S15E01 | Offering a video service for pet parents
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We’ve all seen the popularity of video increase through social media over the last couple of years, but what about video for a more permanent solution? Something not only to be viewed once and posted as a Reel or Tik Tok, but to be held onto closely as a beautiful keepsake to refer back to time and time again.
That’s what today’s guest, Andrea Fleury is offering pet parents. Videos that capture the true personalities and the relationships these clients share with their pets. She captures the tiny moments that would otherwise be the strongest memories of these pets- think snuggles on the couch, audio of a pet snoring or a puppy running in slow motion with ears flapping.
It starts with an upsell to the client, then comes the storyboarding and of course, shooting and delivering the finished cinematic film- and in today’s episode, you’ll learn exactly how that all works!
We covered:
Andrea’s journey into pet videos
Working with an assistant
How to find and hire an assistant and the costs
Who wants video of their pet?
IN THE MEMBERS-ONLY EXTENDED EPISODE:
Andrea’s marketing plan for video
What is a storyboard, what goes into planning a video, the questions to ask
Preparing for a video shoot
Equipment for video
Pricing, video and albums
and more!
Mentioned links:
https://www.dogtography.ca/
https://www.dogtography.ca/videowaitlist
Transcript
We've all seen the popularity of video increase through social media over the last couple of years. But what about video for a more permanent solution? Something not only to be viewed once and posted on TikTok or as a reel, but something to be held onto closely as a beautiful keepsake to refer back to time and time again.
That's what today's guest is offering Pet Parents, videos that capture the true personalities and the relationship these clients share with their pets. She captures the tiny moments that would otherwise be the strongest memories of these pets. Think snuggles on the couch, audio of a pet snoring, or a puppy running in slow motion with ears flapping.
For her, it starts with an upsell to the client. Then comes the storyboarding and of course, shooting and delivering the finished cinematic film. And in today's episode, you'll learn exactly. How all that works.
Welcome to the Pet Photographers Club. Tune in as experts share their insights to help grow your business with higher sales, creative marketing, and kick arse business strategies. Now onto the show. Hello
and welcome back to season 15, episode one of the Pet Photographers Club. I'm your host, Kirstie McConnell. And today I'm chatting with Andrea Fleury of the. Dog tog, of dogtography. Welcome to the club, Andrea. Hey, thank you so much for having me today. I'm so excited. It's so nice when you know, long time member and listener ends up as a guest on the show.
I feel like kind of proud, you know, like, Oh, you were stuck around all this time you've grown and now I don't know, student becomes a master or something like that. Yeah, I know. That's amazing. I am. I'm very excited to be here. I am an avid listener. I love your podcast so much. And I'm, I'm honored that you asked me to the listener actually, Andrea, as to why you're on the podcast today.
Although maybe people will not be surprised when they hear your name. I know you're active in the community of pet photography, but basically it's kind of a funny story. As you guys would have heard the last episode that went live with Alex Klaas. I, every now and again, I do these random Google searches of like a location pet photographer.
And I just do it to see like who's ranking, who's doing well. I stalk some websites. I, you know, try to get outside of our bubble because sometimes, you know, like I know like only our members or I dunno, like small groups of the industry, but not like. So I do these random searches sometimes, and recently I Googled a London pet photographer, which is how I found Alex, but also I found Andrea, which is hilarious because you're not in the UK at all.
No, I'm on the other side of the pond. But as we were saying just before we hit record, or I was saying that that's quite a testament to your SEO, Andrea, Andrea, because you know, you're in a London. Canada Ontario, right? Yes. And I mean, to be ranking first page for London pet photographer competing on that high key word, I don't know what the right terminology is.
I mean, you were above like all of the people in the UK for London. And so Yeah, I think that's really cool. Anyway I, I knew your name. I knew your business name as I was like, you know, interested anyway, I clicked on your website and I saw that you've been doing these movies for, for pet parents, so I was straight away like, okay.
She's doing something cool, something unique. I got to get Andrea on the show, even though she's not London UK photographer. And so here we are, but before we dive into that and we chat further about movies for pet parents, maybe you can just give the listener who isn't familiar with you a little bit of your backstory.
