How To Start a Home Based Photography Business & Make Over $250 Per Hour With Your Camera Photographing People & Pets

So, you've got a decent 35mm film or digital camera plus a bit of spare time on the week-end and your friends tell you that you can take a pretty good pitcure. And you probaly found your way here because you are an animal lover who happens to also enjoy photography.

Well, if you are looking for information on how you can turn your love of animals and your photography hobby into a full or part time business you've come to the right place.

There is big money to be made by specializing in portraits of people and pets!

Even if all you did was one 60 minute family portrait session per week. With the methods my wife and I developed you should average between $250 to $500 in profits!

8 to 10 one hour sessions per week can put you into a high a six figure income!

You are about to discover how having your own home-based photography business can be your ticket to more time, money and freedom!

Thanks to starting my own home based photography business and home-based studio I'm now able to travel the world and take my business with me and you can follow my steps to a brigther future by starting your own portrait photography business to.

You don't even need to have a studio of your own because you can operate your pet photo business on location which means all you realy need to start your own photography business is a camera, lights and a few props that you take to your customers location.

You can set up joint ventures with pet shops and get groomers and they will help you to build your business because doing so is a Win - Win - Win for you, them and the pet owners who make up your mutual client base.

But before getting into the mechanics of how to start your pet photography business take a look at some of the typical types of portraits you can learn to set up and take.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to succeed in a home based or on location pet or people photography business. Just a burning desire to Be Your Own Boss along with some basic photo gear and the ability to snap a cute picture is all you really need to get started making money now!

Of course you'll need to learn how to get swamped with pet owners who are willing, ready and able to buy your photos. But getting all the customers you can handle is pretty simple once you know how to go about marketing your photography service! www.PetPhotoBiz.com

One of the smartest investments you can make is to get yourself a mentor or two. You don't have to reinvent the wheel or suffer from the common mistakes most beginning photographers almost always make.

Even through I've been photographing since 1984 I still network with, study and learn from other photographers and will continue to do so. It's something most successful pros invest in. You can pick their brains for peanuts by just calling them up on the phone or emailing them or investing in their books, tapes and CD's.

For example:

One of the hardest things about being a professional portrait photographer is knowing how to pose family groups. You can go to photopgraphy school and learn all of the mechanics of taking photographs that are properly exposed but 4 years later still not know how to pose a small group to save your life. Or you can simply take the time and money you would have invested in school and instead get yourself a good camera and go work for and learn from someone who doesn't just teach theroy out of a book but works daily in his or her own successful photography business. And chances are that person will have mentors of their own. They will go to several photography workshops each year and will invest in training manuals, books, Cd's and video's produced by othetr professionals.

One of my mentors is "Tom Ray". And Tom is an expert at teaching photographers how to pose people and he gave me permission to share part of his story with you.

Here's what Tom has to say about posing people...

What I learned from a mentor that enabled me to go from an amateur photographer to a professional poretrait photographer in very specific steps is something I like to pass on. Rather than spending countless hours in classes learning every possible detail about photography, I learned just the necessary specifics to get started in the business and now I work out of my home part-time earning a full time income and have been in business for over 17 years; but I started out with practically nonthing, just an interest in photography and the need to earn more money.

One of the things that my mentor taught me was the Three Classic Elements to produce "salable portraits."

"Salable" ia an industry term every photographer quickly becomes familiar with to distinguish between the everyday reality of making money versus creating those "artistic competition" or "award winning prints" which don't earn the money.

I've been in the business for several decades now and I'm still amazed that:

People don't buy the award winning prints that you see wearing many of the ribbons at professional photography conventions.

When my clients are face with the choice of buying an artistic pose of their child being demure and not looking directly into the camera or buying a pose smiling close-up straight into the camera, they buy the smiling close-up every time.

Not very original, but I'm telling you now so take note:

Happy people whose faces you can readily see are the most salable prints.

They'll never tell you this at a photography workshop, seminar, Annual Convention or at a photography institute because their job is to create award winning photo artists rather than people whom simply make a living, but. . .

