The Pet Photographers' Journal

Kaity Hartley has said the thing most pet photographers think and never say out loud. She wants to be the photographer everybody can afford, because she genuinely believes everyone should be able to have beautiful photos of their dog. She is also a full-time mum with bills to pay, and three families a month at her entry package comes to $1,500. In this live coaching call, Ina works through what that one belief is costing her, and why her pet photography pricing is the only lever she has that does not cost her another weekend.Kaity runs Koarlie Studios Pet Portraits on the Sunshine Coast, shooting bright, colourful, joyful studio portraits of dogs. She is a certified canine behavioural dog trainer, which is why anxious and reactive dogs do so well with her, and it is the thing almost nobody knows about her. This is a real coaching call, recorded live, with her real numbers and her real goals on the table.In this episode:Why accessible and profitable are not opposites, and what happens to the people you want to serve when the business stops being able to stay openThe three gaps Ina looks for first: messaging, visibility and conversionWhat Kaity is actually booking now, and the dream she almost talked herself out of saying out loudWhy more sessions is the wrong goal when your weekends are already spoken for, and what happens to the maths when you raise the average sale insteadMaking the financial decision for your client before they get to make it themselvesWhy raising your prices without raising your positioning is what makes people say you are too expensiveThe client who paid Ina $250 for all the digitals years ago, came back in 2023, and spent $3,000Giving people the full pricing before they book, and letting them decideWhat Kaity already knew, and the one thing she actually neededIf you have ever felt guilty about what you charge, this one is for you.About KaityKaity Hartley is the photographer behind Koarlie Studios Pet Portraits on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Her work is bright, playful and deliberately a little bit different, built for furkids of every type and every temperament. She has worked across the animal industry since 2012, from conservation and education to doggy daycare, behavioural training, rescue and enrichment, and she is a certified canine behavioural dog trainer. She was part of the first beta round of Ina's marketing workshop, and the feedback from that group shaped what the workshop became.Connect with KaityKoarlie Studios Pet Portraits: www.koarliestudiospetportraits.comKaity on Instagram: @koarliestudios.petportraitsWork with me in The Consistent Bookings MastermindThe mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focusing on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system along with comprehensive support of your business from pricing, sales, and mindset. My marketing templates library is included, press release templates and all, which is exactly where Aubri got hers.Apply here: The Consistent Bookings MastermindConsistent Bookings AuditIf you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.Complete the audit here.Connect with InaInstagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceoEmail: [email protected] & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Two of my clients have been on television recently. Neither of them paid a cent for it. They both sent a press release.In this episode I'm talking about press releases, which I think is the most underused free marketing available to pet photographers. I'll walk you through what my clients actually did, what it produced, and the part almost everyone skips: being featured doesn't get you booked unless you go and use the coverage afterwards.I also cover the two things that stop most photographers sending one. Not knowing what to write, and not knowing who to send it to. Both are much smaller problems than they feel.In this episodeWhy a press release is free advertising, and why most of us never send oneThe fear that actually stops people, and it isn't the writingHow Aubri's beer can label contest raised $87,341 and got picked up by Global News CalgaryHow Stacey got on Philadelphia TV without having to be the story herselfWhy press buys you authority and credibility, not just visibilityBeing featured is not the same as being booked, and the four places your coverage needs to goThe three questions that come up every single time I talk about thisHow to find the right journalists, and why that isn't the hard partOne thing to do this week: find your angleOne thing to try this weekLook at what you've got coming up over the next few months. A campaign, a charity project, an award, a new studio, a collaboration with a local business. Pick one, and write down the angle in a single sentence. What's the reason a journalist would run this, and why now. That's the hard part. The writing is easy once you've got that.Work with me in The Consistent Bookings MastermindThe mastermind is currently open for enrolment. It's a group coaching container focusing on implementation support to help you build your repeatable marketing system along with comprehensive support of your business from pricing, sales, and mindset. My marketing templates library is included, press release templates and all, which is exactly where Aubri got hers.Apply here: The Consistent Bookings MastermindConsistent Bookings AuditIf you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.Complete the audit here.Connect with InaInstagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceoEmail: [email protected] & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographersLinks and resources mentionedMy projectsBarking Beautiful, applications: inajphotography.com/barking-beautiful-applicationTails of Canberra Volume 2: inajphotography.com/tails-of-canberra-volume-2-book-projectCanberra Paws Calendar Contest: gogophotocontest.com/canberrapaws2026The Sunrise clip, on my Instagram: watch the reelAubri PoonAubri Poon Photography: aubripoon.comThe Furever Golden Tale contest page: gogophotocontest.com/fourdogsbrewingHer Global News Calgary feature, via her own LinkedIn postAubri on A Woman a Day with Danaye: listen hereStacey ShermanBarkHop Studio: barkhopstudio.comStacey on Positively Philly, PHL17: A Purr-fect Addition to PhoenixvilleThe three-way partnership behind it, in MyChesCoCalla's Critter Rescue and Maddie's Castle, where Calla's Kitty Kingdom livesPress I've had from sending a releaseCanberra Times: Picture paw-fect · Perfect pooches · Telling tailsCanberra Daily: Paw-some opportunity · Ina J PhotographyHerCanberra: Barking Beautiful · Canberra Paws Calendar ContestPet Industry News, People's Choice