When did you start your business? Where are you actually based? It isn't the UK and yeah. How is it going for you now in the world of pet photography? Yeah. Oh, so yeah, you're right. I am in London, Ontario, Canada. I started photography. I feel like I wanted to be a photographer my entire life, but if I'm being very honest with you, I kind of pushed away those desires for a very long time.
Then I decided before I turned 40, I wanted to pick up. My DSLR that I had bought years previous and actually learned how to use it this time. My mentor at the time asked me, she was like, so what do you want to take pictures of? You know, do do weddings? Do you want to do landscapes? Like, what do you want to do?
And I was like, Oh my gosh, I don't know. What do I want to do? I was a stay at home mom at the time. So I was like, do I want to photograph kids? Like, no, I don't think so. So I looked at my camera roll and I was like, Oh my gosh, I take a lot of photos of my pets. Is pet photography a thing? That's not a thing, is it?
So I googled it. Turns out it's a thing, right? So I was like, oh my gosh, I love that. My husband is a veterinarian, so I feel like just the love of animals comes very naturally to us in general. So we have a house full of animals, and always have, and always will. So I'm like, Yeah, I think I could get out of bed in the morning for working with pets.
I love that. And as a stay at home mom, I wanted something that could get me out of the house and be around other energy that isn't the wild energy of children. So that appealed to me. I signed up for courses online. I started listening and binging your podcast and then COVID hit. So I then dug deeper into the education and I.
I will call it a binge learned and practiced along the way, but I did stumble into creating videos at the same time. So very early on into my journey, I came across a resource that kind of taught cinematic videography using the equipment I already had. And so I was like, Oh, this is exciting. What's this video thing?
Then of course I'm watching them and I have tears. So anytime I know something triggers like an emotion, I know I'm onto something. And I was like, Hmm, I got to dig a little deeper into this video thing. And how could I apply it to pets? So I just. I learned all of the content that I could about creating what I call like cinematic film.
Actually, I don't really love using the word video, but I know video is, you know, how it's used kind of in today's audience, get to be the yo. I love the term like film. It's like it's to me, it's the same as like taking a snapshot or a pic versus a portrait or an image, right? So that to me the lingo, but You want to speak the language that people understand.
So video is cool. And I dug into that and I was like, Oh, I'm really enjoying this. People were loving it. I did a whole bunch of free work like in the beginning, right. As kind of, we all do just to kind of like test it out, see if it's resonating with people. And yeah, I mean, that's how I kind of got into doing video and now I've just kind of integrated it into what I offer my services.
So what I hear that I think is really cool is that. Your passion for photography came first, I guess, from years ago, you finally turned it into, you know, something to follow professionally just before COVID, which just recently I spoke to Carol R. Scott actually, and she had a similar kind of story, although she studied photography at college.
Go back and listen to it guys, if you haven't heard that interview yet super inspiring actually, how she just. stuck it to the man, but anyway yeah, so it's like, it's kind of common theme I'm seeing at the moment where people have, you know, something's triggered in them years later. Like, you know, now is the time now I'm going to do it anyway.
So you've done that. You've started with like searching for what am I going to do? Photography wise decided you love pets. Found out that pet photography is a thing, which you're lucky you're looking now, because if you had to look 15 years ago, it would not have been a thing. Ask me. Yes. But then, I mean, video or cinematic films for pets.
And so even though you had the reassurance and decided to pursue this photography dream, I suppose because you saw somebody else was doing it, even when you saw that nobody is really doing the video, you're still pursuing that that's really cool, I think. Okay, let me just get like an overview because I'm getting all excited here and not even asking any questions.
So let me just get an overview here of where your business is at now. So you started just before COVID. Then you took that time to, to knuckle down your education. You said from, you know, when everything opened back up again until now, what's, you know, what's it been looking like for you day to day?
Are you shooting daily, weekly, monthly? Are you getting paying clients? You know, what are they spending with you? What are they coming for? Is it the films or is it the steals? You know, what is your general business look like today? I took a year to really hone in on the practice and the craft of photography.
I did kind of decide early on, I was like, okay, I love doing the videos, but I need to get good at something if I want to turn this into a business. So am I going to focus on video or am I going to focus on. And just like you said, to speak to what you just mentioned, people don't sit there in their houses right now or looking at their dog and go, man, you know, what I really need is a cinematic film.