If you haven't learned all the fancy lighting techniques, then you've saved time because the most important thing about light is having enough to keep the face out of the shadows.

People prefer any kind of light, as long as there is enough of it to light the face and eyes so you can get a good look at the person!

The quality of light people prefer for portraits is soft light, whether it be from an artificial source lika a flas umbrella or a natural source like a flash umbrella or a natural source from the sky at sunset, but other than a soft quality of light they want enough of it to SEE the face of the person you're photographing, even if it is a flat almost straight on technique.

You may not win any competitions or awards this way, but if you get plenty of light on the faceas you'll create salable prints.

This leads me to talk about fill flash. There are times outdoors when you'll need a flash on your camera to fill in dark shadow areas mostly in the eye sockets. Just use one f-stop less flash than the existing ambient light calls for. That's enough light to fill the shadows and don't worry about not lugging around a porytable umbrella to get the perfect modeling technique.

My mentor is right again: there is no change in the sale. The customer pays for well lit faces, not perfect modeling. I've tried it both ways and the customer buys the same amount of pictures in the same sizes no matter what you do.

(Note from EZ PHOTO CASH: Knowing how to package, market and present your offer will make a dramatic difference in your income and that is what I excell in teaching. More on that later.)

Element number Two: Body Positioning.

This is a little more detailed area, but it is important, believe me.

My basic education from my mentor began with the same advice I'll pass on to you:

You should rarely photograph straight on.

The exception to this rule will be for family and large groups, which for reasons of body placement will often break this rule. But for individuals or smaller groups of people this rule applies.

Now, when you're not just photographing a head and shoulders close-up you'll have to understand other aspects of body positioning that makes people want to buy their pictures.

Hands. They should always be turned slightly so they are seen from the edge with fingers together, or hide the hands altogether behind your subject or somebody else next to them. Never position hands straight on with open fingers.

Simply put, anything that minimizes how much you see works to make it a better portrait. This ia always more flattering in a portrait and you'll see they are the ones people buy.

Crossing legs at the ankles refines the pose and minimizes this area of the body making it more appealing.

Look at it this way, what's less of a distraction: two legs leading to two ankles leading to two feet - or two legs blending into one ankle section with blrnded feet? Surely it's the latter.

When standing, one cannot simply cross their ankles unless they have something to lean against, so I will have one foot in front of the other in such a way that they taper into one general unit. Have them place their weightr on the back leg (remember, they are at a slight 3/4 angle) and bring the front leg forward and slightly tilt the foot to face out toward the camera.

Whenever I'd show my mentor my portraits that I was just unsure of, it was these recurring themes that he patiently pointed out to me.

As I began to look for these simple things during my portrait sessions, my pictures got better!

I can't stress enough how basic, but important it is to watch for these details.

I have people come to me who went to the contract photographer for their High School Senior yearbook portrait and disliked their picture. They want me to take one that they can proudly give out to friends and family. Usually the problem with the pictures I've seen is thayt the photography school graduate "intern" who works for the contract photographer took the photo without paying attention to some minor detail. I get it right and my reputation grows from "fixing" the contract photographer's mistake.

The techniques for salable body positioning are what you look for in any pose you try whether close-up or full body.

When photographing people full body standind, seayed or reclining on the ground, noticing body angle, hands and feet is the way to "fine tune" your portrait and distinguish it from just a "snapshot".

Lastly, I must share my favorite body positioning tool that makes it so easy to make a better portrait than someone who doesn't really know what they are doing. . .

The Head Tilt.

A woman alone tilts her head just slightly in either direction to make a more stunning portrait. A man's head can stay straight up or tilt slightly away in the opposite direction from his most forward shoulder.

Element number Three: Salable Composition

There are many compositional techniques in many books, but it doesn't take all that knowlegde to make portrait compositions that are what the typical consumer considers good enough to call professional.

