My first paid photography job...

...unles you count the roughly $8.00 I have made from sales off of my micro stock images that can be seen here. Its not much of a job but it is a start. One day Karen was shopping at Targets. I had asked her to pick up a CF card for my camera. While she was getting that a lady came up and asked Karen what she was buying. Karen explained that she was buying a card for my digital camera. The lady's name was Joan. She makes her living from grooming dogs. Joan asked about the type of pictures that I take and Karen explained that I mostly take scenery, wildlife and pet pictures. Joan became excited and said that she has been looking for someone to take photographs for many of her customers who have been requesting it. And thus it begins...I hope....

I did a bit of research on pet photography to see what people charge and how they structure their business. There seems to be two ways that people do it.
1. Charge a low $20-$30 sitting fee and then have the customer purchase prints. The profits from this type of set up come from the print sales.

2. The other way seems to be to charge a higher sitting fee around $100-$120 and then to turn over a print quality "CD" to the customer allowing them to use them as they see fit.

I am leaning to option #2 at this point, although since I am just starting out my fee would be more modest at around $50-$70 I think. I spoke to Joan today and she will be calling me later tonight to make arrangements to get this going. So we will see what happens with this.