Gosh, if my life would feel complete. If I had a cinematic film of my dog, people aren't thinking that they're thinking I need a photo shoot. Right. So I was like, okay, I think I'm going to go the photography route first. And I mean, I didn't give up video right away. It kind of was just more on the side.
So I built up the photography. I built up all my education and everything around that. I practiced that a lot. And then on the side, I was like, you know, could I do a film with your dog while I'm doing pictures? So I tried to build it in to do both quickly realized. The video and photography use two different parts of your brain.
So it was a struggle. I actually bought. So when I invested in all of my gear, cause I went all in, Kirstie, I, I, I don't do anything half. Half done. I went in and I bought a Canon R6 and a Canon R5. So that I could have both, like one tethered to me and the other one in my hand. I could do stills with one and video with the other.
And I did that. And I made it work. It was really hard, but I did it. And I was like, okay, like I could offer both as one individual, but where I'm at now is I have an assistant. So I decided to bring him on to help me. Now, last year I had him. Come to only the shoots where the client wanted a video, as well as photography, we would meet with the client ahead of time.
I do like in person consultations, in person sales, like that whole model. So during their consultation, we would flesh out kind of what they wanted for the video and kind of storyboard it loosely. I would then later have a meeting with my videographer and we talk about it together. And then he would come and do the filming.
And I would focus on the photography, but I mean, it took a bit to get there. So that's kind of what it looks like now. I do have an assistant that comes with me now to every shoot and he is doing video in a different capacity as well. So I don't know if you want to get into talking about that, but to try and answer your question.
Yeah, it, it has taken some time to build it up and it wasn't my focus right away. Still do not have people that are organically coming to me saying, gosh, I really want that. I really want a video. I have had repeat clients like, or not repeat clients. I'm so sorry. I have had referrals come to me and say, oh, I saw my friends.
Project you know, film could, could we talk about what that looks like? I have tried different pricing structures and different ways of offering these things, but I still think, yeah, we're pioneers, right? Like we're really breaking into you know, educating people as to what they need. I really strongly believe that photography.
And video stand alone on their own for different reasons. Nothing will ever replace, in my opinion, still photos. You can't hang a video on the wall, right? So photography will always have a place video though, gives the client the. everything that photography can't. So when it comes to cherishing and preserving memories of their dog, it's, you know, you guys, like my client and the dog playing together, what their dog sounds like, how they move, their mannerisms.
Slow motion is also your best friend when it comes to video because people get to experience They're, they're pet in a different way. They get to see them running in slow motion and their ears and their tail. Like, yes, we take still photos of that. And they're, you know, often hilarious, but a. You know, a running sequence or a playing sequence of their dog in slow motion put to like emotional music.
Oh, there's just nothing that can replace it. It's just so dramatic. And I love that. That's what I really love about it. That's what brings the tears on. Clients cry every video, every time, hands down. It's how I know I've done a good job. They're also very popular with the end of life clients as well.
I think for obvious reasons. The biggest comment that I get from clients when I ask them, I tell them about the video. I will show them one in my consultation. And I asked them, like, do you want to add a video into your package? The number one thing that I hear them say is I would regret it if I didn't.
Yeah. Makes sense. And that's how I know I've, I've got something that people want. They just don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Wow. Andrew, I have so much to unpack about everything that you just said. I mean, this is awesome. So. Okay. I want to wind you back a bit. I'm conscious of the time we're already at, but that's okay.
I'm gonna, let's pull some gems out of here. Okay. So first of all, okay. You refined your skills of shooting video, but did I understand correctly that now at your client shoots, you're actually shooting stills and your assistant is doing the video? Okay. That is correct. I feel the best way to serve them.
Is for me to be focused on one thing. Now, I'm not saying it's not possible to do both. I think I would start with trying to do both. Find a way, whether it's with the same camera, or like I had this vision of working with two different cameras, just because I wanted my like 70 to 200 lens on one, and my 35 mil on the other, and I didn't want to have to be switching lenses.
constantly throughout a shoot, there's different ways you can structure how your shoot goes so that you can capture both. I think in the future, like 10 years from now, we will just be taking video and pulling stills from the video. That's kind of my prediction because there's a lot of the same photography principles that apply composition wise and stuff like that.
