Why I became a pet photographer

You may have seen a social media post from me earlier this week that we picked up our poppets 3 years ago, and how I wish I’d had the knowledge I have now about pet photography when we first bought them home. Don’t get me wrong I managed to get some lovely images and hilarious videos of them form the moment they entered our home, but they more snaps, and a lot of them were on my mobile phone. I’m a firm believer in photographing memories and moments, but I wanted to be able to capture them in some stunning studio portraits.

It was also around this time that I found an old hard-drive with some images and videos from when camera phones started to become ‘good’, and on this hard drive was a video of my first cat, Dinah, (named after Alice’s cat in Alice in Wonderland). We got her when I was about 5, so way before phone cameras or even digital cameras were invented (she sadly died just as they became popular) so I don’t have that many photographs of her (although she was the subject of a few of my A-Level photography projects), and only have this one video of her. Despite this, I remember she was very snuggly (on her terms), stubborn, she loved our family dog and preferred to stay out all night and sleep all day.

Tolly was our other family pet; a gorgeous (and daft as a brush) golden retriever dog that my parents brought home not long before I was around. He was awesome! Again, we don’t have a huge amount of photographs of him, but the ones we do have really show his personality; daft, loyal, proud and always happy. He was rarely away from our sides, and he loved wrapping paper, water and snuggling with Dinah.

I truly believe that our pets are very much a huge part of the family, and that they each have their own unique personality, just like humans do. My current two cats are treated very much like they are my children (yes I’m one of those!), my parent’s Great Dane is their ‘favourite child’, and I know a lot of others who have “furbabies”.

Sadly, our pets are not with us forever, which is why I decided to start pet portrait photography alongside my wedding photography business, to capture treasured memories of our furry family members. Back in 2019, I travelled to Leicester and received some first class pet photography training (thank you Christina Lauder Photography) which really upped my studio photography game, and secured my desire to become a specialised pet photographer alongside my wedding photography business.

New packages will be launched when we are out of lockdown, all details of my current Pet Pawtraits Package can be found below, and I offer gift vouchers all year round, the perfect gift or treat for you and your loved ones!