? I'm ready. Usually when you put them somewhere, call them somewhere. They kind of smell around. And they kind of have that moment. And sometimes they kind of circle a little bit. That's not the time to make noises. That's not when they're ready to hear them. What you want to do is wait until animals get a little bit bored because they're gonna kind of smell around. They're still smelling. Don't make noises because they're busy smelling and they're gonna go. I don't know what else is there. That's when you want to make a noise, cause that's when they're ready to hear it, cause there's nothing else preoccupying their brain makes sense. So same thing when you're shooting session outdoors, if you're an outdoor shooter like you are. If you're trying to get an animal's attention and something gets their attention over here, maybe it could be another dog walking by, a person walking by, whatever that is, and they go like this. Shoot that shot obviously, cause it's a good shot. But don't try and get their attention back to the camera because they're preoccupied with something else altogether. If you try and make noises at that time, you're gonna waste those noises and when you really need them, they're like her, them over them board. So wait until they're like, Oh, what's going on? Even if they're sitting there for two minutes and like when they leave, they're like, OK, what else is there? Noise back at the camera. So that's timing is everything already talked about no assistant my camera room. So if you guys are doing pet photography, if you want to get into pet photography, I hear a lot of people say I want to get into pet photography, but I cant afford an assistant. That's not an excuse, and you're not allowed to use it anymore because I've been doing this for seven years and I don't use an assistant. Of course, there's extreme cases cases when people come in and they have not extreme. Just maybe they have 45 animals or seven puppies or something like you just need an extra set of hands. Not so much for me, but just the handle the animals. So I'll tell people a lot if you can invite a friend to come with you, preferably someone who knows the animals who they're familiar with. Don't feel like that's all on you. If they go, I have all these dogs. Can you handle them? What? Can you bring a friend with you? So don't be afraid to ask that I shoot alone on the weekends, Saturdays and Sundays. We're open by appointment only. So I don't have employees there. So if someone books a session on those days and they go, I have four cats and I have three dogs. And, like, hope you're good at what you dio like. Are you coming alone or you bringing a friend? Is your spouse coming with you like it's just gonna be me and you? If not, so don't be afraid. And don't feel like you have to have an entourage of people in that situation. Okay? Always ask owners permission. We're actually getting fairly close toe having gusts our first life shoot coming up. But what I want to talk about has always ask owners permission when you're doing these things, picking an animal up, never pick an animal up without asking the owner's permission. So there's many reasons for this. But if you ask an owner, can I pick them up if they hesitate in anyway? There's a reason they're hesitating. It could be a variety of reasons. It could be that their animals a biter, and they don't want to say anything negative about them. It could be because the animal has back issues. Um, I always ask people, Can I pick them up? And if they say, Come here, Bella, that means no, you can't pick them up So don't just assume it's OK. Always ask permission. Always ask permission when giving animals treats. Some people think I'm a pet photographer. It's fun and treats. Yea, not just for my rules from earlier. Like I said, I don't want animals having treats in the beginning. I don't like to introduce them in the session unless I have dio. But the thing with treats. Some animals have sensitive stomachs. Some animals have food allergies. I have a lot of clients who are vegan, and their dogs are vegan, too. So just don't assume it's okay, cause that would be horrible to them. If you gave them a treat when they brought carrots and they would prefer begin treats giving an animal's water, always ask permission. And again that seems like a luxury thing like Oh, someone's in my studio. Nice bowl of water. Here's a bottle of water for you. If you have an animal who comes in and say a wheaten terrier or a bichon or a Maltese or a poodle. Your keys. If you put that water down and they stick their face in it and come up, their whole beard is wet and you just ruin their grooming and you're doing Portrait's. And the most important thing is I'm looking good there. Portrait's their beer just gonna look really clumpy and wet. So always ask permission before you do that. If animals air really panting, there's some people who will bring, like the little bibs for, like show dogs. So I cover their face, but or those spray water in their mouth so doesn't with their beer. But it is really important that