Pursuing a Dream

A few months ago, I decided it's time to pursue my love of photography, specifically doing dog shoots. I had left Facebook for a variety of reasons, but in wanting to bring in clients, I knew I had to return and make a page just about dog photography. For better or worse, a Facebook page does reach a lot of people. So my new Facebook page is up and running: Bark & Soul Dog Photography. 

Because I don't have a lot of friends on Facebook, with my decision to leave the platform and be gone for awhile, I found I wasn't getting the reach I really need. Enter my best friend, who shared my page with her hundreds of friends, and just from her, I tallied up nearly 100 followers in a day. Since then, the followers have been few and far between. I'm now standing at 112, which isn't great by any means, but it's a start.

Even with people becoming a follower, I have yet to secure a shoot. I've had inquiries into what I charge, then crickets. I've done a couple of pop-up dog photo booth events, with one going really well and the other completely bombing, but to date no one has booked a real shoot with me. This kind of bums me out, but I do understand that having special photos taken of your dog is an extra expense, and with the way the economy is right now, I totally get it. That extra money just isn't there for a lot of people.


Ken sweeping the ground.
This morning I did a shoot for a friend who is a huge metal detector fan. He asked me to come out and get some photos of him and another enthusiast so they have photos to post on their metal detecting pages. I ended up taking over 200 shots, and from those, there were quite a few that turned out really good. I truly enjoyed wandering the field with them and thinking about angle, shadows, etc. My interest with photography, and this has always been the case, is in getting the story and the mood. If some of the images can be converted to black and white, even better. 

Now I'm wondering if I should open up shoot options, offering more than just dog photography. There are so many activities that would make for great stories. My friend found a flintrock rifle hammer this morning, a piece of history from somewhere between the 17th and 19th centuries. That's pretty cool. Thinking about who owned the gun that flintrock was on, what happened to the person as well as the gun, gets my imagination going. So many stories.




Cooper keeping Ken company.

 

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