Once you know what the consumer considers salable, you will be able to reproduce it again and again for other clients. (Note from EZ Photo Cash: Tom is so right. Just look at the salable pet portrait at the top of this page. Just how hard would it be for you to duplicate it again and again? All you need is a similar looking basket, lights and camera to reproduce it again and again and again!) You will also thank me for saving you from thinking that in order to be good enough to sell portrait photography you have to create artistic images. You just have to know what works and be able to repeat it for the friends of your clients whom will be getting your business cards by way of referral.

When photographing one individual person, it's so simple I don't think you need much impute for that. In fact, I believe you know the naive simplicity with which you thought "hey, I can do this for a living" after taking some portraits of a freind or family member. Yet it truly gets challenging when there is more than one person involved.

I know of a local professional who has referred family portrait clients to me as she specializes in children outdoors. Do you know what that really means? It means she's intimidated by having to do groupings, but that's okay, most people are.

So here's the rule of salable composition:

Keep everybody's head at a different level.

Like I told you, I didn't have a fancy College degree so my mentor had to keep it simple enough for me. In some cases, you will recognize that it's not possible, but if you do your best to stagger head height from individual to individual, you will be creating proessional images.

You will stand some people, seat some in chairs, seat some on the arms of chairs, seat some on the floor,kneel some, crouch some, lay some down, but you will achieve staggered head heights and salable compositions.

Tip heads inward toward one another for unity when photographing a family group.

Note that men are usually positioned higher than women.

No, I'm not aware of being a chauvinist pig, but I am aware that this is what usually sells. Not the images where mom's higher than dad but where dad (even if he's actually shoter!) is positioned just a head or so above mom.

Once you understand the rules, you can bend them where you need to in order to make a portrait work; but people will see that you know what you're doing as you position them for a good composition and especially when they see your finished work.

My mentor critiqued my work time and time again over several years as I brought images and questions to him. It almost always boiled down to my understanding these most simple aspects that I've shared with you.

I know it's not customary to learn photography on such simplistis terms, but trust me: I've had exposure over the years to many different photography educational venues such as classes, workshops, conventions, guest speakers, lectures, teaching videos and books but never have any of the teachers been willing to simply say "look, there are just a few rules to follow and people will be happy with their pictures". Never have I received more helpful advice than I received from my mentor. This is the reason I've written "Professional Photography: Success Without School." Not because schools have no place in the lives of photographer hopefuls, it's just that they are not the only way to guarantee success in this business.

I guess if I could sum up the philosophy my mentor embodied in word form I'd say it was rather like this:

:Not everybody wants a masterpiece. Most people juse want to remember their loved ones as happy. It's not hard to capture that with your camera, just don't stand them in hard sunlight, standing in a straight line facing straight toward the camera."

(Note from EZ Photo Cash: Tom Ray is a Certified Professional Photographer through the Professional Photographers of America. If you are interested in his full story please go to. . .

Finding customers for your portrait photography business is very easy to do. Yet most photographers don't have a clue on how to go about getting customers because they haven't learned marketing or worked for any of the National Portrait Studios to learn their secrets. I started back in 1984 working for Jones & Presnell Studios shooting the Baby Pictures for all the K-mart Stores along the east coast of the States. I traveled from town to town and learned that you don't need to spend years studying photography in order to create saleable portrait packages.

All you need is to be able to make a baby smile and with the push of a button you will have a product that cost you maybe .30/cents to produce that you can easily sell for $59 or more. And that's just one picture!

It's even easier to sell a $500 portrait package that will cost you under $50 to produce because of the value and unique style you will offer your customers.

It does not matter if you are photographing people, children or pets. I'll be sharing with you here some of my secrets to making huge products from your digital camera!

We (my wife and I) charge $35,000 to take someone by the hand and set them up in their own photography business. For that we fly to their home town and provide them with a computer and photo editing software, digital camera, professional studio lights, a variety of custom made hand dyed backgrounds by "Susha" and 3 weeks of training.

