New to Pet Photography or looking to start a Pet Photography business?

In this post (and companion video if you prefer to watch your content), I am going to walk you through everything you need to start your pet photography business in 2026 including what I would do if I was just starting over.

We will cover getting started, gear, camera settings, how to build your portfolio, finding first clients, and setting up your business and more.

Whether you want to photograph your own pets, photograph pets part-time, or turn this into a full blown business, this blog post gives you the roadmap to get started with confidence.

Let’s go!

Want a bit more help? Get our free Pet Photography Checklist download as a roadmap to setting up your business from the legal perspective!

PS. This post doesn’t contain affiliate links that help support our rescue photography. Read our full Affiliate Disclosure here.

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GETTING STARTED

When someone asks me, “I want to get into photographing pets, where should I start?”

My first recommendation always is (and this might surprise you) is to photograph pets other than your own.

Because here’s the thing - it’s all well and good when we are photographing our own pets who know and like us, it’s a different thing entirely to be photographing a two year old, high energy shelter dog that literally knows nothing and won’t stop moving.

I want you to make sure before you even invest any more time, money, or energy into this endeavor that you in fact have the patience and passion to be a Pet Photographer.

So, we will talk more about this when we get into portfolio building later in the video, but before you do anything like buying a new camera, setting up your business, or starting your social media presence, get out there and start working with breeds, ages, energy levels, etc, to see if Pet Photography is a good fit for you!

LEARN DOG BODY LANGUAGE AND BEHAVIOR

That leads me into my second point that also might surprise you when getting started is to start learning animal body language and behavior depending on what kinds of animals you want to be working with.

I was very lucky when I started, because I had already been working with dogs in various capacities for a couple of years before I started taking on paid clients, but I truly believe that you will be wildly successful as a Pet or Animal Photographer if you also do the work to ensure that you are providing a safe, joyful, and stress-free experience for the animals you get to work with.

Not only will they feel comfortable and have fun, but that will keep everyone safe and translate to amazing images, too!

If you aren’t sure where to start, I definitely recommend a few different things. I’m going to be referencing a lot of dog related suggestions but these can translate for other animal types like cats, horses, exotics, etc.

Study your own dogs
Start volunteering at a local rescue or shelter to walk, cuddle, or work with dogs or [insert other animal]
Take training classes with your dogs or invest in private lessons
Watch positive reinforcement training videos on YouTube such as Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution or McCann Dog Training
Read training books such as Turid Rugaas’ On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals or Control Unleashed: Creating a Focused and Confident Dog by Leslie McDevitt

CAMERA GEAR / EQUIPMENT

By this point, you might already have a good starter camera and kit lens, but when I first started I didn’t quite know what I needed specifically for Pet Photography–that took me awhile to learn. I bought a few things I didn’t need and no longer use, so I consider it money wasted.

Thankfully, I’ve made all of the mistakes, so you don’t have to.

With that in mind, I’ve actually just released a brand new video with all of the equipment that I currently use for my outdoor, natural light Pet Photography work and why I chose each thing specifically to help guide you in the right direction for what you might need in your Pet Photography business.

CAMERA SETTINGS

Obviously, once you’ve got the gear, you’ve got to figure out how to use it. Right?

Instead going over all of that in this post, I created a video all about camera settings for outdoor pet photography here and explain why I use the setting that I do for both portraits and action photography.

PORTFOLIO BUILDING

Okay, we’ve started practicing at this point, we’ve got a camera, we’ve got settings, we are starting to learn body language, how in the world do I build my portfolio?

My recommendation is to simply reach out to family and friends and offer a low cost or complimentary photoshoot to start getting some ‘clients’ under your belt.

This is exactly what I did when I first started and people are so obliging in order to get cute photos of their animals!

Aim to photograph as many breeds, ages, sizes, energy levels, and looks as you can in order to get as much variety from your photos as you can. If you are looking to photograph more than just dogs, say other animals, you can put a model call out for the same thing.

Now, my recommendation here is to not give them the whole kit and kaboodle.

Offer these “clients” a low cost or complimentary session with time limits, number of animals, and amount of images you are going to deliver, because as they say, you give them an inch and they will take a mile.

What I wish I would’ve done is offered a complimentary session with a time limit and a certain number of images, then upsold (at a very low cost) additional images.

The reason for this is it would’ve helped me have more cash flow in my business early on and get my feet wet with some paying clients without too much financial pressure.

FINDING CLIENTS

Once you’ve got a bit of a portfolio built, you can now start to market and shop yourself around to potential clients!

What I’ve seen work well for budding photographers are getting referrals from your ‘first’ clients along with promoting on social media, and sharing in pet-related Facebook groups. Why this works when you are first getting started is that you are generally at a lower price point and so the investment decision is a typically a no-brainer for people.

You can use those images you’ve taken when building your portfolio to create promotional graphics and materials to market your new business.

There is also nothing wrong with making an offer to people. If you see an adorable dog out and about that you want to work with, you can always give them your card and make an offer. That’s fantastic way to add to your client roster.

PRICING BASICS

Now, let’s touch on pricing… First, I want to say that pricing is an art form. It is different for every person and every business depending on many factors including income goals, your pricing model, your business overhead, tax liability, etc.

So, since this video is for the brand new Pet Photographer, we are going to focus on a pricing structure of the all inclusive model.

Now, I actually already created a more in depth video digging into this pricing model further that I will link here for you guys to dig into and digest on your own time since we did already cover so much in this video.

Lastly, I am working on creating a pricing course for you guys, so be sure check back for when that goes live via email and on my social media!

SETTING UP YOUR BUSINESS

If by now you’ve worked through all of these points and you are ready to officially set up your pet photography project as an actual business entity, then you’ll need to set up your business from the legal stand point from choosing a name to registering your business to getting a Tax ID and more.

I actually have a free checklist, video, and blog post all about that I’ve already created, I’ll link above and in the description.

And there you have it! An outline of what I would do if I was just getting started with my Pet Photography business today! I hope you found this post helpful.