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Today\\u2019s featured guest is Rebekah Nemethy\\xa0-\\xa0Pet and Product Photographer

Rebekah and her business Reflective Photos began as a photography career with weddings and after doing one she knew it wasn\\u2019t her calling for her photography. After some exploration in different areas of this visual art Rebekah found her stride in pet photography. Aside from her pet photography Rebekah has been with the photography department at Consumer Reports for the past 5 years.

Good take away\'s from this episode:

Transparency! be clear about the details with your clients. It is easy to be caught up in the big picture stuff.

"You\'re only as good as your last photo." - making new work will always lead to improvements and the lack of attempts for better work is only settling.

Small an manageable goal will be of great practice for the big ones but they will also be the building blocks for what you may one day call success.\\xa0

My path to pet photography was definitely not on a straight, high-speed highway; I took the back roads and got lost several times along the way.

I think, in the back of my mind, I always knew I wanted to be a photographer. In my junior year of high school I learned to shoot, develop, & process black and white film. Those were the days before Photoshop became my dark room of choice.

In college, I decided to major in the visual arts with a focus in photography, which went well until I started to think about what I would focus my career on. I thought that weddings would be the most lucrative and sensible career choice\\u2026 actually I figured it would be my only choice because I knew everything at 19.

It was during my second year of college that a friend who was getting married asked me to shoot her wedding. It was the first wedding I ever attended, the last wedding I ever photographed, and the straw that broke the photographer\\u2019s back.

I switched my major to journalism within the year. I wrongly assumed that if I didn\\u2019t want to do weddings, I\\u2019d never make it as a successful photographer. Like I said, I was 19 and I knew everything!

After diligently studying the New York Times, I had my first news quiz in my Journalism I class. I think I got a 30 (yes out of 100), totally embarrassed myself by disputing one of the answers and revealing my total ignorance of common geography, went to my car after class, and cried.

Journalism was not for me. Nevertheless, I toughed it out for the next two years and got my degree. I tried to write for a while after college. I even started an online literary magazine with a friend of mine. Then I tried to make some money writing online articles, but the writing went painfully slow and I was still working as a waitress and bartender to pay the bills.

I became desperate to find a career that I would love to wake up to, but I knew I had to make money too. That\\u2019s when I found my camera again. I mean, it had been there all along, and had even evolved to a digital body\\u2026 but this was when I started to look at it as an opportunity once again.

I printed up 50 fliers about my soon to come portfolio building month: free photo sessions in June only. Although the flier said I would shoot babies, kids, couples, families, and dogs, (everything but weddings) I found myself handing them out at dog parks.

Before I knew it my portfolio was barking at me! So I guess I can\\u2019t really say I decided to get into this line of work\\u2026 but I decided I needed a job I could love\\u2026 and this is where my heart took me.

I will continue to let it lead the way!

Recommended Resources:

The Photo Forum

Eneloop Batteries\\xa0

w:\\xa0reflectivephotos.net\\xa0

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