Hi everybody. Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast. Today I'm going to be talking to Craig Turner Bullock from photography down in beautiful New Zealand, and we're going to be talking about how to find your style. Stay tuned.

Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast. If you're a pet photographer, ready to make more money and start living a life by your design, you've come to the right place. And now your host, pet photographer, travel addict, chocolate martini connoisseur, Nicole Begley.

Hi everybody. Nicole here from Hair of the Dog and I am here with my dear friend Craig from photography down in the most beautiful country on the planet New Zealand. Welcome to the podcast, Craig. I'm so glad that you're here with us.

Hi Nicole. Thank you for having me. It's very exciting.

Oh, of course. Of course. It's super fun. So yeah, so I guess before we even get started, why don't we tell people a little bit about you and your business and how long you've been shooting and all that, all that good stuff, a little bit of your background.

Sure. Okay. So I've been shooting pet photography since 2001 so it's been awhile now. 20 years. Oh my God. Don't even say that out loud. It's too scary. Um, so yeah, long time. And then I'm from the UK originally and I moved to New Zealand in, uh, 2009, so I kind of started a fresh and started up my business here and it's just kind of grown from there really. I've done three books since I've been living in New Zealand, which were published by penguin random house and they were all sellers here, which is amazing. It's fantastic. And yeah, I'm working on a few projects at the moment, which are really exciting, but I'm probably delayed somewhat for obvious reasons. Um, in 2018 I won the title of New Zealand portrait open photographer of the year, the ends at RPP, which is really exciting. Um, I was the first person to win that with pictures that weren't of people, um, in the MTV awards. So that was really,

congratulations. That is awesome. It's so nice when, uh, we start to see pet photography awarded that way.

Yeah, it's really nice. And we don't have animal categories here like they do in a lot of the awards. So I have to enter the people portrait or the portrait categories. So it was nice to um, have pet photography awarded amongst tons and tons of amazing portrait photography. So yeah, that was really nice. And yeah, and last year I launched the Furtography Academy, which is um, helping pet photographers, um, find their style and find who they are as artists and creatives.

Awesome. That's fantastic. Nice. Yay. Yeah, no, I think that's what we're going to talk about a little bit today cause I think that's such a hard, it's an easy but hard thing to do, right? To find our own style. Cause you know, yeah. You know, you, I remember when I first started, you know, you don't, you don't know enough to be able to be creative on your own quite yet. When you're first starting, you're like a sponge and you're like, Oh, I need to learn that. I need to learn that, I need to learn that. And you know, so you're so hungry to learn everything. And I think a lot of people don't realize that, yes, that's a good thing. But you know, there's a fine line of learning things and then like straight up just copying something. So for me, I know I've always looked at it as, you know, it's okay to, to deconstruct something and try to repeat it and learn it to learn the technique, but it's not okay to be like, okay, here, look, this is mine. When it's a straight up the same thing that you've seen. So that's kind of like my golden rule of style and copying and learning techniques.

Yeah, definitely. I think, yeah, it is. Well, it's not easy just to copy something, but to deconstruct it and learn the technique is, you know, it's pretty good. It's pretty easy to do and it's great for the learning process. But when you then just kind of take that on yourself and, and say, Hey, this is mine. It's crossing that line a little bit, I think. And I think that we should be really doing that. Um, and I think that people copy too sometimes. Um, maybe just because they're afraid they're afraid to fail maybe or they don't have faith in their own ideas.

Right. So they see that and they say, Oh wait, that worked for that person, so surely it'll work for me too.

Somebody else that's already successful doing this thing is, is less of a risk. You're not putting yourself out there as much emotionally, you know, it's a bit easier just to do that. But that is not where we will find the most fulfillment or the most happiness and the most joy in what we do. So

agreed. Yeah, and truly, even the most success because it's not the people following up in the field that are going to be successful. It's the people leading and creating new things and being the first one to do those things. That tends to, as they should be recognized the most for it. So, you know, continuing to learn and put your in, if you have this idea to try something that hasn't been done before, take a whole bunch of little pieces from that you've learned from different people and put them together in a whole new way that hasn't been seen before. Yeah, it's a little bit scary, but that's definitely where you find, I think the success and the fulfillment and all those things that you mentioned because you know, it's, it's unique, which is what we need.

