295: Making Your Photos Shine with Caitlin McColl

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Summary:

What makes a great pet photo? The photos we send to our clients are a snapshot into their pet's lives while they're away. Caitlin J. McColl, founder and co-President of the Pet Photographers Club, joins the show to share how to get the best photos possible for your clients. The best camera is the one you have on you, so Caitlin gives us tips for making the most out of our cellphone. We discuss how to know when you've got the best shot. Caitlin also shares how we can showcase each pet’s personality in the photo.

Topics on this episode:

• Unique challenges in pet photography

• Picking good photos

• Making the most out of your cellphone

• Taking great action shots

• How can we go pro?

Main take away: Photos mean so much more than just an update. They are a gift we can give the client.

About our guest:

Caitlin J. McColl is a multi-award winning professional pet photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. She launched her business, Ragamuffin Pet Photography after adopting her own scruffy dog twelve years ago. She is now the author of five dog-filled books, founder of the Tails of the World Collective and co-president of The Pet Photographers Club. She's passionate about celebrating the joy that dogs bring to our world through emotive, beautiful photography and teaching others how to do the same.

Links:

Pet Photographers Club: https://thepetphotographersclub.com

The Podcast: https://thepetphotographersclub.com/#episodes

Caitlin’s Business: https://ragamuffinpetphotography.com.au

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

Provided by otter.ai

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

photos, pet, photography, dog, photographing, client, capture, portrait, aperture, pet sitters, camera, gift, blurry, lighting, light, business, shoot, interested, cell phone, phone

SPEAKERS

Collin, Susan, Caitlin

Collin  00:10

Hello, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin. And this is a confessional and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. Hello, everybody, and welcome back. Photography is a major part of being a pet sitter. And yet many of us have no idea what we're doing with it. So that's why we are so excited to have Caitlin McCall, owner of ragamuffin pet photography, and currently co president of the pet photographers club and running their own podcast as well on to talk about pet photography, specifically the skills that we need and how we can use those photos to better our business. Caitlin, it's a real pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Could you tell us a little bit more about yourself?

Caitlin  00:54

Oh, hi. Thanks so much for having in. Colin. I'm very excited to talk all things pith photography, tell from that bio. My entire life. So I have been a professional pet photographer for 12 years now. It's everything. I absolutely love it best job in the world. Combining photography and pets is my two big passions. So yeah, I started ragamuffin pet photography 12 years ago. And then I am so obsessed with pet photography that I started the international pet photographers Club in 2018, with the CO President Curtis v. So we teach other pet photographers how to run their own businesses. And I also teach pet lovers. So small pet business owners, just people that really really love their pets, the basics of pet photography, too, so so they do two things, either teaching professional pet photographers more about their business. And then also teaching just people like pet sitters, how to take better photos of their pets, because I hear all the time like my pet is too black. And they're just a big black blob in the photos or my pets too energetic and they're just blurry and all the photos or they have the weird flashing eyes. In my photos, I have all these sorts of different complaints that I hear from people. So I really love teaching them how to make your pet photos better, because I'm guessing you're the same as me. And we all love pets,

Collin  02:27

we do well, and we want to give our clients something worthwhile. And we want to give her something give our client something of really high quality, right? Because that that not just speaks to how much we appreciate them, and how much we value their pet. We want to give them something good because that speaks to work on our service as well of when we're caring for their pet. Everything we do we want to be excellent. And that includes the

Caitlin  02:49

photos. Yeah, I imagine that all your clients are probably similar to me when I hire a pet sitter. And they're kind of waiting for those updates. Is that the sort of photos that you're talking about that that you're sending through

Collin  03:05

the app? Or daily update photos? Or sometimes do we put together a special event photos, if it's a holiday or something like that we can do those kinds of things as well. But the the bread and butter is those daily updates or those walk updates. And you're right, the client is sitting there watching their phone a lot of times waiting to hear that ping. And then they're boom, they're on they're scrolling. They're zooming in, they're seeing how everything's going.

Caitlin  03:28

And then I guess do you get you know, a little bit of word of mouth? Do those clients then share those? If it's a good photo, they then share it on social media, that kind of thing. Is that so that where it helps you guys?

Collin  03:42

Yeah, yeah. So there's the there's the resharing of a photo, right? That's always really good. There's the walking into a client's home and seeing a photo that they that we took printed off and hanging on their wall sometimes. Then there's the weekend, you know, you try and do something else with those photos right after we use them after we take them. But yeah, there's giving that client that that thing, a lot of times we think I just gave them a photo, but what we actually gave them is is a tool to help promote my business at the end of the day. Because if I give them a good photo, they're gonna want to share that, right. And that's invaluable when someone says look at my dog, or look at my cat and look how happy they are. X, you know, X and XYZ petsitting did this for me. Mm.

Caitlin  04:25

Okay. Amazing. Awesome. Well, I would love to share some tips to help the pet sitters improve their their photography. Yeah, absolutely.

Collin  04:33

I did want to know a little bit about you. Personally, before we get into that, because pet photography is very specific, in my mind, it's extremely niche. So 12 years ago, what was it about pet photography that drew you to that point where you were taught photographer beforehand, and were drawn in that direction or did you start off with pets?