But for now, I think it would be, you know, you could definitely still do like still images and then grab a video clip. Still images, a video clip, stuff like that, but I storyboard out these videos in a way that It's like, yeah, it's, it's kind of like one of them has to have a priority. Is the client's priority the stills or is it the video?
And whatever it is that they choose is what I'm kind of focused in on the most. And the other one is kind of a bit secondary. To whatever, whatever their priority is. So there's two separate people that you, that you're referring to then. Okay, cool. One is a photography assistant that also does behind the scenes effectively.
And the other is a specialist video videographer who would come if if the client has a secondary priority of video. Is that right? Yeah. And I just want to stress that it's evolved to that. That's not how it started. So I don't want anyone to get discouraged and think, Oh, I can't afford to hire an assistant or a videographer or whatever.
You build that into your cost of doing business. Yeah. For sure. I wouldn't get into pricing. But I think I might save it for the second half for the members only, because I'm already like, yeah. Picturing in my head, you know, Okay, well, you've got this assistant, you've got the videographer, you know, these are hard costs that you're wearing, so you must be charging up front, but I want to find out exactly how you're doing that.
Let's do that in the second half. I just want to stick with this assistant for a minute because I think it's quite interesting that, I mean. You're relatively early in your journey of photography business and to already be having, you know, two subcontractors effectively, you know, it's kind of rare to hear that.
So I just want to ask you just briefly how you went about finding these two separate characters. Okay. So last year, this only started last year, I started up my YouTube channel and I didn't want to do everything all by myself. So I hired my 16 year old niece and she was my first videographer. She was an active TikToker and, you know very well versed in social media and YouTube.
So I started with her and then it turned into like her availability. She was still in school. It wasn't quite working out. So I, she moved on to do some other things and I hired a part time photography assistant so that his name is Phoenix. You'll see him in my YouTube videos occasionally. He, yeah, he just helps me on shoots.
He handles dogs for me. He records behind the scenes footage that kind of thing. So that, yeah. That's what he's doing right now. I am teaching him like how to capture video. So I think one day he will be able to take over the cinematic video part. But yeah, it's kind of like a nice learning process for him.
And the videographer that you. that you hire. Where did you find him? Did you post an ad? Did you find like he already has a website? How did you find that guy? I think I just started googling videographers in London, Ontario. I think he had a Kijiji ad up that I found. And then I checked out his social media, which was extremely lacking by the way.
So I was like, dude, like when I reached out and contacted him, I just kind of like, I was like, well, he's the only one I can find. Let me just try him. And yeah, he, he is a really nice guy. He now is also my YouTube editor. So I use him in a couple of different capacities, but yeah, I mean, he was looking for video work and it just seems like a really good fit.
Okay. So before I wrap up part one, which I don't want to do, actually, I have so many notes here to carry on. Actually, I've got a few things I'm not going to say before. Okay. So Let me get into this. First of all how often are you having this videographer join you at a shoot? Is it once a week, once a month, once a quarter?
So I will be very honest and transparent. I don't want to make it sound like I am taking one of these every day. They're right now, they are infrequently happening. Would I love every client to want a video? Yeah, that's the end goal, right? I want every client to be like, of course I want a video. What a stupid question, right?
But we're not quite there yet. Like people need to be able to see how it benefits them. And I think people see it, but when it comes down to the investment part of it you know, everyone has different motivations, right? If they want a piece of wall art on their wall, then I kind of don't even bring videos up.
Like, it just really depends on the client and what their end goal is. So I would say right now I'm, I'm doing a few videos a year. It is my pitch to include the video as part of my album package. And I can get into why I do that later and why I think it works really well, but yeah, I don't sell many standalone.
Videos. I usually have photography combined in there with it somehow. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So it's not like you know, you, you haven't committed to this videographer that he's going to have work every day or every week or every month. It's just a very sporadic thing. He does subcontract to work and there is no commitment from either side.
Okay. Nice. Now before we wrap up for real, I wanted to ask you about these videos and maybe Maybe not so much what you've been doing, but where you see the marketing for the future, because you are, I know having to market really the entire niche, right? I mean, it's like when I started my pet photography, nobody knew that was a thing in Adelaide, Australia, and I had to market the entire idea, the concept, not just my own business name.