That's, that's the magic, right? And that's what I call, um, our glitter. Um, all of those, all of those things that in our creativity and our lives and our personal lives and our business that we do, that we've got the, nobody else has got. Only we've had the experiences that we've had. You bring all of that together, you take your inspiration, you take all the creative things you've learned, and you take your past experiences, you put all that together a nd, and that's the magic. That's the glitter. That's what our own true nature, truly unique kind of creativity is all about, I think.

Yes, absolutely. And you know, a lot of times, I don't know how long it took you, but I think it took me about seven years of shooting to really start to feel like, okay, I found my style, a commonality of some of my favorite images, start to merge with negative space and muted palates and you know, just simple compositions and things like that and you know, engagement of the dog that it starts to, I've started to then be able to look at my body of work and be like, Oh wait, this all looks like it was created by one person. And you know, it's a look that is, does not look like necessarily it was created by somebody else that's starting to actually look like mine. So anybody out there that's just starting, you know, that doesn't happen overnight. It's definitely a,

yeah, it's, it's a time thing. Uh, it takes a long time to be able to recognize that. And actually, do you know, I, I don't think I even recognized it in my own work. It's really only when I started getting feedback from other people that they started recognizing these things in my work. And so saying, Oh, I recognize your, I know it, I know your image. When I see one that's like, well, can you tell me how, you know, it's mine. Like what is it about my image? So, um, feedback has been really important for me in finding my style. Um, and I think that's important as well to remember that um, in finding a style, you're not necessarily trying to create images that all look the same. Like they may have technical skills that are the same, they may have the same use of lens and all the rest of it, but you're not just trying to replicate the same thing over and over again. I think it's more about creating that kind of feeling and bringing that emotion to the work that is really what is going to define your style above anything else is how, how your work makes people feel when they look at it.

Yeah, absolutely. What was your style journey?

My style journey?

Yeah. Yeah. Like, what did, what did that look like for you?

I guess? Um, yeah, it was a lot of inspiration, learning, lots of things, experimenting. Like I mean when I started I was shooting on film, so that was a really steep learning curve in itself. Like I was self taught, I tried to do a diploma and professional photography, but um, it was really, really heavily based on people and studio work and I didn't really want to do either, so I just dropped out and didn't finish the diploma. So, um, I just then went out and started shooting landscapes and wildlife and, and then turn my camera to my pets. So just lots of experimenting, finding inspiration from different places. And back then there wasn't really any pet photographers around, had to find it from other places, but I still today get a lot of inspiration from wedding photographers. Love really beautiful wedding photography and the feeling that those are conveying, you know, a wedding obviously as a story of two people's love. And so I really love watching, looking at that and getting inspired by that. Um, so

I know which one is it? He says, Oh, I love it. It's pet people. We love it.

Yeah. And just things outside of photography too. Like I think that the worst thing as a, as a pet photographer that you can do is look at other pet photographers for inspiration because that's going to do a couple of things. Um, it's going to feed into that kind of mindset. That's like all my photos don't look like that, or my photos aren't that good or you know, anything. Like all those kinds of negative things about you, your own kind of self confidence in what you're doing. And it's also not really helping to expand your, your view of pet photography either because you're just looking at other pet photographers and, and already inspired by what they're doing. So to take inspiration from other genres of photography, movies, books, films, all that kind of stuff. That's where I think you can start to differentiate yourself and find your own style. I'm like, I love Disney. I love movies, I love musicals. So I love to bring all that kind of bright, cheerful, kind of bright colors, happy, happy moods into my work. So things like that are really, really useful. Like inspiration and experimenting. Don't be afraid to fail, or like, I mean, I, I used to beat myself up so bad if I did something and it didn't work, but you know, anything that you do, even if it doesn't work, there's something that you can learn from that. And so don't take it as a failure. Take it. Just as you know, you've, you've learned something and next time you can do it differently. Even last year, I started on a project last year, which I've wanted to do for ages and I started shooting it and it just did not go how I wanted it to do. The images didn't look how I wanted them to look. And it was just, I just wasn't feeling it. And in the end I realized why, and it was just because it didn't fit with how I feel about photography. And so I've got these images that, you know, they're technically good, they look nice. The owners of the models that I used absolutely love them, but they're just not something that I will publish. Um, that's okay. I mean I don't, I don't have an issue with that. Like I, I had this idea, it was in my head for ages. I finally got it out of my head and into an actual image. It didn't work. That's okay. Now I know that that idea didn't work and I can move on to something else.