Caitlin  04:57

I have basically always been a photographer. So I started really young, I photographed my first wedding at 16. I then at 17, went to New York on a scholarship to do fashion photography course. And then moved to so moved around a lot. And then I moved to Melbourne, Australia, which is where the accents from. So I moved back to Australia, and studied fashion photography. So my pre pet photography focus was very much on working more in commercial fashion, that kind of thing. So I worked a lot with designers did a lot of internships, that kind of thing. Did some random weddings, kids portraits, family portraits, bread and butter work, they didn't really like that fire fashion, I was really interested in the creative side of it, the behind the scenes of it, not my job. So I was really young and already feeling really disconnected with what I was doing. So I was like 21 years old, and thinking, I really don't know if I can do this for the rest of my life. Like it's just this industry that I'm really struggling to find my place in there was like, no soul in it. So I was having a really, really early life crisis. I adopted, this dog named Lyra and my entire world changed. All of a sudden, she was teaching me to slow down, I was in this really, you know, fast paced, wearing high heels up at six staying up until 1am. This an insane world. And then I got this dog. And she just changed everything. And I had this sort of epiphany moment photographing her because she was this adorable puppy. And I just wanted to get out look, professional photographer wanted to capture everything about her. And I was like, oh my goodness, this. This is lovely. So it started I was just photographing her. And it was sort of calming me down. And then I was, you know, looking up dog photos, trying to think of some cool poses that could do with her. And I discovered that in America, it was kind of starting to become this thing. It definitely wasn't mainstream at that time. We're talking, you know, 1314 years ago. wasn't mainstream, but there were some professional pet photographers who were starting to get to work and run businesses in America. And I thought, I'm gonna do that. And everyone thought I was absolutely insane. But I started ragamuffin pet photography. And so that hustled like crazy, and within a year had quit all my other photography jobs and was full time crack muffin. So I credit Lyra for absolutely changing my life for the better. It was a very different world. I operate in now no high heels, no late nights or anything. It's just muddy knees and dog poo bags and my camera bag. But it's amazing. I love it so much.

Collin  08:26

Ah sounds like are kind of kind of our kind of jam there. That's awesome. with your, with your background, and all those different types of photography now doing pet photography, what are some specific challenges of pet photography that other types don't really have?

Caitlin  08:44

It's, it's the patients. So you really can't approach animal photography in a sort of fast paced manner that a lot of other photography genres are about. Because you can't tell the pet Hey, can you quickly sit the lights going, and we need to take this photo, just look at the camera really quickly. And if you do try to speed up, or if you're getting impatient or anything like that, then as you guys will know, the animals pick up on that energy. So it's really, really important for us as pet photographers to sort of slow down, read the animal's behavior, read their energy, be able to tweak our approach depending on the dog, or cat or horse or whoever it is that you're photographing. I personally photograph like 95% dogs. So I tend to language tends to be about dogs. But whoever you're photographing, being able to read that language, it's more most similar in terms of photography styles, I think as photographing newborns, like newborn babies, where you also have to tell them what you need to do so you have to sort of work with them. That's more Well what pets is, is like, so it's very different, but very rewarding.

Collin  10:04

Yeah, that patient's part is really huge. And from a pet sitter side of things, there's the, you know, if we may have a time limit on the amount of up our visit that we have with that pet, and we get rushed with a lot of the things that we do, and then I know exactly what you're talking about. If you've got your phone out, you're trying to take that photo, and you're just brushing and you're trying to take the photo, and then the dogs just like it is playtime, it's on Let's go, and then everything gets just derailed from there. And you're like, Fine, I'll just send a blurry photo, this time, whatever, and you got to approaching these photos with, I'm going to need some time, some space to calm down to get these done. And I've got to give myself that because if I don't, right, I'm, I'm going to be stepping on my own toes as I try and get that photo.

Caitlin  10:52

Yeah, I think a big mistake a lot of pet owners make or or no pet sitters, for example, would be expecting that they're going to be capturing amazing photos. Because the opportunity arises itself. So if you're going like, I'll get some cute photos of the pet, I'll wait till they're doing something shoot. And I'll grab that. Now, every now and then you do you get an awesome one. And that's great. But if you want to be purposeful, and ensure that you're getting these great portraits, then waiting for it to come along is just gonna end up making you feel rushed, because all of a sudden, they're doing something cute, you don't have your phone on us. And now you're trying to grab the phone and hoping that they don't move and stop doing the cute thing. And then of course they do. So now you have a photo of them, literally not doing the cute thing, and you've missed it. So to capture those moments that seem you know, really candid and unposed and natural. It's actually about purposely and mindfully telling yourself, okay, in the next five minutes, I'm gonna take this photo, and then you're not rushed. You can, you know, make sure you've got the right lighting, treats or toys or whatever you might need to get their attention on hand. And you can take those few moments to repeat, I can tell you for each one photo that I take that might be printed in a canvas, for example, I probably took 510 photos on either side of it because as I said, you can't tell the dog not not to bleed, or to look at the camera. So there'll be photos around the singular photo that ends up getting printed and that my clients see there's other photos around that. So yeah, having that patience to take multiple photos, not be rushing the pair, calm yourself find the right lighting, that kind of thing. Only needs to take a few extra minutes. But it makes a huge difference