And I guess you're doing the same thing for video. So we might get into that, like in quite specific in the second half, but just for now. How do you see it going in terms of like, are you planning on focusing on maybe promoting it as something for end of life? Cause you mentioned that earlier or for puppies, because both of the examples you gave earlier, you know, you use the word remember, I think was one of the words you used and I feel like those two times of the dog's life.
Things that you, you don't see next to you all the time, you know, like I've got a six year old dog and, you know, probably I wouldn't get a video of him. I would have when he was a puppy or when he was like a teenager puppy, you know, with the, the legs crossing over each other and falling over because that moment is now gone.
He doesn't look like that anymore, but since he was about three until now, and probably another four or five years. It doesn't change that much. So probably I wouldn't get a video in that time, but then I have a 14 and a half year old dog and probably I would want some video of her, like you said, to remember certain things.
So for example, she has a problem, anyway, she has a problem at the moment, a disease and it makes her snore really loudly. And actually, even though it's caused from this, this problem, it's. Kind of it's become her noise, you know, and we find some comfort in it. Some, somehow, and Marco in particular, my husband, he like he will be like looking around, like, where is flea if he can't hear us snoring, you know?
And so I imagine like for a video, that is something that would be really important for us. You know, to be included in a video is something that I can't get in stills. And so just that in particular, not to mention, you know, a bunch of other things I would, I can see how you could pitch the idea of video to me and sell it successfully with her.
Whereas I can't see how you'd necessarily be able to sell it for RS at this point in time, is this just me thinking that because I'm looking at my. My two dogs side by side, or is this something that you are also considering and hearing from clients as well? Yeah, absolutely. I think you're touching on all the right points.
So if we kind of come down, break it down to the motivation and the benefit to a person and to why they would want to invest money into something that they could just like watch on their phone or watch on their TV. And again, they don't, they can't hang it on their wall or appreciate it in the same way yet it costs kind of the same amount, sort of speak.
You're touching on all the right things because yeah, it's that emotion. It's the memories. It's the, you know, if, if their pet is their soulmate, it is capturing for them what they can't capture themselves. So it is the, you know, the, the human and their pet together. That's, it's almost impossible to capture like cinematic footage of you and your pet having a cuddle session together on your own.
And that's how I think we are all of service to our clients, right? Like we're capturing things for them that they have a hard time doing on their own. And this is definitely one of those things. The number one. Thing that I hear people say after their pet has passed away is how priceless and that word is used often the content becomes.
Now we, same thing with photography, right? But the video. Is the thing that holds a special place in their heart that they come back to. I actually just lost a client on the weekend. I had done a video for her a couple of years ago, like back when I first started Cocker Spaniel and she just passed away.
And you know, my client was like, Andrea, I am so glad we did this video then. Now she was a senior, a senior dog and you know, you just never know. Right. You never know. So I think this, I'm going to, I'm not going to call it end of life. I'm going to call it senior. Senior videos, I think, are where The, the benefit, the motivation, the desire is at that you could easily tap into and not have to convince people it's a no brainer at that point.
Especially like, I would almost call it something to be like memorial or maybe more memorial sounds too funeral like, but like something more emotional. Anyway, that's something for you to decide, but I'm just picturing myself. This is quite maybe overshare. I don't know. I, I didn't really share much about my personal life very much, especially on the podcast or to public, but I feel like it fits here.
I went through like a pretty rough time a few years ago. Some people might already know that very rough. And in this one situation, I had to kind of hold it together. And my instinct was to. rewatch a video that my mom had sent me of my dog. My mom was looking after her at the time. And so I was lying there and nowhere near my dog and in.
My head, all I could see was a, this a replay of Flee Flee running from the dam up towards me, but it wasn't me up. It was, it was, I wasn't there at the time. It was a video and that was like a crappy iPhone video and on like my mom shot it, so it definitely was terrible. It was like, she's worse with photography and video than she is with cooking and that says a lot.