you are asking that before you do it last thing on here, When handling animals, you can only do as much as owners dio. So as pet photographers were not animal trainers, that is not what we're getting paid to do. We're getting paid to take good portrait's, and in order to do that, we need to make sure that everyone is comfortable. A lot of times when people were doing animal training owners, air kind of taken out of their comfort zone because they're obviously doing animal training cause the pets are behaving a certain way, and it's usually because they're letting them behave a certain way. So a lot of times the trainers are disciplining the animals or having the owners correct them or do something, and that really takes people out of their comfort zone. When we're doing portrait sessions, that is not the time to judge people. That is not the time toe judge say, like, you know, while you're animals really well, behaviour while they're not or while you're really baby them, it doesn't matter. Whatever those owners do, you could only do as much as they dio. For example, I manhandle my dogs when I need to. If I want my dog sitting next to me, you're gonna sit next to you right now. Not in a minute when you feel like it. Right now, that's just how I am with my dogs. If they're not listening, I'll pick him up there. £85 Weimaraners. But I'll pick him up and get him over here because you're sitting here right now because I said so. But there's other owners where you say OK, can we get Joey next to you? and they kind of go Okay, Joey, And they're kind of tapping on the background. Joey's like across the room. He's like, not even paying attention. He's just like smelling. But they're like, Come your Joey. Okay, well, that's how it's gonna be initial different. There's no right or wrong. I'm not saying my way is better. Their way is better. But whatever people they're comfortable with, it's not okay to go. Just scoop that dog up and manhandling like I with my dogs and stick him over there cause that's going to get the owners out of their comfort zone. Just make sure that you always keep that in mind. Only do as much as owners dio. So let's actually take some questions. And I know we're going to kind of change the set over a little bit. I think you guys are moving right. Eso The one thing I want to talk about before remove is like I was saying with, um, animals when they come in here. If you guys can't ignore them, you're not gonna get in trouble if you pet them. But I just don't want it to be a fun like, yeah, you're pretty me. You're jumping on me. Say anything with the camera people and you guys, I know it's so hard for you cause you love animals. I know we can play with them after, but just if we can do that just to keep the environment kind of neutral and boring. So when I'm making noises to get their attention and it's totally normal to be like Oh, well, but if we do that kind of too loud, there's too many noises again. So just kind of chill out. You know, what I really love is the fact that putting putting your philosophy into practice here just in the studio alone, yeah, and you see all the challenges just from bringing people in animals and in studio because we all do want to. I mean, it's just our nature. We want absolutely, what? We're pet photographers. We love animals. So it is. It is kind of it is. There is a little contradiction. What I tell people to is like you can play with them after your job is not to play with them. You're not a pet sitter at that moment. You're not a friend to them. If it happens and you get to play with them during the session they run up to. It's okay, but after the session, cool, free game. Let's all play because you got the portrait that you wanted. But you just don't want it to be like, yeah, you're playing with me and you're not getting the shots you want because they're distracted or whatever it ISS So your photographer first and then you can play with them later. Yeah, the one question I had for your archives, you mentioned how energy is very important in keeping things calm. And one thing that's a very apparent to me from you is how calm you yourself are. So do you have any techniques to calm yourself down? So you're having a crazy day in your political life, And how do you center yourself? You know, the first thing when you say that I think of is pet photography matches my personality. I have a pet photography that I do. There's all different styles. Some people do very high energy, fun, goofy, and you needn't be a little bit more high energy when you do that. But the type of photography I do matches my personality because I used Teoh work, a fast food photography studio, and they would do Children and lots of babies and toddlers and they would come in. And I'm like, Ah, so much effort after, like, put a circus on for them. And it's just not in my nature. I don't want kids personally for myself, And it's, you know, my best friend had a baby and I wasn't like, Oh, let me hold your baby. I was like, Oh, photograph him. I'm good and I don't need to hold him, you know? So