In 2013, I had a job I started to hate. I was managing the social media pages for a large apartment company.
I started looking for jobs and saw the Humane Society of Broward County was hiring a social media and website specialist.
At the time, I didn’t know anything about photography, let alone photographing pets.
I was hired originally to oversee the website redesign as well as the shelter’s Facebook page.
Once the website design project was finished, my supervisor asked me to take over the photography program too.
The website looked amazing, but the photos of the shelter animals looked terrible.
To train myself, I started watching hours and hours of videos online, but I also had hundreds of animals to practice on.
Most photographers who want to learn pet photography, practice on their own dog, but that’s not enough.
I was taking photos of 15-20 dogs and cats a day. They all had different personalities and behavior types and they were different sizes too. A lot of them were scared and nervous, which is why I have so much patience, which is what you need as a pet photographer.
I spent the next 6 months practicing every single day. I love being able to capture the personality of a shelter pet to get them adopted.
In 2015, I moved to Tampa and took a job as a marketing director at a software company and I quickly learned it wasn’t for me.
I started volunteering at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, just for fun, on the weekends and after a few months, the shelter asked me to host a fundraising event.
The first few events sold out, which gave me the idea to contact other shelters in the area, through Florida and then eventually all over the country.
The Humane Society of Tampa Bay is also where I met my wife Mary. Now we have a 1 year old son, Benjamin.
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Hopefully I inspired you to make your dreams come true.