I hope she doesn't ever listen to this. I give her plenty of shit about her cooking. It's fine. Anyway, I think that's the power of video. I mean, yes, I'm a photographer and I believe in the power of photography. Like all of you listening as well. And like you as well, Andrea, but video, it has this way of like I don't, like it encaptures everything, sound, movement, everything more, more than video stills cannot.
And I tell you that video really helped me in that particular moment and then moving on. It's become like a, a coping mechanism, you know, I don't really need it these days, but I used to use a lot. And having just this crappy iPhone video that would help me through, I can imagine the power of a professional video with the music and everything being just that much more.
I can totally see, I mean, clearly I am. I'm like your perfect client. Oh, yeah, I'm my, yeah, I'm my own perfect client we probably all have like a story like that of our own of a pet that has passed and we're like, yeah, I mean we we kind of cling to what. The final, some of the final memories are, I have the same iPhone video on my phone of my, of my cat boots 12 years ago passed away and it's a video of him and his last week of life, him and I chilling on a cozy chair in my backyard and the birds are tweeting in the background and he's, you know, rubbing his face up against me and I'm, you know, giving him a scratch and a tickle.
And it's like, that is, yeah. worth gold. I have that backed up probably 10, 000 times in 10 different places, you know what I mean? And, and it's the same. It's like, if we can deliver that for a client, those, those, I don't want to call them last memories, but you know, that, that picture of you know, the good times that they're having and, you know, you storyboard that out as well with your client, right?
It's like, what do you and your dog do together that is meaningful? Like, how could I You know, like, what are we going to do? Let's pick a couple of different things and we'll take a video of a few different things. I want to get into that Andrea in detail actually, cause you've mentioned storyboarding a few times now.
But yeah, I'm going to save that for sure. So I want to get into more for the pro like for the, for the members, I want to get into more about marketing this niche because this is something that lots of pet photographers are also still doing around the world. Okay. In Canada, the U S Australia, New Zealand, some parts of the UK, pet photography is a thing.
As you mentioned at the very start of this interview, Andrea, that, you know, you Googled pet photography and you learned it was a thing it is in all of those places, but in many other places, it's still very new, still an emerging market, if it's even a market yet. And so. To hear maybe what your plan is and how you're going at marketing this video niche.
I think it's going to be really interesting for, for the listeners in terms of marketing photography as a pet photography as a niche as well. So let's get into that like nitty gritty for the members also storyboarding. Cause you mentioned that pricing YouTube videos you've mentioned a few times now.
I've got so much I want to ask you, but we're already like half an hour in. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to wrap up part one now, before we do that, first of all, Where can the listener find your photography and video galleries and the examples of what you do? Yeah. So I hang out predominantly right now on Instagram.
So you can find me at dogtography. ca. There's a lot of dogtographies out there. So put in the ca, that's how you'll find me directly. Facebook, same thing. YouTube is Dogtography Education and yeah, that's. Kind of where you can find me right now. Cool. Now I know that you've like really refined your process when it comes to video.
Talking about storyboarding that we're going to get into shortly and you know, working with an assistant, you're actually teaching your current assistant a little bit of video at the moment. You've got hands on experience with it as well. You do have a plan of helping other photographers introduce video.
So where can the listener go if they do want to learn from you when it comes to that? Yeah, I am building a waitlist. So I need to see that there's proof that there's other people out there like me that want to learn how to get into video. So if you want to jump on my waitlist, that will really help me make the vision of my video creation course come to life.
So you can find that at dogtography. ca forward slash video waitlist. Perfect. And as always, I will put the links in the show notes. To that, to the wait list and also to your, your photography website as well, Andrea, so everybody can check it out. And yeah, so don't worry if you've missed anything, just head on over to the pet photographers club.com/the-podcast search, Andrea.
Or you can search video or any of the other terms that we've mentioned, and you'll certainly find this, but it's gonna be seasoned. 15 episode one to be able to find it there. That is part one of this episode. If you're a member of the club, of course, you can continue listening to part two in the member zone or via your private RSS feed in your favorite podcast player.
Don't forget if you're not a member, of course you can join today. It's just 10 a month. You get tons of perks by being a member. Including of course, the biggest one hearing the full version of every episode and not having to hear this midway point as well as a discounts for courses and a bunch of other things, member meetups and these kinds of things.
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