176: Kaylee Greer – Building a Fun, Vibrant, and Creative Dog Photography Business

Premium Members, click here to access this interview in the premium area.

Kaylee Greer of Dog Breath Photography in Boston is responsible for the incredibly fun images full of vibrant, saturated colour, beautiful expressions (yes, beautiful doggy expressions), creative framing, gorgeous lighting and dogs having a great time.

I had a sense from the exchange of emails we've had, Kaylee's photography is a direct extension of her personality. Just back from a month of travel and teaching pet photography workshops in Europe, it's amazing she's found time to do this interview. I'm so glad she did… I think if you're interested in building a better dog photography business, you will be too!

For a self confessed non-business mind, Kaylee took me by surprise with the way she thinks about and conducts her photography business including the use of an agent to be the liaison between Dog Breath Photography and commercial clients.

Here’s some of what we cover in this interview:

• How to land commissioned pet photography shoots while travelling
• The number of shoots Kaylee takes on per week
• How many hours Kaylee spends on each pet photography shoot
• Kaylee’s client average spend
• Who are Kaylee’s target market?
• Should you shoot less or cut shooting times when clients are not willing to spend more?
• Kaylee’s struggles to get paid with her pet photography
• How to build client trust
• When passion is more important than getting paid for your work
• How Kaylee kicked off her career in pet photography
• Kaylee’s strategy to get pet photography clients when starting her business
• Portfolio building strategies for pet photographers

What’s on Offer for Premium Members

If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this episode where you can hear lots more content and we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed for and include:

• How Kaylee developed her pet and dog photography style
• What look clients prefer when photographing their dogs
• The most common mistakes made by new dog photographers
• Why you need to carefully curate the style of images you share
• Why Kaylee prefers shooting for commercial clients
• Which pays better – commercial clients or regular pet owners?
• Why you need to retain an agent for your commercial pet photography business
• Why you need to take photography pricing off your website
• What to consider when pricing for commercial work
• Understanding the use of stock images when calculating prices for commercial work
• What would Kaylee do to kick things off when she moves to a different country
• Why you need to immerse yourself in the dog community
• The importance of making connections for pet photographers

If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interview with Kaylee, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.

Plus, access to a members only Secret Facebook group where you'll connect with other members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take what you hear in each episode and put it into action. You will not find more friendly, more motivated and caring photographers online.

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're up for the challenge and willing to invest a little time and effort into yourself, your writing and your business. If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below and feel free to share links to your blog posts – I'd love to check them out.

I don’t like to squish too many shoots in one day. I guess I’m one of those people like if I’m going to do something I gotta do it right. So I want to throw my whole heart and soul in to it – Kaylee Greer

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Kaylee about the challenge or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

I’m not necessarily motivated by money – Kaylee Greer

I love what I do so much. I feel so grateful and I’m so passionate about it – Kaylee Greer

iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs

Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!

Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners means more interviews and ultimately a better show.

If you have left a review in the past, thank you!

If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.

PLUS: if you let me know the key word or keyword phrase you'd like me to use to link to your page, post or site, let me know via email after leaving a review and I'll do what I can to make that work.

For example, If I were linking to my wedding photography page on my photography website ” Impact Images” and want to target the keyword phrase “Central Coast wedding photographer” and left an iTunes review, I'd add something like this:

Thanks for the iTunes review by Central Coast wedding photographer, Andrew Hellmich on June 27, 2016

Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast  and email me your key word/s and where you'd like me to link to.

The NEW Photography Xperiment Podcast is live and available

Following the success and support shown by listeners after the experimental format of the recent interviews, the new Photo Xperiment Podcast has been launched and is available on this site and in iTunes now.

Interviews are underway and I'll be looking for new guests, not restricted to wedding and portrait photographers. If you have someone you think would be a good fit, let me know in the comment area below or email me, andrew@photobizx.com.

It’s so important to put out there what you want to shoot – Kaylee Greer

The idea behind these interviews is to get into the headspace of the photographer and find what makes them tick, what drives them, their thought process, philosophy on shooting and how they achieve what they do with their photography. So yeah, a little technique type content too.

These interviews will not focus on the business of photography – that'll be preserved solely for the weekly and unchanging format of the PhotoBizX podcast.

To hear these interviews in your podcast app, you will need to subscribe to the podcast – these interviews will not be delivered automatically if you're subscribed to PhotoBizX. Open your favourite podcast app and search “Photography Xperiment Podcast” or enter the feed URL,  https://photobizx.com/feed/xperiment/ into the search field of your podcast app.

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Kaylee Greer Website

Kaylee Greer on Facebook

Kaylee Greer on Instagram

Kaylee Greer on Twitter

Kaylee Greer on 500px

MSPCA Animal Care and Adoption Center

Seth Casteel

Episode 036: Charlotte Reeves, A Diversified Income Stream for Photography Success is Key

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening to the show and thanks to Kaylee for coming on and being totally open about what she's doing in her business to achieve the success she is.

I’m a dreamer, not a planner – Kaylee Greer

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

Thanks and speak soon

Andrew