We show them how to find clients overnight and get their customers to come to them and I show them how to use the equipment to set up a studio in their living room or spare room. My fashion designer wife. . . the beautiful, talented artist "Susha" provides them with all the props and costumes to not only photograph pets but also to produce absolutely stunning "Antique style glamour portraits" of families and individuals. Women really love it and even the men enjoy it because we make them look like real men. No metrosexual looks unless they request it.

We can only set up a few people a year this way but if you are a self starter you can start out on your own on a shoestring investment and get phone support from me personally for far less than purchasing a franchise.

"Lil Pals Pet Photography" charges way more and delivers less. If you want to invest $100,000 to get started in pet photography they will be happy to talk to you.

But if you want to get started on a shoestring budget of just visit us at. . .

www.PetPhotoBiz.com

If you need hands on training we hold 3 day work shops twice a year for a very limited number of qualified students. Or if you are really lucky and qualified we may be willing to come to you (Australia, New Zealand and USA only) and set you up with everything you need and give you a full 3 weeks of training and provide ongoing consultation.

But Starting a Profitable Home Based Photography Business or studio is not all that hard to do. It's really pretty simple to learn and get started because you can learn mot everything by purchasing our "operations guide book and video" and consulting with us over the phone. But some things you will have to learn not by reading about it - but by doing it.

You have to learn how to compose your subject in your camera viewfinder, focus and take the picture by taking action. Reading and dreaming alone won't do it. But if you are self motivated and capable of following simple instructions my training books and tapes will tell you everything you need to get started and I will give you ongoing telephone support each month that you have questions.

An Easy Way To Instantly Double Your Profits!

At a second hand book store I picked up a copy of the book "Influence" on the power of persuasion by Robert Cialdini .

It was one of the best investments I ever made because the ideas found in the first chapter alone have brought thousands of extra dollars in profit to the photo studio my wife and I own and operate from the comfort of our living room.

Taking advantage of the principle of reciprocation by giving away a free gift makes it very difficult for a client not to purchase any photos from us. To understand the Psychology behind the principle of recipocation get a copy of Robert B. Cialdini's book from your local libaray or book store.

What do I give them? A 3-D Photo of their child or pet!

(I'll be adding a section to this page on how easy it is to create stunning 3-D Photos in a few days so check back often)

Implementing the "Principle of Contrast" from page 12 of that book immediately increased our profits from 500% over costs to 1000% over cost!

Cialdini states "The contrast principle affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented one after another."

My wife and I decided we wanted to earn more by working smarter not harder and studying the psychology of persuasion from the Influence book was just what the doctor ordered because it gave us a prescription to earn more while working less.

In fact, it was easier than swallowing a tablespoon of cherry flavoured cough syrup.

Cialdini talked about the owner of an Indian Jewelry store who gave up hope of making a profit on the turquoise pieces in one of her display cases. So she decided to write a note to her store manager instructing her to reduce the price by ½. But the manager thought the note said to increase the price on those particular items by 2.

The amazing thing was all of the pieces of turquoise sold out the first weekend that the price was doubled.

My wife and I make a good photographic team specializing in glamorous portraits of people and pets!

We pride ourselves on the fact that because of our combined talent and abilities along with the low overhead of working out of our home we are able to offer the highest quality portraits for less than department store studio prices while still making a 500% profit on a package that cost us less than $50 to produce. Now the power of persuasion bumped that up to 1000% above our cost.

Before reading the first chapter of "Influence" we would compare our portrait packages and prices to that of a national competitors $525 package and would offer our customers a better package for $249

But now we compare our package to that of the national glamour studios $1500 packages. We show our price is only $497 which is still less than our department store competitor's price. And our sales started to take off. One after another they all started going for the $497 package.

Occasionally we still get someone who says "I only wanted to get one extra print of each of the kids". So we offer them a lay-by payment plan to entice them into taking the bigger package. If they turn that down I show them our $399 package. If they don't go for that one and repeat that all they want is one extra picture of each of the kids I tell them. . . no problem. As you can see from our price list single 8x10's are just $69 each. Two 8x10 prints of each of the three children comes to $414.00 but (this is where Cialdini's reject and retreat tactic comes into play) I hate to see you leave with just 3 pictures and lose out on all the others. If you agree to sign a model release giving us permission to use your images in our promotions you can purchase a CD slide show of all the images we took plus reprint rights for just $349. What that means is you own the copyrights to your pictures so instead of paying us $69 for a single 8X10 you can take your CD to any one hour lab and get all the 8X10's Kodak Portraits you want printed for under $10 each.

