25 years of dog photography with Margaret Bryant

Today’s guest has over 25 years of experience as a pet photographer. Back when she started, pet photography basically didn’t exist. A lot has changed in the photography world since then, but as you’ll hear, a lot of things haven’t really either. I’m talking about Margaret Bryant of Bryant Dog Photography who started out shooting dog sports on film but quickly realised that wasn’t sustainable (for the time) and moved into studio portraits. Since then she’s photographed thousands of dogs in her home studio in Texas and even published a couple of books.

One of which is helpful for us as fellow pet photographers as it’s full of posing tips and other advice. It’s called Dog Photography: How to Capture the Love, Fun and Whimsy of Man’s Best Friend

We covered a lot in this episode, from Margaret’s experiences in the early days of her business, to who our biggest competitor is and how we can book clients anyway. And if you’ve been thinking about offering puppy packages, definitely tune into the second half to hear exactly what Margaret is offering.

We covered:

• What did pet photography look like in the 90’s
• Photographing dog sports, on film!
• Why Margaret changed business models
• The reason Margaret opened a home studio 
• What’s changed in terms of sales over the last 20 years
• Where do Margaret’s clients come from
• Margaret’s golden rule to survive unexpected difficult times after making it through the GFC and Covid

IN THE MEMBERS-ONLY EXTENDED EPISODE:

• How to make it easy to book through your website
• How audience can get to know you and like you for a better client experience 
• The reason a client should choose you (and not their iPhone or AI)
• What are “in but not in” photos
• How being observant can help your client and your bottom line
• Managing expectations for a good client experience 
• Puppy first year - what it looks like, pricing, structure and why the client can own the responsibility
• Dog birthday parties as a pet photographer
• Biggest tips for someone wanting to do puppy first year 
• The impact of AI for us as pet photographers in business