Erin Ollila spent years comparing wedding photographers before her own wedding, and she still remembers ruling one out. Everyone in her area loved them. She looked at their website and thought she would probably get in trouble if she did not smile correctly.In this episode, Ina sits down with conversion copywriter Erin Ollila to talk about pet photography website copy, and why beautiful images are not doing the selling most photographers assume they are. Erin writes websites for service-based businesses and pairs SEO with conversion, and her position is blunt: your site is not a portfolio, it is your marketing team, your sales team and your education team. They get into what is actually missing from most photography websites, whether to put your prices up, how to ask for a testimonial without feeling like a nuisance, and where AI genuinely helps your copy and where it makes you sound like everyone else.What We CoverWhy your website is not a portfolio, and the three jobs it should be doing insteadThe answer for anyone thinking "but my photos are better than a beginner's", and why that stops mattering the moment you are compared with another good photographerThe most common copy mistake on photography websites, over-explaining what is included and under-explaining why you and what happens nextWhat Erin found when she researched one local photography market: the site ranking far above the rest was the one with the most of the photographer in itWhy the line items should be negligible, and what people are actually choosing betweenConfidence has four layers and only one of them is your camera skillThe honest read on the word "luxury", and the rule if you are going to use itWhy it is fine to be exclusive, and how repelling opens the door wider for the people you wantPain points do not work in photography. Desires do. Erin explains the difference using her own weddingThe distinction worth the whole episode: you can repel someone without turning them off, and reminding a client their pet has an expiration date is turning them offShould you put pricing on your website: why Erin says no detailed menu but yes to pricing clues, and how to set a range that actually means somethingWhat happens to the client experience when someone books at a price they were not expecting, and why you start from below zeroA more creative approach to case studies: the client spotlight, and how it does the selling and the SEO at onceHow to ask for testimonials when you feel like you are bothering people, and why the real problem is that clients do not know what to sayUsing AI for your copy without sounding like everyone else, and the work almost nobody wants to do firstThe third option between DIY and done for you that most people do not know existsOne thing to try this weekLook at your website like someone deciding between you and one other photographer whose work is just as good. Not a beginner. Someone genuinely good. If the only difference a reader could name is the number of images included, the words are not doing their job yet.About ErinErin Ollila is a conversion copywriter and SEO specialist who writes websites for service-based businesses. She studied fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction before moving into content marketing in the early 2010s, writing for very large brands, then moved into website copy when she started her own business and found herself surrounded by skilled people who did not know how to write about what they did. She hosts the Talk Copy to Me podcast. Ina put a call out on Threads looking for a copywriter and Erin came recommended by Colie James.Connect with ErinErin Ollila's website: erinollila.comTalk Copy to Me podcast: erinollila.com/podcastWork with Erin: erinollila.com/servicesConsistent Bookings AuditIf you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you.Complete the audit here.The Consistent Bookings MastermindThe Consistent Bookings Mastermind is a 6 month group coaching program aimed to help you build your repeatable marketing system with implementation support and accountability. Click here to learn more and apply for the mastermind. Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, Ina shares practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1Connect with InaInstagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceoEmail: [email protected] & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

Michelle Marchant used to be flat out for two months, then drop off to nothing. Leads were never her problem. She had them coming in, she just did not know what to do with them once they landed. Now she has eleven bookings sitting in her calendar for August and September, a three week holiday booked over the top of them, and no stress about either.In this episode, Ina sits down with Michelle Marchant of Captured Hearts Photography in the Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne. Michelle has been in business for about ten years and has worked with Ina one on one. She shares exactly what changed when she stopped running her marketing on the fly and built a proper pet photography marketing plan, a follow up process for her leads, and full pricing transparency before the session. This is a real look at how consistent bookings actually get built, numbers included.Key takeawaysLeads were never the bottleneck. Michelle already had a good filtering process and knew which marketing worked. What she did not have was anything that happened after a lead came in. A three email nurture sequence and a consultation script closed that gap.One question she was not asking in the consult changed the whole conversation. What is your why. Why do you want this, why did you enter the competition. It opens up a real conversation, and it hands her ideas for what to capture, which lifts the sale.Past coaches had told her not to disclose pricing before a session, and it never sat right with her. "I felt like I was handing over a surprise." She now sends the full pricing list once a client books, gives it earlier on request, and