Yeah. And, and it, it didn't work for you, but you know someone else that they have an idea somewhere that would fit more for them. Cause I think we all do that. I'm that way. When I look at my images and I love some people's black and white images, they're so beautiful. But I have never once one, one I created one black and white image that I loved in my life and most of my work does not translate and I don't feel it. And it's just like, how can I love black and white imagery so much? But my work does not go black and white. I hate my work in black and white. So I think that's kind of the similar to what you were mentioning.

Definitely. And I, I feel the same about black and white as well. I love looking at these black and white images, but very rarely do I think that my images translate well into black and white.

Yup. Agreed. And our friend Kaylee Greer from dog breath photography, She said something to me a couple of years ago that really stuck with me for kind of developing your style and that you know, you have to curate your portfolio for, for your style. It's not just about sharing, Hey I shot this, Hey I shot this. Hey I shot that. It's looking at your, your all your images as a body of work and kind of picking out the ones that you feel most drawn to and making sure that you're showing what it is that moves you, that speaks to you, that you want to be shooting more and making sure you're looking at your body of work really as a whole portfolio and curating that. So, for instance, when I, you know, would test out a black and white, actually, even if I shot a black and white that I love, there's one of Emma, my cat that I did that was a studio shot on a low key. What's just some room lighting. And I love that image. I'm not going to put it in my portfolio because it just doesn't mesh. So yeah, that was, that's something that's really changed how I looked at my work.

Yeah. I, I, I curate everything as well. Like, cause a lot of sessions I do photograph that owners with their, with their pets. And that's something that people have has asked me to do a lot and I actually really enjoy doing that. But I don't really ever publish those images. Occasionally I'll maybe publish a silhouette of a pet and owner, but really I don't publish those nice portraits and you know, the sitting on the sand dunes with the, with the dog whenever, anything like that. Um, because that's not what, what I love the most and that's not what gives me the most out of what I do. So I just don't publish those. Um, and that's okay too. I think a lot of us, especially when we're starting out, we think, Oh, we have to show everything that we shot because then people will see we're busy, or you know, they'll see that we've got this massive variety. But I think that it's, it's quite the opposite of that. I think that, you know, if you carefully curate what you show people to show them only what you really love doing, then you'll get clients who book you because they love what you love to do.

Yes. And then when you do that, those clients become the most joyous, easy clients to work with because yeah, they love what you do. They trust what you do. They will listen to you. They will not stress. They're not going to be like, Hey, I found this image on Pinterest. Can we do this? Yes. Yeah. From time to time when you know, when you get those kinds of clients that come to you with their Pinterest board of ideas, they're all totally different. You're like, yeah, exactly. We, you know, you just

reassure them that you've got this, you know, that you, you've come to me for a reason. And the reason I think is because you've seen my work and you like it. So trust me, I can help you with this and, and do it my way and come up with something that you're really happy with. Absolutely. Yeah.

I love it. So what, do you have any recommendations for people that are maybe, you know, they're to the point where they feel like they have a good handle on the technical aspects of photography. They can create good exposures that can create, create, engaging pictures, but they're missing that spark. They're missing like how, you know, something that they love. They just feel like they need to take it up a notch and like start to define, you know, kind of start to dial in on a style. Do you have any suggestions or exercises for them?

Yeah, I think that that, like I said before, one of the biggest things from the helping me recognize my style was getting feedback from other people. Um, so maybe put together, um, 10 or 15 or 20 images and go and seek some feedback from people. And I don't mean random people on Facebook, like people that you know and that you trust, um, mentors or colleagues or organizations or anything like that where you can get some really valuable constructive critique on your work. That's pretty scary sometimes because you know, there's not always good positive, happy feedback. You do get some things that you need to work on. But that's the whole point, right? You want to be able to push yourself, you want to get those negatives so that you can make your images better. It should always be constructive though. Don't let, don't trust feedback from somebody who's just negative all the time because that's probably not, not around it. And balanced feedback. That's helpful. Um, so definitely, um, feedback, just going out there and shooting. I think the biggest thing that you can do to find your own personal style is to get those personal projects out of your head and off of your pen and paper and your notebook and actually put them into images. So, you know, go and shoot your personal work. If, if you're shooting with no agenda without clients to please, without money factored into the equation and you create work just because you've had this idea and you want to create it, then that's going to help you develop your style. Um, much more I think where, where you're just creating for the sake of creating

agreed. And I think that also helps you make money in the long run because you, you start to, you know, develop that style. You start to create these personal projects and generally the personal projects are these things that came from inside of you, the passion of your shooting, which can't help but be noticed by other people and can't help but be noticed by potential clients. And so I think it all just comes around and there's so much positivity that comes back to you.