Collin  12:56

it does to go okay, these are these are my photo minutes that I have right now. I've got I've got the rest of the thing planned. And I may try and take some opportunistically as I'm going. But to set aside this like, okay, these are what I have. And that really strikes me because not too long ago, I was at a client's home and it was coming up on the end of it and I was needing to capture a few more photos. Then I did that I stepped back and I just kind of assess what was going on and tried to see. Okay, do I need to get treats? Do I need to try and stage something Do I need to capture them doing this other thing. And then just at that moment, while I was being observant, and watching Mimsy, this ancient doodle just walked up to the top of the drive and and laid down and rested her head just on this little tiny little ledge thing. And like I was like, Man pounced on that real real was one thing that like if I wasn't going, where's the photo? Like? How am I going to take a look? Where's the opportunity for this photo in this? I would have missed that. Right? It's not having that time to pay attention and then engage. If you're too busy doing other stuff. You are going to miss those little moments.

Caitlin  14:06

Yeah, absolutely. And it doesn't look it doesn't have to be all Hey, I'm taking a photo now. So let me try and work out a cute pose that let me try to pose them as you said it can just be I'm gonna take a few moments here a few minutes and photograph them and you can be following them around and capturing one like that one of Mimsy where it's just them doing something natural. So it's not like okay, now I have to get them sitting because then all your photos gonna look the same anyway, it's just the dog sitting with the grass in the background. So being able to capture you know, whatever's behind in the clients home, that kind of thing is something more natural, but you're telling yourself okay, this is my photo time. Makes them so much more enjoyable for you too, rather than just trying to get your phone quickly.

Collin  14:52

Well, as you said, like we don't these don't have to be portraits of the dog sitting still staring squarely at the at the, at the camera, right, they can be the dog being natural. And that's something that I've, I've really seen if the more natural the photo, the more the owner, the more the client tends to connect with it. Right? They tend to see, because then what's that getting, that's getting that dog's personality in that photo. And that that's what really helps them connect with that, and it gives them something that they're gonna have for the rest of their lives. Because Mimsy that dog, she is really getting up there. And I cherish every moment that I have with her. And I know that every single photo that I send of her to her clients, is a photo that they didn't have before, and that they don't see her in that light, where I'm being able to capture those whenever I'm over there. And that's that that's where a lot of this gift comes from that we're able to give our clients. Have you heard of time to pet Susan from the pet gal has this to say,

Susan  15:51

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Collin  16:09

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Caitlin  16:21

Do you guys ever do anything? I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of selling businesses, obviously. But is there like VIP clients that you would then you know, compile photos from a whole year that kind of thing? Make a little photo book is that? Yeah, so

Collin  16:38

this? That's a question that I wanted to ask ask you in a little bit. But yes, that was that we can't we do that, especially around the holidays, or around a pets birthday. Or maybe after the pet has passed away. That's a gift where we can go in and we can compile this long photo history, you know, again, weed out some of the more blurry ones. But even though it's even sometimes those are really cute, because they've got a good story with them. That's you're right, that that is something that we can do we get, here's a window that we had into your pets life that you the owner didn't have, because you were gone while you were traveling. But now, here are these moments for you. And that's something that we can give them that really does impact them. And as you said, for the VA VIP clients, this can be some it's not printing books is kind of costly, especially photo books. But it is something that we can do that now is added extra value, it's added better connection with them. And it's again, a gift that we can give them and as a VIP VIP client, they pay us a lot of money for the rest of the year and services. And this is just a small portion of that that we can do for them.

Caitlin  17:45

Yeah, I think as a client, I would be wowed by that and have that like, honestly, what's photo book printing these days, you get it relatively good for VIP client be relatively low cost, do it for like, a five $30. I think that would be amazing. So if you had had the photos there, then what what a cool gift. Yeah.

Collin  18:13

You've actually published several books around photography and have photos of dogs. So what what was that process like for you? And I'm really interested to know how you knew what photos to include, versus exclude because that's something that I feel like I would struggle with immensely.

Caitlin  18:29

Right. So, I mean, after so many years of culling photos, that's an awful word. Yeah, so a big part of my job is get, you have the entire shoot, which might have several 100 photos. And obviously, the clients would be completely overwhelmed if you send that many through. Which by the way applies to pet sitters, too, if you don't, if you take 25 Great photos, you don't have to send them like 25 Great photos, because it's just it's just overwhelming. No one needs that many. Anyway, so a big part of my job is being able to look look at photos and pick which ones stand out the most. And it really obviously is very subjective photography is but it comes down to whether or not you feel that sort of spark of the dog's personality in them. Obviously, there's things like Is it is it technically good is it not blurry is it well expose so it's not too dark? It's not too light? Are there some catch lights in the dog's eyes are the dog's eyes sparkling? Is it you know, got a good depth of field so I quite like it and it's a sort of modern style of photography in general to for the background to be blurry. So all those sorts of technical things that ticking those boxes, but then real It comes down to whether or not I'm feeling like so the capturing something unique about the pet, and about their personality. So

Collin  20:08

before you do the photo shoot, do you interview the client about their dog or about their pet and try to suss out some of the information beforehand?

