The number of people who are getting pets increase year after year.  Many of these pet owners go the extra mile just to give everything they can to their beloved pets.  There are even specialized services for pets that span grooming, health care, fashion, and a lot more.  Also included in these specialized services is pet photography.

Many pet lovers want professionally done photographs of their pets and they often put these on display for all to see and appreciate.  Photographing pets can be quite a challenge because pets usually can’t pick up instructions the way people do.  There are also certain limitations in pet photography that makes it more difficult than most other kinds of photography but the rewards are great if you are able to create a really beautiful photograph of your beloved pet.

Capturing the character and essence of a pet not only gives a stunning pet portrait but also priceless memories of pets for pet owners.  When dabbling in pet photography as a hobby or a business, here are certain things you may want top bear in mind.

Have Patience.  To get awesome photographs of a pet, you need to realize that the process calls for a lot of patience.  It would usually take some time to be able to take pictures of the pose or expression from the pet that you have been looking and waiting for.  There may also be times when you don’t have to wait long to get the perfect shot but you must also be prepared to wait and be patient.  Though there may be times when it will get frustrating but those who are patient would eventually reap the rewards.

Timing Is Everything.  Pets also have moods just like humans.  Sometimes they are just too lazy to move around and wouldn’t respond to coaxing.  This is why you need to consider good timing whatever type of shot of a pet you may have in mind.  You should adjust to an animal’s moods instead of forcing it to a pose.  If you want to take a picture of it lying around, you just need to wait for it to get tired.  If you want to capture the image of the pet in a playful mood, wait for it to get up and be in the mood to play.

Try Different Shooting Angles.  In most kinds of photographs of living creatures, be it pets or humans, the most important aspect is the eyes of the subject.  By getting down to the eye level of a pet, you can dramatically capture its character and soul.  You can also try other angles by shooting down from above while standing on a chair to create unique and effective photographs.  It would also be wise to experiment with different angles and just keep the pet’s eye always in mind.

Shoot As Much As You Can.  Just like in most kinds of photography, it is better to take as many pictures as you can because it is way better to use up your camera’s memory space rather than missing the perfect shot.  Besides, with digital cameras, you need worry about wastage in film and all you need to worry about is the memory space of your camera.  Since memory cards and memory sticks are much more affordable nowadays, you ca even afford not to worry about memory spaces as you can just transfer your shots to a computer right after the shoot or just delete the ones that you do not like.

By taking as many pictures as you can, you can capture a pet at its best whatever its moods are. Also, if you shoot continuously, you can make the pet get used to the sound of the camera.  This way, it can get more relaxed with you around making clicking sounds with your camera.  You are also in the better position to capture candid shots in between your pet’s formal posed if you are shooting continuously.  By doing so, you may be surprised at some of the shots you were able to capture when you review them.

Manipulating Situations.  If you want a really special and unique pet portrait, you can try bringing it to a nicer environment.  For example, you can bring the pet to the beach where you can throw it into the water or to the field where you can allow it to romp and run freely.  You can also try to take some shots at the park, or when you jog, or when doing something that both you and your pet find enjoyable.  A nice, relaxed, and laidback environment can give you an opportunity to take awesome random shots of your pet.

Using Toys And Treats.  The use of pet toys and treats to stimulate a pet can be quite tricky.  There are two possible scenarios here.  One scenario is that by using toys and treats, you can stimulate a pet in order for you to make a more appealing shot and create more striking and intense images.  On the other hand, the other scenario would be getting the pet over-stimulated and they could be harder to work with when it is in the state of over-stimulation.  If you are taking the photograph of other people’s pet, talk first with its owner and observe the pet under both circumstances and see which works best.

Catching The Action.  Instead of the generic and tamed setup, many pet owners want to have photos of their pets in action. Animals are supposed to be free to express themselves and they are best to look at when they are feeling carefree and gay.  For you to be able to get a good shot of a pet in action and in a jolly mood, you would need to set it to an active and playful mood.  You can try to initiate some kind of a game with it.  You can also give it its favorite food or favorite toy to stimulate it and keep its mood up.  You can try doing a lot of things to get the pet up and get it on with what you are planning to do.  For really interesting shots, you can get the pet do some tricks.

Some Thoughts On Composition.  There could be times when you could be very busy trying to capture a pet’s perfect expression or trying to make an interesting shot that considerations about the background is overlooked or forgotten.  The rules of good composition must always be on the mind of every photographer and you can easily make a visual check on your camera’s viewfinder.  Is the background cluttered or not? Are you using the rule of thirds? How much depth of field do you want for your picture?  Have you checked whether the background complements your subject?