And I think definitely for me when I started doing things like that, um, I definitely saw things pick up in my business. Um, I think that people connect with those kinds of images and um, when they, when they connect with them. And you've been kind of genuine about the process and you're really kind of putting your own spin on things and doing something that makes you sing, um, that that's when the opportunities come to you as well. And I think that's what happened in the awards when I, when I got that award for portrait photographer of the year here, um, that was a work that I'd shot for personal projects, whereas in previous years I'd entered images into their words, but I thought it would do well in the awards. Um, and the year I won, I entered all stuff that I'd done for personal projects. And then after that, then I started getting opportunities come my way. Like, um, Fujifilm approached me about becoming a Fuji, um, photography ambassador around the world. Um, and you know, just things like that came my way that I never would have expected and it's because I created images, um, that, you know, meant something to me.

Yeah. I think that's a common denominator of so many photographers that I admire and look up to that have this beautiful body of work and have, you know, that Canon ambassadors of light or explores light. I mean, or you know, they, they just have this incredible talent that we say that we look up to. They got off their butt and shot for themselves and have personal projects and shoot what they love and follow that passion, which just translates into that. I don't think you can reach that level without doing that in some capacity.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. You've got to, you've got to do it from, from your heart.

Yep. For sure. For sure. Yeah. I'm uh, with uh, competition cause uh, I took a couple of years off. I did three years of international print competition. PPA is IPC and did well with, got a medal each year. So that means all four of my images merited. The first year I did the best. And then the past couple of years, I think it was two, I took either two or three years off. But this year I'm like, you know what? And it was because I don't have time. I don't have time. But this year I made the commitment to, no, I do have the time. I need to get back into that. So I'm super excited about that. It's definitely one of those things that pushes you to start to learn new things. And you know, for instance, this year I've committed also to, to dive in back into my craft and learning things that I've wanted to learn. So I've been learning more about composite and then some more creative editing and things like that to kind of take these images to a whole new level. And um, you know, it's just, it's, I don't know, I just, it's so good to be able to start to focus on that again and it, it feels so good to be able to start doing things that are really quite fun again, since I've been taking so much time off from that kind of thing. But if there's anybody out there that, you know, you're thinking about, Oh man, should I start in competition, should I do this or that? And you know, the competition I feel has been so valuable in getting feedback and learning. You know, there's definitely one way to play the game, which is, Hey, I know this is going to score well so I'll just create this or what I think is way more valuable is like you were saying, create images that you love, create work that speaks from your heart and put it out there and get critique on it and get feedback from it and see ways that you can take it even more, which is I think been so beneficial for just my entire career and my entire, um, you know, craft.

Yeah. I think, yeah, I think for me as well, same, absolutely. Like entering into the competitions, um, that, that give you feedback and you know, you get critique from judges or whatever. Um, that's been really important in, in just fine tuning everything. I think some of the stuff like attention to detail and you know, um, is there a single thing in the frame that takes the attention away from your subject that doesn't need to be there? And sometimes it was as simple as there's a stone on the sand at the, in the beach and do you really need to leave that stone in there because my eye goes right there or whatever. You know, just all that, all that information that you get from entering competitions, this is so valuable to development. Um, and yeah, playing the game is, is part of that too. And like I said, I did that for a couple of years. And then when actually, you know, the second year I entered, I entered a lot of stuff that I'd shot in the studio. Um, cause I had a studio for a little while, but you know, studio work didn't ever really, um, yeah, it didn't, didn't light me out. Like, um, like going out and doing stuff outdoors and letting dogs run around and be dogs and you know, so, um, I did quite well with the studio stuff, but it's not stuff that I want to put on my website. So, Hey look, I'm an award-winning photographer and here's my award-winning work. And then the client experience is so drastically different. Um, cause that's one thing I think can be a pitfall of, uh, competition is that you create work for the competition so that you get an award and then you're advertising yourself as an award-winning photographer. And this stuff that you've created for awards is so vastly different to what you do for your clients. And there's a bit of a mismatch there. So I think if you use the competition to, to enhance what you're already doing and to take that stuff that you do to the next level, that's where the value is in it for me. Um, because I want to say to every single client I work with, like the images I've created for you, I could put into the awards. Like these could be images every single time for every single client.