Caitlin  20:17

Very much so. So I have a pretty in depth questionnaire that I fill out with the client, because I will customize and any professional photographer should be doing this with with their pair, so I'm customizing my approach. I need to know things as well like, Are there any behavioral issues? Are they nervous on leash? Are they nervous around other dogs that might make me change the location that we're going to? You know, Are they old, they blind to death, there's all these different things that will adjust what I how I'm approaching the pet. But then I also want to get a feel for their personality, and probably more importantly, their connection with the human because I'm like what you guys are doing, a lot of what I'm doing is that bond between the human and the pet. So I want to capture that as well. So it and sort of knowing how they interact together and their favorite things to do. But yeah, definitely have a questionnaire beforehand, so I can find out all the other cute things.

Collin  21:23

Yeah, that's a good point, though, is that we as pet sitters, we get to interact a lot more with the pets than then you get to Caitlyn, because it's usually a one off, you may do a pre meeting, and then you do the photo shoot, and then you're off to editing and binding and off and done. But we do get to see them time and time again. But we also do get to know the clients. And so if they start saying things like, Oh, I always love it, whenever they go sit over here, or you know this is they start telling you these funny things about their personality above and beyond what you see or what you notice. That's that's a great idea to try and capture some of those for the client while they're away.

Caitlin  21:57

I honestly think you guys have this really special opportunity here. Because yeah, as you said, I'm meaning these dogs once I'm trying really hard to connect and get to know them as quickly as I can in an afternoon. And I'm basing a lot of that on what the client has told me. But you're really getting to know these pets on on a personal level. So I think it's almost more akin to the photography that I create of my own pets rather than my clients pets, because my own pets or my friends and family, that kind of thing, where there's sort of a bond that I personally have there. And I can see that in photography, not to imply that the work that I do for my client doesn't have that. But I think it is different when there's sort of, like, I don't know, it's probably sounds a bit sloppy for me to say it. But when I'm photographing a pet that I've personally connected with, it's almost like telling a love letter, announcing a love letter to the world, if you can capture a portrait that is capturing what you are seeing in them and what what you're connecting with. And if that shines through, then I think viewers of that photograph can see and certainly your clients would be able to see it if you if you're seeing something that you think is special about the pet that you're looking after, and you've captured it, then that says something that you took the time to capture that and that says something to the client about your connection to their pet. So I think that would be really special.

Collin  23:39

Yeah, well, at that level, we're also able to anticipate their moves and anticipate how they're going to react and respond and it becomes a lot more of a two way communication at that point. You know, you mentioned about you know, you latch on to things that are pastors can latch on to characteristics that they hone in on and I have one of our clients, his name's T bone, he's a child. And he loves the cold. I mean, he's I mean he is child through and through, he would be in the snow every single day of his life as he possibly could. And the last snow that we had the last snow winter, knock on wood somewhere, please. He came running up to me with just a faceful of snow and I was I was looking to get a photo I had my photo moments. And I managed to get a full perfectly in in frame and not flurry portrait of this snow covered muzzle of this dog. And it was like that's the bone. That is that is a quintessential T bone in every possible way. I was just it was it was like I got that right. And that was for me. And when the client saw that too. She said that's him. That's exactly who he is.

Caitlin  24:54

That's so great. I'm jealous that you have sorry.

Collin  24:58

Sorry, I'm so sorry. I I will be the last I speak of it. I want to get into a little bit of the technical aspects of photography. Because we are the majority of us are shooting our our field cameras are our cell phones, right? And we know you're shooting with a different very different glass. We are so I want to start off by asking what do you shoot with? And what's your favorite go to?

Caitlin  25:25

Well, I shoot with a Canon one dx, Mark Three, anything do you guys it is way overkill for what pet sitters need. So it's a DSLR is a digital SLR. But you can very much these days capture beautiful stuff with your cell phone. So don't feel like you need to go out and buy a camera to be improving your pet photography at all. A lot of the students that I teach are taking their photos on on their cell phones the course that they have teachers, both cell phone and digital camera photography. So you absolutely cell phones are amazing these days for that. But yes, I have the big daddy camera. And the reason why as a professional photographer I need that is because we're blowing up the the photos really large. So unless you're printing, you know, 30 by 40 inch canvases of these pet photos, which I assume you're not, you really don't need the pixels. And then you know, my camera also gives me the ability to shoot really high frames per second. Basically, Baba Baba, Baba Baba photos, which even cell phones these days can do a lot of that, but really high frames per second. And it also gives me the ability to shoot on manual mode, which means that I can completely control the exposure. So if you're starting to, you know, really get into photography, then getting a DSLR is certainly a nice way or a mirrorless camera, and those are a lot lighter, but also give you the opportunity to manually control the aperture, the shutter speed, the ISO, all those all those great different tools to allow you to control how the photos,

Collin  27:21

there's a lot of utility in having those, but stick with our cell phones. For now, at least I'm gonna go do some hunting around on Amazon after this. I'm kidding. But how do I make the most out of my my camera phone out of my out of my smartphone.

