Giving Back as a Pet Photographer Makes a Difference
From Learning to Giving
As a pet photographer, I am one of probably thousands who scour online education. I've spent countless hours on YouTube, joining associations, reading articles and of course, unabashedly pursuing Pinterest. It was one particular morning that I listened to a Freedom Focus podcast, led by Nicole Begley of Hair of the Dog Academy, who helps pet photographers learn to become sustainable, successful businesses. Her guest was a local, San Diego pet photographer named Michaela Trujillo from BMAC Pet Photography. She talked about a concept of giving back to animal rescues while having the opportunity to still make sales. The idea is called a Gallery Wall Contest, not unlike the popular Pet Calendar Contests that have been around forever! So I purchased Michaela's PDF that helped me set up my own Gallery Wall Contest. The results were amazing all the way around!
You can learn more about Gallery Wall Contests as a pet photographer HERE
Bubba, ready to strut his stuff!
Steps to Success
1. My Charity of Choice
Before even starting this contest, I donated a free session as a silent auction basket to a local rescued called Domino Effect Animal Rescue. Domino Effect's director, Lindsay Raridan, sat down with me to discuss ways my business can help bring much needed funding to her organization. The idea of the Gallery Wall Contest was new to her, but she was on board from the start. Domino Effect Animal Rescue's mission is to help keep as many animals out of kill shelters as possible by placing them in foster homes and actively seeking their forever homes. The idea that Domino is a smaller operation compared to the huge rescues in San Diego and the like, I knew I wanted to help them out.
You can find out more about Domino Effect Animal Rescue HERE
2.Collaborating with a Pet Related Business
Once I chose who I was going to help raise money for, I needed to partner with a local pet establishment who would agree to let me hang prints of the winners of the contest in their store. The saying goes, "when one door closes, another one opens" (Alexander Bell), well, 5 closed for me before Shirley of Top Dog Pet Store and Grooming said yes! Shirley is the owner of Top Dog in Murrieta, CA. Her focus is on grooming, but her storefront is filled with unique, quality products.
You can find out more about Top Dog Pet Store and Grooming HERE
Tessy, our grand prize winner! She earned the most votes!
Our Campaign...
3. Running the Contest
This part had me nervous at first, but GoGo Photo Contests made it easy to put the contest together. They were professional and responded quickly with any help I needed. The participants of the contest sent in a snapshot of their dog and garnered votes from family and friends for a low fee. Our contest started out slow. I had a lofty goal of $5,000, but quickly knew that we were not going to reach it within the contest timeframe. In order to keep momentum strong and maintain excitement, I made the decision to adjust the goal to a more realistic number of $500. By lowering the goal, the progress became visible and achievable-which helped encourage participation and voting! In the end, the contest received amazing support and almost doubled our goal! The grand total we raised was $909!
You can learn more about GoGo Photo Contests HERE
4. The Sessions
I'm not gonna lie. This was the part I was looking forward to the most-getting to meet the top 5 winners and to photograph them in our beautiful local hills. I thought this was the easy part. I was wrong.
To my surprise, it too over 4 months to photograph 5 dogs! Why? Well, two of the dogs had grooming snaphoes- cuts to short, etc. Two of our winners lived outside my business service area, so scheduling was a bit of a challenge.
But I loved every minute of it! I would do it all over again and will!
Auggie-Doggie! A little spunky, darling Doxie!
The Winners!
These were the snapshots the dogs owners sent to the contest. Their beautiful portraits are scattered in this blog post! What a transformation! We captured their beauty, grace and personalities!
The BEFORE pics
The images that made the cut to grace the walls at the pet store!
Sebastian, a rescued Pom from Domino!
Rory, a four year old Aussie
5. The Big Reveal (Party!)
Okay, so I thought creating the photos would be my favorite part, but the most fun was the night of the reveal! It worked like this:
We formally invited everyone to the pet store where the images where hanging in 20x30 wood frames up on the walls.
I collaborated with Shirley from Top Dog Pet Store and Lindsay from Domino Effect Animal Rescue to set up refreshments. We sent out invites to the community as well as friends and family of the contest winners. Everyone had a great time together and LOVED their dog's photo displayed so proudly!
A special thanks to Shirley at Top Dog for keeping her store open after hours for us!