If you are taking pictures of a black dog, for example, it may not be wise to shoot it with a dark background.  Check whether your location is working for you or not.  If not, consider moving to the other side or completely change locations.  This could make a big difference in the outcome of your shot and you could get either an ordinary shot or a really stunning portrait of the subject.

..hope you’ve enjoyed this. Go to this link if you want to learn more on pet photography.

Roy Barker

Original post by Administrator

Just like in any kind of business, you need to file for taxes and claim expenses for your photography business every year.  This is why you need to have an accurate record of every single cent that you have spent in operating your photography business.  For this, you need to conscientiously keep each and ever business related receipts to verify your business expenditures.

Maintaining the accuracy of your data when claiming expenses for your photography business is very important if you don’t want to get snagged into something unpleasant with the authorities.  You’ll find yourself in hot water if you claim the wrong expenses because of your bad record keeping.  To avoid this, you need to have a solid system for storing and reporting the money you spent on your equipments, supplies, and other expenses.

To keep your finances and its records in order, you need to have a tax resale number and a system for saving and recording all of your expenses.  For the latter, you should have a 12-column account pad or you can use a special software to do and keep your records.  Aside from these, there are also other things that you may want to consider doing to ensure that the expenses you claimed for your photography business are correct:

What of your business-related expenses can qualify for tax breaks?  There are certain business-related expenses that can qualify for tax breaks so you need to be aware of them.  Usually for photography businesses, the list would include cameras, studio lighting systems, lenses, paper sweeps and other kinds of backdrops, light meters, dark room equipments, films, props, backup systems, and batteries.  Find out also the other expenses that can give you a write-off.  You just need to have all the pertinent receipts ready for the tax bureau.

Keep tabs on your business-related expenses.  You would need to establish a system of recording all your business-related expenses for you to be able to keep tabs on them effectively.  You can choose using the traditional 12-column accounting pad or you can use a special software to do the capturing, factoring and tallying of your list of expenses.  Your option would depend largely on what you are comfortable in using.  More and more photography businesses are using software like Quicken or QuickBooks nowadays to make things easier.  Using MS Excel can also help.

Not everything is deductible as far as the tax bureau is concerned.  Thinking that everything in line with your photo business is deductible can make you make some errors when claiming expenses.  One good example here is travel where you would need to prove that the travel expenses you accrued are legitimate.  If your client requires you to travel to certain location and you happened to need to buy film or rent a car or eat lunch on location, keep all the receipts to verify every cent you spent.  To simplify things when verifying claimed purchases and other expenses, bundle your travel receipts with your client’s invoice.

What about retainers for pre-booked jobs?  For pre-booked photo shoots, most photography businesses ask for a retainer from clients.  This is quite a common practice and there are certain questions that usually arise about when to claim the said retainer regarding a photography business’ tax account.  For instance,  it is not unusual for a photographer to receive a check, for example, in December as a down payment for a photo shoot that is scheduled for next summer.  Just include it in your accounts of  income in that year.  When you claim the deposit, claim it in the year it was given.

Trust tax professionals for photography equipment depreciation matters.  When computing for your photography equipments’ depreciation, more often than not, it is better to let a professional handle this task.  When computing the depreciation of certain photography equipment used in photography businesses like strobes, cameras, meters, and other sophisticated equipment, you would need to calculate it with the use of complex depreciation tables.  The law or the regulations here are constantly changing but tax professionals are well aware of these changes and they can do the job a lot more accurately.  If you do it yourself and you are using old depreciation tables, there is a big possibility that your tax write-off will be less than what you are entitled to receive.

Keeping track of your business mileage.  Tracking correctly your business mileage can be quite tricky so it is very important to keep a detailed and accurate mileage log.  Before you start calculating your driving expenses, visit first your tax bureau website or visit their nearest office to get the current rate.  If you have a vehicle used exclusively for your photography business, the expenses that you incur for its maintenance, upkeep, and depreciation can usually be written off on your business return.

More often than not, photographers who take the per mile reduction instead of writing off oil, gas, and the rest fare better.  A photographer who travels at an average of 15000 miles a year and uses the per mile calculation gets a bigger tax break than business owners who itemizes car upkeep costs.

Accounting for reimbursed expenses.  If you don’t want to be caught inflating your write-offs, always account for your reimbursed expenses.  Many photographers and photography businesses usually receive reimbursements for lodging, mileage, food, and travel expenses that they incur while on a photography job.  To help you separate these from the fees that you received from your client, bill it out in a separate invoice.  If you have already billed your client and have already been paid for travel, you can not reclaim it as your expense because you can not ask for reimbursement for the same expenses twice. There’s a little more on this in basic format in my eBook about how to start a photography business.