Caitlin  27:38

So it really depends on what kind of photo you're taking. But let's say we're taking a portrait of the animal who's not moving, then, because there's kind of, there's two different kinds of pet photos that we're typically taking either it's an action one, or it's a portrait one. So pretending we're taking a portrait one, there's portrait mode on iPhones and Androids I think also have something similar, where it's creating a false blurry background. So using that will sort of give it the same effect as if you were using a DSLR with a lens and having a small, a wide aperture which gives that blurry average. So the aperture is the hole in the lens. Okay. I love talking photography. So basically, the aperture is that you might have seen F stops like f 2.4, that kind of thing in the past, and lots of confusing numbers when it comes to photography. But basically what you need to know about the amateur, it's a hole that lets light through into the camera. It's like the camera's eye. So if it's very dark, then you want more light to come through. So you have a bigger hole lets more light through something about the light bouncing around in the lens. I won't I won't get into the science of it, but basically that then creates this blurry background. We love that blurry background for multiple reasons. One, it just looks real nice, real creamy background that allows us to have to reduce any of the distractions in the background. So you know, a messy house construction in the background, other people are the pets, that kind of thing. So by having that blurry background, we really just focusing on the subject ie the pet that you're sitting and we don't get all the distractions out of the background. So blurry backgrounds are really great and using your portrait mode can allow you should do that. Now the cool thing with cell phone portrait mode is you can actually go in take the photo on portrait mode and then you can adjust the F stop because it It's not real, it's just, it's fake. And sometimes the effect doesn't work that well. But most of the times, it does work pretty well and your iPhone will tell you, you need to move a little bit further backwards or a little bit closer, that kind of thing, which again, does mean, it's not for the Quick, grab your phone quickly and be able to do it, you need to be taking the few moments to set yourself up. But yeah, that that I would say is a great place to start to sort of give you a photo, it's a little bit of warmth. And then my second tip with taking portraits would be to get down on their level. So there's, with perspective, with photography, we're talking about, like, the photographer's angle of view, or the, the angle that you're holding the camera at. So most of us without even thinking, if we're not taking the time to plan, what we're taking how we're taking the photo, we would just take the photo from whatever position we're currently in. So if we're walking the dog, then we're standing up, we take the photo, or we're sitting on the couch, and the dogs doing something where we stay sitting, and we take the photo, but because the dogs are down, you know, knee height or down, what that essentially means is we're pointing the camera down at them. And it has a really flattening effect for the perspective. And it sort of creates like a 2d effect. And it's hard as the viewer of the photograph to connect with the subject, if we're looking down at them, and there's no depth to it, you wouldn't believe out sounds like the most simplest tip in the world. But the difference that it makes. And what I'll do is send you a photo of a before and after with angle of view if you have show notes or something because I'm trying to describe something super visual here. But the difference makes just getting down to the eye level of the pet that you're photographing and taking the photo from their game changer. Honestly, that's my like, super simple tip, but that it makes such a difference. And all of a sudden, that portrait will look professional and look like nothing else that the client has, because all their photos are taken from the photographer's angle of view to just getting down to the subjects. eye level, huge difference.

Collin  32:24

It's also a much more intimate, intimate perspective, isn't it? Right? And that perspective is a lot of times where the client may is at that level a lot of times to fly it that's how they know their dog they know their dog from being up face and and and personal and seeing them at that level when they're cuddling and when they're when they're handling them and when they're grooming them. This kind of more alien perspective of way up high. They that's that's not what they connect with, as you said, That's not that's kind of foreign to them in that perspective. Yeah, it's,

Caitlin  32:55

I mean, it is what most of their snapshots are gonna be like, because we don't think when we're taking a photo, we don't think let me lie down on the ground. But that's what I'm talking about here like, honestly after shoot, I am filming covenant, because I spend most of the shoot literally lying on the ground. To get down to it's so nice if I have like a great day and or something because then I can just sit but most of the dogs I'm photographing move as close down to the ground as possible so that my camera lens is parallel to their eyes. Huge difference.

Collin  33:39

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Caitlin  34:56

biggest wish is to be able to do take better photos of it action action pet photos. And it is tricky. So be really patient with yourself in in this case, because it does take a lot of practice to nail it, but I have a few tips, that makes it at least a little bit easier. So when you're first getting started with trying to capture photos of your, of your pets, I mean, again, that angle of view makes a big difference you want to be down on the ground, makes it a little difficult if it's just you and the pet because you are going to get covered in dogs running on top of it. Like it's easier if you have someone to be throwing a ball or something, for example, but I've taken plenty of action pet photos with just me and the animals, so you can do it yourself just might get covered in dog. So getting down on the ground again, so that you have that depth. And then it's all about the lighting. So with action photos, we want as much light in the image as possible, because we want to be using a fast shutter speed. So the shutter speed and like the aperture, the shutter speed is in a DSLR, there's a little mirror that opens up and quickly lets a light in and then closes down. And it makes that cyclic noise, which they make a fake one when you're using your cell phone, but the same sort of thing with your cameras to basically, if there's a lot of light in the image that you're capturing, then the camera doesn't have to have the shutter open for a very long time because the light is what's actually creating the image. So if if it's a really bright day, then it can just open the shutter really quickly. And then that means it's not capturing the movements of that blurry movement. So if you're photographing on a really bright day, then you can have a faster shutter speed so the pet won't be blurry. So you want to avoid photographing in the shade at dusk. Inside Inside pet photography, if you're not shooting on manual inside action, pet photography, if not a manual mode is going to be really really difficult, they're just going to be blurry. So you want to get outside on a bright day. Now that angle of the sun is really important without action pet photography. When I say you want to get outside on a bright day, try to avoid doing this in the middle of the day when the sun is right up on top of our heads. Because what that sort of creates is like if you had a light globe above you, and you have those scary shadows under your eyes, what we want is the light shining into the pet's face. So two o'clock, three o'clock in the afternoon typically, or you know earlier in the morning, 10 o'clock, nine o'clock in the morning, where the sun's out a little bit more of an angle. And then you would position yourself so that the sun is behind your shoulders, and the dog is running into the sun. So basically their body and their face is fully lit up. And then there will be maximum contrast and maximum light on them. So that your camera can easily lock in focus and expose them and it's going to capture them running quickly and freeze that action. So that's that's my best tip is outside bright sunny day, with the sun behind your shoulders and you down on the ground.