(Our cost to burn and give them a CD is about .50/cents and this offer is snaped up by 9 out of 10 people)

But most of the time we get the $497. . . If not we first offer a payment plan. If they won't go for that we retreat to $399. . . . then let them tell us no just a few prints and we retreat to $349 offering them a deal just to good not to take advantage of.

Sometimes we will even throw in 4x6 inch prints of every photo taken plus the reprints rights for the $349.00

There are several other "Psychology" principles that really help. Like the word "Because". If you want to know what I'm talking about you'll have to read the book yourself because I'm just too busy to repeat everything I learned from this book here for free and doing so would be a violtion of Copyright Law. Besides wouldn't you prefer to own a copy yourself?

How much is one good book or information product worth to you?

Just one good Idea can pay you back many times your investment.

The principles found in chapter one of "Influence" doubled our sales but just two words I learned from listening to a Free 26 minute audio recording we found on the Internet of Robert Cialdini discussing his book resulted in even more spectacular gains for us!

If your business is like others you need to be good at three things. . .

• 1) Generating Leads.
• 2) Getting those leads to walk through your door.
• 3) Converting them into paying customers.

In our Photography business I have a highly effective and simple way to generate lot's of leads. And I have a great offer that gets them to book a photo session with us. But one problem we had was about one out of every three would not show for their appointment. I thought that there wasn't much I could do other than mailing them a follow up postcard and phoning them the day before their session. Doing so helped but far to often when calling the night before our prospects would say "I was meaning to give you a call because something came up and we can't make it". You know it's a BS excuse but what could you do?

Well, on that audio recording Cialdini introduced two words "Will You" that cut our no shows down to almost none. Before knowing this - when booking photo sessions I would tell my leads to please call us if they need to change or cancel their appointment time. Now instead I'll ask "Will You - call us the day before if you need to change your appointment or cancel for any reason?

It's simply amazing on how asking these two words decreased our no shows from 30 % to less than 2%.

Now I can't wait to see what kind of results we get out of acting on the information in the other six chapters of the book!

You to can save yourself years of time and thousands of dollars by learning what works best from those who have done what you would like to do.

One good idea from a book, course or information product can explode your income. But only if you act on that information before your competitor down the street beats you to it. If someone else in your town is doing something in a special specific way and you come along and start doing what they are doing you end up looking like a copycat who lacks creativity. So be bold and act swiftly if you can. Boldness has magic in it!

Cheers,

Steve Shulenski

I have got to tip my hat to you again!

It is SO VERY RARE to get the absolute insider secrets to running a business that you have shared with me. When I have paid others for their "Everything but the kitchen sink" package, I have gotten outlines, I have gotten a few examples, I have gotten a taste of what to do. Of the hundreds of packages I have bought over the years, yours is only the THIRD package I have received that I TRULY believed ANYONE with a lick of sense could do.

Because of the depth of the package and the fact that you can show someone a REAL business, I suggest you charge WAY more and license your system on a yearly basis. You could even go further and charge BIG, BIG bucks here in the states. You could do as a franchisee does (Don't franchise it, too many laws) and supply everything except the cameras(or set up a JV).

The other angle might be to have exclusive markets and sell to ONE photographer in that market. Lots of ways to go.

This is too, too good.

Millard W. Grubb

Make Sure You Are In The Arena

http://www.newstalk560.com/

To hear more from Millard about our photography information products

click on this link and when the window opens hit the audio play button. . .

http://www.snipurl.com/millardgrubb

During each of my portrait shoots I like to take at least one or two shots using my 3-D Stereo lens. Then I send my customer the image as a little preview to what they can expect when they return to view their images. The 3-D stereo image really Wows them and makes them drool with the anticipation of more to come!