Take into consideration state and local taxation.  With due consideration with the state and local taxation laws, you can clearly know where your photography business fits.  You should also know whether your state or locality requires you to collect sales tax on a full contract amount or if only expenses outside the actual photo shoots should be considered for such.  Your kind or line of photography also matters when doing your taxes.  If you are doing  wedding photography, for example, find out whether the purchase and resale of the albums, where photos and proofs are part of the wedding package, are subject to state taxes or not.  You should be vigilant and track such expenses accurately.

Keeping tabs on the various money and tax matters of your photography business requires patience and attention to details.  To be able to keep an accurate and updated record of your business expenses, be sure to note every expenses as soon as they are incurred and keep all the receipts.  Organize your files so that you can easily find what you are looking for when you need them.  If you can not do it, find someone who can do it for you.  By keeping a detailed record of all the money matters in your photography business, not only will you find it easier to do your taxes, you will also have a clear idea of the financial status of your business.

Like anything related to tax, things change so always clarify these points with your accountant.

..hope that will be of some help to you,

Roy Barker

Original post by Administrator

Having a photo business can be tough especially if the competition is stiff.  You would want to have the competitive advantage that you can get.  To do this, you would need to explore and maximize the various opportunities within your reach.

With the advent of the internet age, cyberspace became an important realm that many kinds of businesses play in.  More and more people are getting online every day.  Consequently, more and more businesses are putting up their company websites not only to create awareness for their business and to advertise but also do business.  These businesses want to tap the opportunities that internet technology is making available to them.

In the field of photography business, having your very own business photography website is one great way of promoting your photography business to billions of Netizens all over the world.  A business photography website is also a must if you want to be known and to be able to allow your clients and potential clients to see your portfolio readily.

Customers looking for a photographer to hire for their special occasions would usually compare the work or portfolio of different photographers before making a decision.  Many photographers are now posting a portfolio of their work online as there are many sites that allow them to do this.  Having your portfolio online and ready for browsing for anybody sure beats going around and showing prospective clients your portfolio.

If you want to bring your photography business to a wider audience and would want to keep up with the challenges of the times, it is high time you have your business’ photography website.  Having your own business photography website will allow you to reach out the biggest number of people online as possible.  It can also help you build your brand and your business while creating widespread awareness about it  at the same time.

Creating a website is not that easy especially for newbies.  However, with basic knowledge and a little creativity, the task may not be that daunting after all.  For those who want to create their own business photography website, here is your step-by-step guide in creating your business photography website:

Step One: Have A Domain Name.  You would need to choose and register for a domain name for your photography business website.  You can use your own name or your business name as your website’s domain name.  Your domain name is your website’s address that is needed to be typed into the web browser for people to reach your website.

You need to register your chosen domain name with a domain registrar.  You would need to prepare as little as $1 annual fee to over $14 a year for this.

Step Two: Get Web Hosting.  You would need to purchase hosting for your website.  A web host is an owner of multiple web servers used to maintain the content of your website and your website’s traffic.  There are some free web hosting services available but they have a lot of limitations.  Paid web hosting services, on the other hand, can cost you around $3 to more than $100 monthly.

You may want to sign up for a cheaper web hosting service at first while you are just testing the waters.  After all, you can always upgrade your account if you want more space for your web content.

Step Three: Upload Your Online Portfolio.  Post your portfolio online.  Bring together your best photographs and upload them to your website.  If you are not sure what to include in your online portfolio, ask your family and friends to help you out.  You can also ask for advice from other photography professionals you trust about this matter.

Remember to keep your portfolio versatile.  Your chosen photographs must appeal to a wide range of audience and to people of different lifestyles.  Your prospective clients will be, more often than not, coming from all walks of life and they usually want to see images that they can relate to.

Step Four:  Write Your Web Content.  What is a website without content?  The search for information is what drives people to cyberspace.  How will people know what you do and what your website is for without web content?

Content is very important not only in giving information about your business but also if you want search engines to find your website.  You would also need high quality content if you want to be ranked by search engines.  The higher your page rank, the higher the possibility of your potential clients finding you.

Some important web content you should not omit are your welcome message and relevant information about your photography business.  Your content will give your potential clients an idea about who you are, your craft, and your photography services so make sure to do it well.  Have somebody proofread your content before uploading it to your website.  It is very important that your content is free from spelling and grammatical errors.