Collin  38:45

Note hold on it is it is tricky because we love those shots, right? Because that's where a lot of the personality comes out. Sometimes that's just what the dog is like we're taking you know, taking care of of a whippet or something like that like that. That dog will literally never stop moving. So knowing some of the limitations going into this going okay, what am I going to actually realistically be able to capture and I know for us when we go into a home, yeah, when we're taking photos, window blinds are open, all the lights are on every possible thing is on so that we can get photos. And we actually try and plan the photos that we take throughout the day because you're right knowing my late night visit where I'm going in at 9pm at night, those photos are going to be very different. So I'm gonna save all of my here sit for a treat photos for at nighttime, and all of my running around gonna be my afternoon, then my morning, I'm going to try and figure out a combination between those depending on the daylight that I have access to. So actually knowing in order to get the best pass is where that planning comes in again of going What can I actually realistically accomplish at each visit that I'm coming in throughout the day? And what am I going to have access to and available to me and that the lighting that is so huge, and we tend to forget that because we've got our phone I see the door gets in front of me, I'm clicking. And it's blurry again. But like you said, we're dealing with the limitations of physics at this point, right? It's not that the phone is angry at you or anything, it's, it needs, it needs to, you know, it's blurry because it has to stay open long enough. And when it's open long enough, it becomes overexposed to the motion that's there. And then that's the kind of photo that we get. And we're left with that. So it's, again, realizing what can I do, what can I do, and implanting those throughout the day really does help.

Caitlin  40:29

Yeah, it's the light hunting is such a huge part of taking good photos, if you're inside, and they're doing something cute, you want to get that portrait, and that's coming out blurry, it could be something as simple as Oh, I see. The window is actually behind the pet. Now their face is dark, because it's behind them. So just turning around so that the window is behind you, and the pet is facing that window light suddenly makes a huge difference to the photo. So always taking in to consideration where your light is coming from, particularly when you're inside does make make a really big difference as well. Obviously, you can, with more practice, start getting creative with lighting, I love to do back lighting, which is when the light is behind the animal. But I do need to manually expose for that because my camera, if the lights behind them, or your cell phone, and the lights behind them is gonna see that bright light behind the pet. And so I want to make sure there's information there. So it's exposing for the bright light, and then the pets really dark. So just turning them around so that they're facing the light.

Collin  41:44

Well, yeah, and if you are interested in being being more creative with the backlighting with these kinds of more with these photos, understanding okay, what which one of my clients is going to be a good fit for experimenting with that kind of lighting, right? Maybe, maybe the 14 year old Doxon who naps all day, great time to experiment with backlighting. Not so much. Or not the six month old Wymer writer it's like no. But But, but that just takes practice. And that just takes experimenting and going okay, I can do this with this. I can't really do that with this other scenario, at least not right now.

Caitlin  42:21

Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And it's so much fun to experiment. Yeah, I think taking into consideration lining and as you're saying, the pet that you're actually photographing and whether your limitations there and your time.

Collin  42:34

So another common one that comes up is and you actually mentioned it kind of at the top of show was talking about trying to photograph black dogs. This is insanely hard for us. So how do we get better at and pull off some good photos of the black dogs that were caring for?

Caitlin  42:53

Again, maybe unsurprisingly, it does come down to lighting. So we could let's assume, I'm going to assume that you're not manually adjusting your exposure. So let's assume again, that we're using our sword we'll go the basics, let's assume we're using our cell phone. So our cell phone is picking the exposure for us. So what we want is the lighting to be as even as possible on the black dogs for so that it's not really contrasty and the phone doesn't have to decide, am I exposing for this whites white spot of light that's here, or for the really dark shadows. So either taking them into shade, like outside, so it's nice, even light, that will work really well because all the light is the same on their fair. And it seems counterintuitive, if you're not familiar with photography to be like, Oh, it's a black dog, let's take them into the dark. But it's because it's not just a nice even soft lighting, that then your camera doesn't have to decide what it's exposing for everything sort of similar exposure. Or if you want to take them if you're outside for example, so that the same as we would with action photography, just making sure that the light is behind your shoulders and facing the dog is facing directly into the the sun shine, then that will mean at least all of the light on their face is the same again so you don't have those really harsh shadows or anything like that. But you would want to be getting down on their level for that. So it's just blue sky in the background. But yeah, black dogs black dogs are difficult but it's all to do with making sure the lighting is as even as possible because if there's any shadow on their face, then the camera gets confused and either over exposes so then you have this weird gray dog, or other exposes, and then you just have a big black blob. Right?

