Right off the bat, this is going to sound self-serving. I'll stipulate to that. But it is something that is weighing on my mind and I wanted to offer my advice and maybe it's something for you to consider.

The question is, how do you choose a pet photographer that's right for you?

I think the first thing people take into consideration is price. Pet photographers are all over the spectrum when it comes to what they charge for a session and products. There are super inexpensive pet photographers and those that make you gasp and a range in between.

In general, the less expensive photographers have less experience or they have a day job that subsidizes their photography and they are pretty happy to shoot to expand their portfolios and to make some money to buy photography equipment. Because honestly photography equipment is expensive. They are usually available to shoot for you on weekends, when you're off of work, because they too are off of work. Often, they provide you with a disc of digital images from the shoot, sometimes edited, sometimes not. They may offer you an online gallery to view your images.

Many mid-range photographers make their living more or less exclusively from photography and likely have more experience in photography. They generally have more equipment to choose from in order to create your images and they more than likely carry insurance in case something goes wrong. They are available to you on average 5 to 7 days a week although many also have other full-time jobs as well and are only available on weekends. They tend to offer products from professional vendors that are not available directly to consumers. They may or may not offer you an online gallery and many of them like to come to your home for image presentation and for ordering. In case you're wondering, I am a mid-range photographer.

There are high-end pet photographers who often work on commercial projects, do some consumer work, and have a very distinctive style. Now I do some commercial work, not a great deal, but I also straddle the higher end because of my Storytelling (composite) Sessions and their unique look. Because of the higher level of skill needed, these images command a higher price. For many higher end photographers, though, it is that very distinctive style they possess that enables them to charge top dollar to consumers. And commercial photographers can take on a bigger financial risk and they are helping businesses make money with their images.

I would say no two photographers offer exactly the same thing for the same price. Since there is no industry standard or price collusion, you need to find out what a photographer charges and what you'll get. My business model is what I like to call "parts and service," just like an auto repair shop. My service is the photo session. Photo sessions are a little like an iceberg. The time spent shooting is the tip of the iceberg, a lot of what happens for your shoot happens where you can't see it in in culling the images, editing the images, and for me, slideshow preparation, among other things. So say for every hour of shooting, there's at least one to three more hours behind the scenes that you don't see.

My photo session is a standard one. The price is on my website. Many photographers say exactly what their session fee is, others customize the shoot to exactly what you want and need to communicate with you first. Some put their price lists on their site while others give a range of pricing but not specifics. It's just nice to know upfront if you're being priced out of your budget ballpark or if you're even on the right path and you probably don't need a complete price list as long as you know the starting points. If your entire budget is $300, then you are not looking for someone whose session fee starts in that range with products added on.

As far as parts go, those are the products and those are ordered separately. In my view, this offers you maximum flexibility. For other people, they want to know they are getting something for their money, if it's a disc of images or a 5x7 or 8x10 or whatever. Most photographers who offer products are going to turn to professional labs to get you products you couldn't get yourself. They may use several labs for different products; I do. One company does my canvas, one company does my metal prints, another does my fine art prints, and I use several vendors for my albums. You could not buy any of these specific products on your own. You need to be a professional photographer and the difference shows. There is a big difference between the prints you can get at a Costco or Walmart compared to a professional photo lab but just remember... you are not paying for a piece of paper; you are paying for a piece of art. I always say I don't charge for the paper the photo is printed on, I charge for the art.

Some people just want a lot of pet photos and might just be looking for digital images. Others are less concerned with volume as much as they are looking to make sure they get enough images to choose from in order to have wall portraits or an album.

As far as digital images, some people think they are "free," they have no value once they are created. Other photographers recognize the value of digital images. They are the equivalent of a negative, something consumers never had access to in the past. And once a photographer gives away digital images, they probably don't expect to make another dime from them so they price them appropriately if they sell them at all. You'll probably find a lot of photographers willing to give away every digital image for the price of their session and you'll find a lot that don't sell them at all and again, that range in between. For me, I usually provide a complimentary digital image with every print or product purchase so that's my sweet spot but if it's a digital purchase only, they aren't given away for the price of a session.

So these are just some of things to consider. But there's more (hey, I used to be a writer, there is always more).

Does the Photographer's Website Show What You Want?

Look at the photographer's website. Does it appeal to you? That's what you should be looking for, does it speak to you? Do you love the style? Does it have the aesthetic you want? Sometimes people bring in Pinterest images to a photographer to copy (the bane of wedding photographers everywhere). If you want that style, hire the photographer that can give you that style.

Some of the technical things to consider are lighting and white balance and focus. Are there nice catch lights in your pet's eyes? That makes them look alive. Is the pet the right color? Is the fur white or blue or yellow or mushy or a color you know it's not supposed to be? Is the focus on the animal's eyes? You can have an image where the eyes are in focus and that's about it and that's a style. It is shooting with a shallow depth of field and it costs good money to have a lens that can blur out your background. That's good.

But you may not like that, you may want everything from the dust particles in front of the lens to infinity to be in focus. That's shooting with a lot of depth of field. Shooting with lights often helps achieve a lot of depth of field; shooting with natural light can often give you a shallow depth of field. A lot natural light photos have a light, airy feel while studio lighting may have a richer, crisper look.

Also, if you want to be in the picture, does the photographer show people and pets in their portfolio?

Just see if the photographer can give you what you want by looking at their website.

I wouldn't judge someone on their equipment but if they can handle lights and have more professional equipment, you have better chances of getting photos that are technically correct. That's because consumer grade cameras have a bit of trouble in lower light. But a lot of photographers can do great things with even a cellphone; it's in the eye. But if you enlarged a phone image to put on your wall, you'll see it start to fall apart. Phone images are best viewed on a phone.

In the end, all you want is to make sure you get what you want and that you will be happy every time you look at what you bought.

Finally, I leave you with the Rule of Common Sense from John Ruskin (1819-1900) that I find profound:

"It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money -- that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot -- it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."

 And as someone who has bought a lot of cheap, useless photography equipment, boy, can I relate.

I hope this has helped. Have fun on your search and if I can be the pet photographer in Los Angeles that can give you what you want, I would love to be. Just click that button on the bottom right hand corner and I'll get back to you. OK, that was totally self-serving.