Step Five: Use Website Templates.  There are web templates especially for photographers and photography websites.  These templates are very handy to have and easy to use especially for photographers who are greenhorns in this undertaking.  These specifically-designed templates can be used when you upload your content and photos.

The sites that offer specially-designed templates for photographers offer such for a monthly fee.  If you would want to have your photography business website custom made and you can’t do it yourself, you can hire a professional for this project.  There are many sites now on the internet where you can have freelancers bid on your project with due consideration for your prepared budget.

Step Six:  Advertise Your Photography Business Website.  Now that your photography business website is ready, make it known to the world.  You can maximize the potentials given by social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and others for such kind of ventures.

You can also advertise your website and your photography business by mentioning them in forums and other such opportunities.  Choose to post in forums in websites that are related to photography and those where your target market usually frequent.

For example, if you are into pet photography, you can try advertising your business in pet photography websites and other pet-related websites.

Step Seven:  Update Your Web Content Regularly.  You would need to update the contents of your website regularly to keep your visitors visiting your site again and again for new information.  You can post updates of your business activities or your business’ promos or new photographs.
Keeping your web content fresh and regularly updated is important so that search engines will love your website.  Maintaining high quality content is also a must not only for search engine results purposes but also to help build your brand favorably in the eyes of your prospective clients.

In this world where the internet and cyberspace are becoming a permanent fixture in the lives of many people, the only way to keep up with the changing demands of time is to maximize every opportunity that comes your way.  Creating a photography business website is a big leap, be it for a veteran or a newbie photographer.  There are certain responsibilities that come with having a website but a photographer often cannot afford to lose the chance of using cyberspace and all the opportunities that it offers for business.

…hope this is of some help,

Roy Barker

Original post by Administrator

Photography can be a great hobby and a good way to earn some extra cash.  If you really are into photography and you have the talent for it, you can go on a journey of great personal fulfillment while earning your keep.  You need not be a photographer for big magazines and major dailies or put up your own photo studio to earn and pay for your bills.  Try microstock photography.

Though a relatively new concept, more and more photography enthusiasts are discovering the beauty of microstock photography.  These people do what they like to do, which is photography, and it can earn you some extra cash on the side.  This bonus income could help not only pay bills but also for other photography related matters like buying a new camera or other photography equipment.

Since the knowledge or awareness of microstock photography is not that common yet, here are some of the things you need to know:

Understanding The Concept Of Microstock Photography.  Microstock photography is an offshoot of the traditional stock photography.  The term also means micropayment photography.  While traditional stock photos with limited use usually cost hundreds of dollars, microstock photos cost much less.  Photo buyers who buy photos for personal and small business use, more often than not, would choose microstock photos because they are way more affordable.

With microstock photography, serious photographers and hobbyists alike can enter the stock photography market.  Anybody with quality materials and who is willing to sell images for less can upload them to various websites that accept microstock photography.  Microstock sites usually do not charge a fee to anybody who will post photos but all submitted photos are not automatically accepted.  These sites usually have a team that checks all the pictures submitted for technical quality and if they have commercial and artistic merit.

Getting Started With Microstock Photography.  It is not that difficult to start with microstock photography.  All you need are your basic photography equipment and some editing software.  Your digital SLR would be suitable for many kinds of microstock photos and you can use an editing program that can be had for free.

If you already have the basic gear, the next thing to do would be to take photographs that you would need for your initial application process to the microstock site.  It would be great if your subjects are marketable like those related to business, lifestyle, and other popular themes.  Put yourself in the shoes of photo buyers to determine that kind of photographs that they would be looking for and those that your intended market would need.  Just make sure that your photos do not contain trademarked or copyrighted subjects or objects.  If you use a model, make sure that your model signs a release before you post the photographs.

It would definitely be a good idea to visit the microstock sites you intend to post pictures in to have an insight of the kind of photographs they will buy from you.  You would then need to submit your photos for review and make sure that it follows the guidelines of the microstock site.

Earning Through Microstock Photography.  Though microstock photos are available at lower prices compared to traditional stock photos, you can still earn more if you upload more photographs to microstock sites.  The more you upload, the more you earn.  The earning potential here is limitless.  It all depends on how much time you are willing to spend on shooting and the number of photographs you upload.

If you are just starting out, start small then test the waters.  See what works best for you, given your present commitments and schedule.  Consider the amount of time that you can apportion to this endeavor.  Choose the option you are most comfortable with.

..hope that helps someone,

Roy Barker

Original post by Administrator