Collin  45:06

He's just staring off into the abyss, either is great. pink tongue. Yeah. Well, you mentioned a couple times about, you know, manual mode versus automatic, what do you have, you may or may not do have recommendations for apps for phone to do more manual photography, if that was something we were interested in,

Caitlin  45:25

you can actually just do it with with your phone when we're doing that aperture. So the portrait mode, does the fake take aperture for you. And then the Lightroom app, which is free, I believe, you can use that to change your shutter speed. But honestly, there's um, if you are interested in experimenting more with your camera settings, then getting a camera that lets you do it that that's it, you really not going to get a lot of it from your cell phone. But you definitely don't have to have the big daddy Whopper. mirrorless cameras, a great in between. That will be great for pet sitters, especially because they're really light, the DSLRs are quite heavy, but a mirrorless one will give you the ability to change your exposure settings. But you won't have to be lugging around this giant camera Hanza already full of things. Yeah, I

Collin  46:29

know Sony makes a really good mirrorless with the Alpha series. I know those are those have to be full frame as well. So again, they can take those big, wide shots that are beneficial in some of these such situations too.

Caitlin  46:40

Yeah, I think mirrorless is what I tend to recommend, like my clients and students to grab that a lot more affordable as well. So you took lots of boxes,

Collin  46:52

now you have a pretty, you have a very good aesthetic for seeing photos and capturing photos. And knowing I got it and this is now we can move on to something else. How do we develop that? As as you know, if we start being more interested in photography and these things? How do we start honing our eye in what we'd like to see.

Caitlin  47:15

And this thing comes down to just taking lots of photos. So when people, when I have people who are interested in becoming professional photographers, I usually recommend they set themselves some sort of challenge. You know, you want to take a photo every day for a year. Literally, practice just makes perfect, obviously, with the technical side of photography, too, but also in finding your own style, your aesthetic. Developing your photography, I I do a free five day challenge for you know, photographing your own pet. So I have a lot of people do that as a way to sort of deep dive into what's my own approach to photography and how to learn how to, you know, take the basics as well. But finding something like that, it's sending yourself a challenge. Maybe do that I'm gonna take five photos of each client's pet, purposeful photos, not snapshots, but doing this thing that we're talking about when we were setting aside the five minutes or however long and saving yourself a monthly challenge or something like that, that yeah, just does come down to the more you take, the more developed.

Collin  48:35

You're right, because you start going, Oh, I had that aperture. And that didn't work. And that F stop was awful. And I need to do this and know that lighting was like this, because you're gonna get multiple, it's about finding the right combination of where you start finding that comfortable and where you circling. That's where that's working. And that you're right, that just takes that just takes time and practice, which can be frustrating for a lot of people to No, no, just tell me the right settings and let's go. It's like no, that doesn't Yeah.

Caitlin  49:01

I think it's important to what you just mentioned, of actually taking the time to them, review them. So there's no point, you know, photographic painting 20 photos, and then just picking one and posting that and not looking through the 20 photos and you haven't learned anything from them. So not that you then have to do that, take an hour, look through all your photos, but just taking a couple of extra minutes to actually look through. And I will recommend deleting the ones that didn't work so that you one aren't going to take a huge amount of space on your phone. But also it sort of forces you to go okay is Is this worth keeping and be harsh with yourself? Is this worth keeping? Or am I deleting this I want to find one from the set of 20 that I'm keeping and I'm deleting the other 19 and that will fall Unless you to actually critically look at whether or not it's a good photo, and then for thinking about what is it that I should have done differently to make that a better photo?

Collin  50:11

Yeah, and with a lot of the software packages, too, you can look at a lot of metadata in that photo to see what what CF stop, what was the aperture? What was the exposure, all that stuff back when you know, it was it was all filmed? Like you had to write that down. That's what we would we'd have our little notebook, can we go okay, picture one, I'm setting my aperture to this and and then you take the photo so that you could go back and line out all your photos and go, Okay, that combination was awful. Please delete, aka, throw the elbow. But that way you can start seeing okay, what? And that's where that skill comes in. Right? Because then that's where this natural ability to understand what's going on. It just takes practice to get there.

Caitlin  50:48

Yeah, yeah, I would say it was a quicker fix, then take lots of mindfulness behind it like pets. Are you taking them and reviewing them?

Collin  50:57

Yeah. Now I know you also work with pet photographers to build their business and stuff. I did want to touch on that a little bit. Because it's, it's fascinating to me about how, and I want to know kind of how you find and communicate to clients the need for pet photography.

Caitlin  51:13

Yes, so it's as professional pet photographers, it's really more that we're creating sort of a keepsake for the for the client. A lot of the time, we're creating portraits that are the clients with their pets, which obviously isn't something that they can capture themself. So a lot of the photos that my clients love is, you know, the family photos or the snuggly ones, that kind of thing. And then obviously, I'm taking individual portraits of the pets as well. But it's just that they really want something special to be hanging up on their walls, or albums, that kind of thing. So, yeah, that's more what our clients tend to come to us for is is a keepsake. It's, you know, once in their pets lifetime, usually that they will do this.

