As a pet photographer, you will specialise in photographing animals either individually or with their owner. This type of photography is usually done in a studio, at the owner's home or in a local outdoor setting.
There are generally three types of pet photography.
Studio Pet Portraits
Studio pet portraits are done in a studio under carefully configured settings. Usually, the photographer will control as much of the shoot as possible, from the lighting to the set and props. Of course, working with animals there is always going to be an element of surprise but generally these portraits are designed to be more traditional and classic in style.
Lifestyle Pet Portraits
Lifestyle pet portraits are typically done either in the owner's home or in a local outdoor setting. The purpose of this type of portrait is to capture the animal in their natural environment as well as their own unique personality. This could be photographing the animal in their bed, at play, eating or spending time with members of their household.
Equine Portraits
Equine portraits are an area that has grown in popularity over recent years. As an equine portrait photographer you would be tasked with capturing images of the horse either individually or with their owner. Typically, these portraits are more traditional and classic but can sometimes be a more dramatic style.
Your pet website is your business's virtual shop window and therefore, should reflect your own personal style and be designed with your ideal customer base in mind. Many pet photographers choose to design a light, laid-back website with classic, easy to read typefaces and bright, modern portfolios of beautiful images.
Many pet photographers also wish to give their website visitors a bit of "wow factor" to showcase why they should invest in professional pet photography. One way to achieve this is by using the banner links page. By displaying a beautiful, full-width image at the top of any web page, you can create an immediate impression on clients.
Another way to impress clients would be to use the blurb page. The blurb page is similar to the banner links page, allowing you to display a full-width image but with a box of text and the option to include an access code box. This can make a particularly beautiful client area page.
On a practical note, it's important to implement the right privacy settings for your pet photography. There are two main options that we would recommend.
The first is to set your collections to "private". This means only an access code will display and ensure that only visitors with the correct access code can view the images within the collection.
Alternatively, you could set your collections to "preview only". This would display an access code box as well as one image from the collection, which is chosen by you, the photographer. The visitor must enter the correct access code to view the rest of the images within the collection.
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If you use social media, and we highly recommend that you do, you will want to make your profiles easy to find. By linking your social media platforms to your website is a really great way to do this. Not only does it make it easier for your visitors to find and follow your social profiles but is also great for your search engine optimisation. You can link to your social media platforms from anywhere on your website, but the most common is from your website footer, website header and contact page.
Notification Bars
Notification bars are mainly used as either an announcement bar or a cookie bar.
An announcement bar is typically used to display current, important information to your clients and should be updated fairly regularly. Announcement bars could be used to display information such as special offers and discounts, seasonal announcements, holiday breaks and other important announcements, for example, Covid-19 pandemic updates.
Alternatively, a cookie bar is used to link to your cookie and privacy policy so that visitors can read, should they want to, how you handle their information and data. A cookie policy is required on any website using persistent cookies i.e. if you are offering gift vouchers to customers.
If in doubt, we would recommend that you always display a cookie policy, just to be on the safe side!
Introduce your client to their private gallery using beautiful cover photos. A collection's cover photo displays one large, full-screen image with the collection title in the centre. The image is selected by you and the settings can be customised to best suit the collection requirements. You can also select a different image and settings for each collection, giving you complete control over the appearance of each client gallery.
Big, Responsive Thumbnails
It's important to consider your client gallery in the same way you would any other page on your website. After all, it's the main way your customer will view and purchase their images.
Using big, responsive thumbnails allows you to display image thumbnails as big as you want within responsive client gallery layouts. Not only that, but you can also select different watermark profiles depending on the media type displayed. This allows you to really customise the appearance of your client galleries as well as give your customer's a unique, well-designed experience.
Pop-Up Boxes
A pop-up box displays on your website periodically, according to your chosen programmed schedule. For example, it can display on every page on your website or just a selected one, such as your home page. A pop-up box is usually designed to initiate a particular action from the visitor as well as isolate a visitor's attention to what you consider the most important message. For example, to encourage a visitor to purchase a product, book a session, spend over a certain amount, follow your business on social media or sign up to your mailing list.
You can sell anything in an online shop with theimagefile, from physical products (such as traditional prints and other photo products) and stand-alone products to digital downloads, and services.
As a pet photographer, you will most likely want to focus your efforts on selling downloads, prints, and other photographic products. However, you could also consider selling other pet photography services or pet products.