Yup. Absolutely. So a lot of times that in my experience with competition too, it's pretty funny because I think a lot of people get really nervous to enter because they see some of the images that do well. And there has been a lot of Photoshop work done and some of mine have had a lot of Photoshop work done with head swaps or, I mean I'm just working on one for this year where I totally took the dog from a whole nother image and you know, like, you know, complete composite and I think people get overwhelmed by that. But you can also create beautiful images. And I've had lone images that were super simple that didn't require all that post-processing. And so I'm just curious for you too, as you developed your style and learned your craft and went from gosh, film to digital and then had to learn this whole new digital world of Photoshop and Lightroom, how much your style may or may not have changed as you learn more post-processing techniques or if there was any way that that affected, affected your, um, you know, your style evolution.

Yeah. Um, well, I, I actually think that the kind of the technology and the camera gear and the computer equipment and the editing software and everything, I think that's one of the most exciting parts of, um, of what we do. Because it's changing constantly, so always new stuff to learn. Um, so I really love that. Um, and I think, you know, it definitely has an impact. The way you edit definitely has a huge influence on your style. Um, and I think when, when I shoot now I, I can see how I'm going to edit an image. You know, before I even take it, I'll see something that I want to shoot and go, right. We need to do that. And in my head, I already know how that's gonna look when I've edited it and you know, I can, I can work out my exposures and everything all based around how I edit things. So I guess, um, that's been, that's been huge. Um, doing that. Yeah.

Which, yeah, which that really comes just with time and practice because I remember, I remember as well too, gosh, thinking back and people would, you know, like talk about, well, a couple of things. First I remember when I first started and I would hear people say, well, you know, eventually you can see the color. And I'm like, I can't see the yellow or the blues in this. Oh, how, what color are they seeing? And now you look at an image and actually the detriment to like, you know, photographer life fail is you, uh, the house that we bought that the builder put in these led light bulbs in our closet, but they have this like magenta glow. So I walk in there, I'm like, why is my closet pink? My husband's like, what? What are you talking about when he's color blind? But it's still, I mean, like no one else sees it concerned me, but it just makes me crazy. I'm like, these lights have a magenta glow. And then in my office I have the daylight balanced light. So at night when I turn my office lights on, it looks like straight up like crazy amounts of like bright light. Like the straight up sun is in my office and the rest of the house has all the warm, like, you know, normal incandescent, uh, leveled lights. It's so funny and that, that just really happens with time. And then the same kind of thing where people would shoot and you know, know what they wanted to create before they shot. Cause when I first started I was like, I don't know, I'm just going to shoot and see what I get. And it just, by practicing and doing it some more, all of a sudden you're like, Oh wait, I actually have an idea of how I want create this and what this is going to look like and yeah. How I'm going to edit it. And you know, all of those things where you can start planning things so much more, but that just takes time. So if you guys are in that earlier stage where I was, where it was like, you know, I couldn't see the color to save my life, even if it was, you know, crazy off the charts, you know, like negative 20 Kelvin. Um, yeah. It's just, it just takes time and it,

and then it comes to you and it's the same like I'm shooting manually. When I started shooting manually, it was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. And it's like, what if I mess this up? Oh, I must, I better put it back on aperture priority or quick switch it to auto. But now, you know, I go out and shoot and I shoot everything in manual and like I can just look at an a space with the light on it now and I pretty much instinctively know what my exposure is going to be. And then I grab a quick test shot and you know, usually it's pretty spot on, but again, it's something that, you know, took a long time to be able to do that. And that's why I think, you know, if you can just go out and practice as much as possible, like just get out there and shoot. It doesn't matter if you're using your own dog, um, or you're not using a dog at all. Um, you know, just go out and, um, practice manual exposure on, on a, on a landscape, on, you know, on the street, outside your house. Um, just, just the more you do it, the quicker that you can learn and the quicker you can kind of see things that you are missing when you're in those stages of learning and experimenting and everything. So definitely, and then the same thing on, on Photoshop. Like Photoshop terrified me when I was trying to get my head around the whole

such an insane program. My God, you can launch a space shuttle from that thing.