Collin  52:09

Yeah, I was what I was gonna ask about that. Do you find that there are certain times of a pets life, whether it's a new puppy, or whether it's a lot of end of life photos that you find yourself doing?

Caitlin  52:19

Yeah, it's not. It's a really bittersweet, I do find myself doing a lot of a low end of life D photos, which is simultaneously my least favorite and most rewarding part of my business. They are devastating sessions when it's like, I mean, sometimes it's just my dog is old. So we'd need to get around to this. Those are great love an old dog photoshoot. They're funny. They're sweet, they've got their little sugar to love it. But sometimes it's you know, we've been told we've got weeks and we've suddenly realized that we only have blurry, out of focus photographs of our dog. We have no photos of us with our dog that kind of thing. So I'm Washington photograph them as soon as the client is ready I will move mountains to make sure that I can schedule in these shoots. Because as you guys know if they're told weeks that might not necessarily like it can suddenly be days so yeah, rushing to fit in these shoots and they are really sad. And I'm I always end up crying during them the clients crying, but they're also really special. So so funny, funny service that we provide this professional is definitely not something that I any other shoulders deal with. But it's really meaningful as well.

Collin  53:55

After 12 years in the business, what's been the most surprising thing about it to you?

Caitlin  53:59

I'm not sure if surprising is the right I've photographed some really interesting animals so they're always fun to do. So I had a pet doc who was fully toilet trained and had a couch and everything that was amazing. I love it. Yeah, I've been blessed to you know, work with wildlife rescues to do photo shoots for their campaigns. So I've got to photograph some really unique Ozzie animals wombats I cry now since I cry easily. I had this one that shoot with these rescue wombats for this this campaign. And I've never been up close with wombats before but they are adorable. Anyway, so I walked in and oh my goodness, I'm so excited for this shoot. So we're doing it in the studio. And then the the one Wildlife Kara is holding one of these one bats and she goes, Oh, do you? Do you want to cuddle? Am I ll just like yeah, but is young one that you can absolutely have a couple and I was trying to be all professional like this was a very, like it was a big campaign and big commercial photoshoot. So I was trying to be all professional, she hands over this one bet from happiness. This is one of the best. Believe I get to photograph. Oh, okay. Like I'm trying to compose myself. Oh, my goodness. Anyway, that was probably one of my favorite shoot days.

Collin  55:42

That's wonderful, though. But it's these intimate moments, these special moments that that nobody gets to see the behind the scenes out. Right. Yeah. To help capture that. I've experienced that too. Like, it's an experience for you as well. Yeah, it was really cool. Well, Caitlin, I want to thank you again, for coming on the show today and for talking to us about photography, encouraging us to practice and giving us some great tips for fast moving dogs and to make those portraits really stand out. But there's a lot more, it's more than just that. And especially if we're interested in taking it to the next step and going professional with this. So how can people follow along with you get connected with more information and start seeing everything that you have going on? Oh,

Caitlin  56:26

thank you for having me. In case you couldn't tell, I do love to use PET photography. Overload you guys, too much of the technical stuff, as I said is kind of tricky when we're talking about such a visual thing over audio, but I do have that five day challenge that I mentioned, I run that a few times a year, it's totally free, I just have a thrill of doing love teaching people how to take better photos of their pets. So that would probably be the place that I would start if you're a pet sitter. And you're interested in learning my best and easiest tips and tricks to take better photos of your pets, whether or not you're taking it on the cell phone. Or if you're gonna grab yourself, like a proper, quote unquote proper camera to start doing these things that I'd say that's the best place to start. So you can follow me Raggamuffin pet photography on Instagram or Facebook or anything like that. I can pop you a link to Collin, if you guys want to sign up to the waitlist to hear about the next challenge, then yeah, that's free. And I love teaching people. So that's probably the best place to start to improve your portfolios.

Collin  57:40

Perfect. And I will plug you the pet photographers club podcast, because that is fantastic. I love hearing the insights that you interview with guests every you know all the time about their business and the awards. You know, you talked about the photos and everything that when the awards each year and all the time. So I will I'll include links to that in the show notes as well. And then the link that you send me for that challenge to get on the waitlist.

Caitlin  58:02

Thank you so much, Collin, it's been really great tendency.

Collin  58:05

I truly believe that photos, the photos that we take as pet sitters as dog walkers as pet care providers are a gift that we can give to our clients every single time that we see their pets, when we have those moments where we realize this may be the last time I see this pattern, or this client will really appreciate that I captured this part of their personality, that is a joy. That is something we get to do every single day. And the photos that we take, communicate that so above and beyond the update that we send above and beyond the marketing potential behind that high quality photo. It is the gift that we give to that person. It is that love letter that Caitlin said that we get to provide the client every time we come over and care for their pet. So we really want to encourage you to level up your photography game and to continue to give excellent photos and updates. They really are the backbone to everything that we do in this business and in this industry. We want to thank our sponsors time to pet and pet perennials for making today's show possible. And thank you so much for listening. We'd love to get your feedback on how you've improved your photography skills. And if you still have any questions that you need answered about how to handle photos in certain situations. We'd love to talk you through all of those good things. We hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.