This works really great with the Antique Style Glamour Portraits we specialize in.You too can can create stunning 3-D Stereo Images.

This site shows you how...

http://snipurl.com/Digital3D

The most often asked question I get is "Can I Do This" ?

Here's how Natalie worded it and my response to her....

Hi Mr. Shulenski,

I have fallen in love with your pet photos and have been dreaming of how much fun it would be to own such a business! I have TONS of pets and there is no question in my mind that they are truly "members of my family". My only concern is that I not an "ace" photographer...... just Ms. average with my Kodack Easy Share. Is this geared for someone with more sophisticated knowledge in this area? There is NOBODY that I know of in my area with a business like this, so I have no doubt it could be quite lucrative...... I am a very hard worker, but I just want to make sure this is "doable" for a person with limited photography knowledge.

Thank You so much!

Natalie

My Response . . .

Hi Natalie, Producing saleable pet portraits is very easy. Most people think that it takes years of practice to make it as a portrait photographer. But Sears, Owen Mills, JC Penneny's, Wal-mart and other National Portrait Studios routinely hire non photographers and train them in just 1 - 3 weeks.

With today's digital cameras and easy to use photo editing software it's really a snap. Taking cute saleable pictures just takes a little practice and if the National Studios can train people in 1 - 3 weeks time you can learn it yourself by simply following a few simple rules and taking action.

I can't guarantee you'll become an Ace Photographer because that takes lots of shooting but the more you shoot the better you'll get. What I can guarantee you is a Marketing System that will get you business and lots of it . . . . plus my personal ongoing help.

I have a $5,000 cash reward for the first person who can show me a faster, easier, more effective, lower cost way for any new photographer to get paying clients within 30 days of starting.

There are others selling information on this for ten times more than what I charge but they all teach the same old worn out things. Some even advertise that you just have to sit back and wait for the phone to ring. You pay them $1,000 only to be told to get your imagines displayed in banks, restaurants, doctors and dentist offices and shopping malls, learn how to write good copy and design better yellow page ads. Then spend a ton of money on these traditional advertising methods and go home, sit back and wait, wait, wait.

My system is pretty much turn key. Just substitute my name and contact details with yours and you are ready to go. No trying to figure out what to write, what to say, what to print, or what to do and how to do it. If you ever get stuck I'm only a phone call or email away.

My wife and I photograph people and pets almost everyday and most of the time we shoot with just a handful of props and one main light. Most of our props we found in thrift shops or in the bottom of dumpster bins so once you have these you use them over and over again. Once you know how to set up and take any particular saleable pose you can easily duplicate it over and over again.

For example. . . take a look at the picnic basket in the photo below. I found this on the curb during spring cleanup and just added $5 worth of artificial flowers to it. Shot it on one light on a black background. After you know how to set up and take that shot once you can do it over and over and over again and people absolutely love it. I have 6 - 12 poses that I duplicate with every almost every dog. How hard is that?

The hard part is not in knowing what to do (I can teach you that) the hard part is getting yourself to just do it (that's the part I can't do for you - it' up to you) but if you enjoy taking pictures and like working with people and pets this can really pay off for you. Why work a job you hate or if you want to do photography - for a National Studio for $500 - $1,000 per week when you can earn that much from a single one hour shoot "Shooting Antique Glamour Portraits" or "In an afternoon of taking pet portraits"?

Cheers,

Steve Shulenski

www.MoneyMakingPhotography.com

As You Can See A Simple Prop Like A Necktie Can ad a bit of PIZZZAZZ to the picture and can be duplicated with other pets over and over again! Now you may not be an Ace Photographer but if you can dublicate what I just shared with you. . .

You can earn Big Profits taking portraits of People and Pets!

Rememer. . . McDonald's doesn't make the best burgers. They just do a better job marketing their product. And with my "Turn Key Marketing System" You Too Can"

Make Big Profits With One Light and a Digital Camera!

Be Sure To Visit www.PetPhotography.com

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