There was so much on there and as photographers, you know, there is like, I dunno, 90% of the stuff in there that you never ever can need. Um, so it was terrifying, but you can't break your computer or whatever. If you do something in Photoshop that you don't like, you, you're not gonna ruin things. So again, just practice and experiment and see what buttons do and take the sliders all the way up and all the way down and um, you know, see, see what, see what happens with them. But it's the fun of experimental things that, um, that again are really helpful at forming what your style will be in helping you find what you're like and what you know, what you do wrong and what you don't do wrong and all of that.

Yeah. And you can go out and shoot and you know, it's digital. It's not like back in the film days where you'd have to pay to develop the film. I mean, it's digital, you'll download it and trash the files just to practice getting your manual exposure. You don't have to do anything with them, which is really a pretty freeing thing. Um, and a quick shameless plug for those of you out there that want to learn more about Lightroom and Photoshop, if you go to hair of the dog academy.com/editing Heather and I have a free kind of introduction to editing course that'll help you get around those programs if you are fairly new to them. And also share some of my favorite tips and tricks that I use on just about every session. So definitely go check that out. So jumping back over to you, Craig and your business, when you started, did you start off, cause I know now you love the boutique and the beautiful products. I mean you have the most gorgeous albums from Graphy studio. They're like my favorite. They're beautiful. Have you always done products with your pet photography business or did you used to do shit, shoot and burn? Yeah. What was that transition like?

Um, yeah, it's always been, um, products actually. Um, I even when I started, my pricing was not good when I started, but it was, yeah, of course. Um, you know, it was always prints. I worked in a photo lab and a camera department in a boots in the UK, which is a big, um, like a department store kind of thing. Um, so I worked in the, in the camera and film processing there. So, uh, printed work always seemed to be what was the norm. So that's what I always offered. And so when I started it was, you know, it was six by fours, five by seven, eight by 10. Um, and then over the years, uh, for me it's all about a big print. I love nothing more than seeing my work printed, big and put on someone's wall. So I actually now do my smallest size that I offer to clients is 16 by 24. And so don't do anything smaller than that. And um, I would, I would actually rather sell one big piece than several small ones just because I love how how it looks. Um, and uh, again, it comes back to the kind of, the way that technology has changed in the way that the gear has changed because now I shoot a lot of my work with a Fuji GFX, which is a medium, medium format. I use a GFX 50 S, um, which is medium format. And the detail in a sense of that size is unbelievable. And so nothing would break my heart more than clients see an image that I've taken on this 50 megapixel medium format camera and just say, I'll just have a eight by 10 print that that camera is capturing, get the chance to shine. So printing big is the thing for me. 1624 or bigger. I have had a couple of clients who have done like 60 inches and they just blow my mind.

Yeah, I have that in my sales room. Yeah. I have my sales room now. I have a 40 by 60 acrylic, which makes my 30 by 40. That looked big before look. Teeny tiny. Yeah.

That makes me sad because I do have a 60 by 40 but it's on canvas and I really want a 60 by 40 acrylic sample because I think that would just take people's breath away.

Yes, it does. It's so expensive. I think it costs me like$1,600, but uh, that's alright. I did one. Yeah, I did the picture of, I'm sorry, I was gonna say, I just did the picture of Lauren and the horse that she used to ride in Pittsburgh, that silhouette, um, cause it matches the colors of my home and it's my daughter and I'm like, what? Whatever. Yep. Boom. 60 x 40 on that wall.

That's a good piece to do, right. Because it's, it's a personal piece for you that you can use as well. Um, yeah, I, um, I, I really want a 60 by 40 acrylic and you don't sell them heaps, but, um, I have actually found that having a huge piece like that in the studio, um, sales meet more bigger pieces because they see the 16 by 24 and they go, Oh no. Um, it gives them permission. Yeah. Yeah, it does. You know, so I don't, I don't sell tons of them, but I definitely, it definitely helps me sell more. Um, 20 by 30 is, or, or more, um, 30 by 45 pieces because they're not so afraid of going so big.

Yeah. What's the biggest, have you done any of your beautiful, brilliant panoramics really big on someone's wall.