for me, pet photography just kind of matched what I did, because animals need you to be calm. If you guys are very high energy people by nature, that's OK. But I would say Just try and keep it neutral not to be boring. And again, it's not to not have fun. It's just if you're being really energetic and you're being like that owner you're talking about, that's just not gonna help with the portrait session. So I'm not sure if I answer the question perfectly, but you know it. For me, it is it matches my personality. It's just being Commons and like that works for the animals just so you can work on capturing their personality. Because if you're feeding them too much energy, you might be kind of changing who they are. Going like Bah, where if you're just kind of neutral, whatever they do, and however they react, that's their personality that you're capturing. So you're not altering it. So, yeah, it makes complete sense. It's just a natural extension of yourself. I think, in the way you interact with pets. And it's funny because, like you said, it is very different from what people think. A lot of people think like, That's so weird you're ignoring them. You're not hanging out with them. It's not about having those rules and going ignore them. Don't do this, Don't you streets? Just let them be comfortable and don't overwhelm them. That's just basically, but I'm getting it. Um, we have a ton of questions coming, and you wanna start? Kathy? Yes. Um, so we have a question. Well, this is kind of a personal question. What kind of dogs do you have yourself, and how often do you shoot them? And that's a great question. Never photographed my dogs. I'm just too busy like not because, you know, everyone thinks like you Talks must be photographed all the time. And when I started my studio, they were like my sample shots, but like and I have a photo handbag with my dogs on it, but I seriously took it like, seven years ago. But I have two Weimaraners have a blue. I'm a writer and a great wine writer. I adopted them from the Las Vegas Weimaraner Rescue and I, also the guinea pig. His name is Harley and he comes to work with me every day. And he was actually one of my adoption portrait's. He came in from the S p c A. I photographed him. His portrait is in this presentation later today. So he's sitting in a little jar. What do you do with guinea pigs like they just kind of sit there and they just kind of like we don't do anything. You don't love him. But I'm like, What can I do with them to kind of make this like So someone adopts him. Me. So I stuck him in a jar and he's like sitting in a glass vase and he's like staring at the door and it's just the cutest thing. So I called the S P c a back and I'm like, I need to have him. So all these years I've been doing adoption Portrait's and the $1. The one animal that I gave in on was a guinea pig. But he comes to work with me every day I bring into the studio. So it's just funny because you guys have seen my studio and it's just like it's beautiful and elegant there chandeliers. And then I have, like a five foot by seven foot guinea pig cage, like hanging out my office. And it's not pretty. It's just so it was a random, keeping it really totally. I would have thought your that your dogs would have had a ton of photographs to. Yeah, it's just I don't know if you know, for me. Honestly, it's kind of funny because I'm one of the photographers that I don't take a camera on vacation. Just don't I Don't try. I'm not like that passionate like I'm going on a hike. Take your camera like I'm just not there, like for me, like I and I should be. I want to get more creative and like think outside the box and, like, rediscover your passion. But right now, for me, like when I have a camera in my hand, it's work. So when I go on vacation, I have my IPhone and I'm good with that. And if I need a photograph, the dogs, I only do it for, like, promo reasons. Or like I have this portrait special. And I don't feel like, you know, finding a model. I'm just gonna use my dog, but I don't photograph my dogs like Great. Do you guys photograph your dogs a lot? All of you. Yeah, we have other animals besides that cat. You have cats. I have two cats and a dog. Spend three Children and I don't take enough pictures of them, especially the Children. But I have a lot of some pictures, but now I don't because I'm taking so many and it's the editing. That's just because you take them and then you have to edit well. And that's my thing. When I travel and people were like my worst story that I have is I was in a photo shoot. Have my camera with me. There was this gorgeous sunset in Vegas and I pulled over and I'm like, it's beautiful. And I had this whole thing go through my head. I go, OK, what am I going to do with that portrait? It's gonna sit on my computer. I'm never gonna print it. Turn the car back on and I kept driving. And I know it's so horrible, but I'm like, What am I going to do with it? And if I'm not gonna print or edit it so, like, yeah, yeah, it's good to like practice and rediscover your passion, but gas.