her pre session questionnaire asks whether they have looked at it with the link right there.Between transparent pricing and a reworked price list with more collections, her average sale moved from around $1,500 to $1,800 up to about $2,200 across the last six months. Clients who tell her they are just going to take the minimum package regularly land between $2,000 and $3,000.A $250 Facebook ad run over one week for Mother's Day brought in about 80 leads and 10 bookings. That is $25 a booking. May went from her usual four to six sessions up to eleven, and the campaign worked so well she did not need to run the autumn campaign she had planned.Michelle does not rely on one campaign to book out six months. She runs several across the year, targeting different people, bringing in a few bookings from each. "A campaign can do so well one time. You try it again and it's the opposite."Her Pets of the Hills calendar fundraiser for a local wildlife shelter raises around $4,000 to $5,000, with Bendigo Bank sponsoring the printing for the third year running. Fundraiser clients arrive thinking they are doing her a favour, so she added a phone consult and an in person studio consultation to shift that. Two of the highest sales she has ever had came through it in the last few weeks, one of them over $4,000.The first half of this calendar year has already brought in over $60,000 in revenue, against a goal of four sessions a month at a $2,200 to $2,500 average sale.One thing to try this weekAsk every enquiry why. Why they want this, why they entered. Then use what they tell you to plan what you photograph.About MichelleMichelle Marchant is the founder and photographer behind Captured Hearts Photography in the Dandenong Ranges, Melbourne. She picked up a camera in a high school photography class, went on to a Bachelor of Arts, and worked as a camera assistant in the film industry before launching her own portrait business about ten years ago. She photographs families, couples and single pet owners with their pets, works on an in person sales model from her studio, and runs the Pets of the Hills calendar fundraiser for a local wildlife shelter.Connect with MichelleWebsite: capturedheartsphotography.com.auFacebook: Captured Hearts by MichelleInstagram: @capturedhearts_bymichelleAlso mentioned in this episodeGlobal Image Products, where Michelle first saw Ina's work on displayConsistent Bookings AuditIf you're getting inconsistent bookings and you don't know what's causing it, do the free consistent booking audit quiz to find out which gaps is costing you. Complete the audit here.The Consistent Bookings MastermindThe Consistent Bookings Mastermind is a 6 month group coaching program aimed to help you build your repeatable marketing system with implementation support and accountability. Click here to learn more and apply for the mastermind. Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, Ina shares practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.Join here → https://www.skool.com/pet-photographers-collective-3125/about?ref=9c7b56d2963f48a791297a43a29109e1Connect with InaInstagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceoEmail: [email protected] & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers

For years I did what everyone tells you to do. I posted consistently, I showed up on social media, I made sure my website was SEO optimised. And I was still sitting there waiting for the bookings to come in.Last year, more than half my bookings came from campaigns I deliberately launched. Book projects, giveaways, being physically present at expos and markets, and the business relationships I built through them. I can track exactly one booking directly to a reel.That's not an argument against social media. It's an argument about what social media is actually for. In this episode I'm walking through the four passive marketing foundations every pet photographer needs, why they're not optional, and why none of them will fill your calendar in the week you need bookings.This is Part 2 of a two-parter. Part 1 was the full breakdown of one of my active campaigns, the Facebook ads that turned $688.80 into over $30,000 in sales.In this episode:What passive marketing actually is, and the honest reason it works slowlyWhy a marketing campaign is smaller than you think, and what makes something a campaignYour Google Business Profile, and why it matters for AI search now, not just GoogleWhat your website has to say about you, beyond being SEO optimisedWhy "I don't want to be spammy" is costing you bookings, and how often I clean my listThe client who booked because a newsletter landed in her inbox at the right momentWhat your social media is really for, and why a caption without a call to action gets you nothingWhere my bookings actually came from last year, tracked honestlyWhy you can't build a custom audience without passive marketing underneath itThe 24 hours I lost access to Instagram, and what saved meOne thing to try this week: look at your last 90 days of bookings. How many came from something you deliberately launched, and how many came from someone who just happened to find you? That split tells you exactly where to put your effort next.Work with me in the Marketing System WorkshopThe Pet Photography Marketing System Workshop is where you build your own campaign with me, in the room. Three live sessions where we build your ideal client, your messaging, and one campaign planned start to finish, that you run again every season. The next cohort starts 13 August.Enrol in The Pet Photography Marketing System Workshop here 💬 Join the Pet Photographers' Collective (free community)A free community for pet photographers who want to build a profitable, sustainable business with less overwhelm. Inside, Ina shares practical marketing tips, business lessons and mindset shifts, and free resources.Join the Skool Community here✨ Off the Record SegmentRan a marketing campaign that didn't work and you're not sure why? Send me a voice note or a DM on Instagram and I'll break it down on the show. You can stay anonymous📲 Connect with meInstagram: @inaj.thepetphotoceoEmail: [email protected] Consistent Bookings Audit (find your gap in getting consistent bookings): https://www.inajphotography.com/consistent-booking-auditMentoring & Coaching for Pet Photographers: https://www.inajphotography.com/for-photographers