I have done, I've done one, actually. I've only done one of my panos on, on a client's wall and that's something that I've really got into over the last year. And that's another thing, right? Your style is always changing. It's never, you'd never get to the point where you go, I found my style and I'm done, you know, I can, um, I can, I can just down pause now because I've made the ultimate achievement and found my style. Cause there's always pain. So as, as you know, Nicole, I've been shooting lots of panoramics over the last year or so. I'm really loving, um, how those all look and clients are really enjoying those too. And so I have done one big panoramic piece for a client, but I'm just in the process at the moment actually ordering new samples and I'm changing up my albums and things like that as well. So I'm just sort of deciding what I want to do as new samples. And so I'm going to actually put panoramic pricing. I'm going to put a panoramic price list together for my product guide so that, um, again, people aren't kind of nervous or afraid of, or this one's really long and how's that going to work sort of thing. So I'll have pricing and I'll have samples of how panoramics look printed.

And then you just put a little"most popular" right there next to it and all of a sudden everyone's going to buy it.

I am pretty much doing panos on every single session now.

Yeah, I mean, where you shoot definitely lends itself to that. It's so beautiful.

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm really fortunate here, right, to have all the amazing landscapes that New Zealand has to offer.

Yep. That's awesome.

incorporating that more into what I shoot as it's just been a really natural progression. I guess something I've always looked for is, is to create images where the dogs have like a sense of belonging, like they belong in those landscapes. That's where are, and that's their happy places. So adding a bit more of that landscape and it's just, just seems like a natural thing to do.

I love it. I love it. And you actually created a how to make your own panoramics in the hair of the dog Academy, which, um, it's available for members and also available to purchase on your own if you are not a member, but might as well become a member and get all the amazing things. Um, yeah, no, those are so beautiful. I love your panoramics. They're just absolutely gorgeous. And when you do those with your medium format, I mean, you could probably blow that up to be the size of the building downtown and it would still look amazing to see every hair on that dog.

Oh, I had so many questions from people about, um, about what I'm doing with the, with the panos and then, you know, why am I doing panos with medium format? Because you know, it's, it's takes time sometimes on Photoshop when you're joining together 25 50 megapixel medium format files in one giant panoramic. And you know, yeah, exactly. Right. And I, I don't know, I don't really have an answer for those questions except for why not? Like, why, why not create it just because, you know, just because you don't need that many megapixels for a print or, um, or, or for showing on my portfolio online or whatever. Like that doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it. Why not try it? Right.

Well, and I'm sure that you're following your heart with that style again and the opportunities for that will make themselves known and appear for you. Yeah. That's awesome.

We'll come together and I'll go, Oh, that's why I started doing,

that's why, cause none of us can travel. So you're just going to plaster your amazing New Zealand panos all over the planet. That's what it's going to be. Yes. I love it. I love it. Oh, well this has been such a good conversation. It's been great. I thank you so much for being here with us. Uh, maybe tell everybody a little bit more about where they can find you and a little bit about, again, for Furtography Academy and where they can find that.

Okay. So, um, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram, uh, photography or photography and said, I think I'm on Instagram and my website is furtography dot co dot NZ. And then if you want to know more about the Academy, um, and my course there, it's academy.furtography dot co dot NZ. Um, I've got enrollments open at the moment for my find your style course, um, which is, you know, there's tons of stuff in there. I've got like 12 hours of video training in there and there's 70 odd videos and it's all split into sort of modules to break down finding your style into separate sections. Each one has got like a workbook and challenges, creative challenges, um, and then we do like a fortnightly live call about each module as well. So you get six live calls. So, so that's open for enrollment at the moment. And I'm going to be closing those at the end

of may for this round. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. So if you guys want some help trying to start to narrow down your style, get some assignments, get some feedback from professional that knows what he's doing, definitely a great course to check out. So yeah, so thanks again, Craig for being here with us and we will, um, keep in touch with what you're doing and we'll all follow your beautiful panos and hope to see you soon in the flesh to hopefully one day. Craig and I are actually both supposed to be in Scotland right now at, um, BarkLander, which obviously has been postponed. Um, so yeah, so hopefully I will see you soon, my friend. Yeah, of course. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode of Hair of

the dog podcast. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to leave a review and while you're there, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss our upcoming episodes. One last thing, if you are ready to dive into more resources, head over to our [email protected]. Thanks for being a part of this pet photography community.