A Charity Shoot at Petsmart with Santa

I've been asked to do a slot here at Petsmart, I think it is pretty much dogs but someone might bring in a cat. Has anybody else every done these before, and if so were they fun?

I haven't but would be willing to do something like that.

tewlman wrote in post #15347355
I haven't but would be willing to do something like that.

It was a fun experience, crazy but fun.

I've done these Santa Shoots in the past for many years. However, I have not done them the last two years so I may not be "up to date" on everything.

I don't know how it is in other towns but in my town we did not just have dogs show up, we had many different types of pets. But that's part of the fun, you get to meet a large variety of pets! In all the years I've done these I've met many different types of dogs, cats, rabbits, many other small furry critters, snakes, lizards, reptiles, pot-bellied pigs, ferrets, horses (YES horses!), parrots, birds, and exotic pets too! I've even met a serval cat, pet skunks, pet sloth, pet kangroo, pet monkey, and many others! So if your squeamish of such pets you may not have fun. LOL!

Anyways, as far as the photo's go..... well let me just say Petsmart is not set up for professional photography. We always had to use the crappy cardboard backdrop that Petsmart supplied us with and a chair for Santa to sit on. We were lucky if we could get a bench or other props. We also had to use Petsmarts crappy Polaroid camera that they supplied us with. We used it for years! Even though it was way past it's time. LOL! We could only take one photo of each customer. You would set everyone up, snap the shot, the camera would spit out the photo, you would give it to the customer and they would be on there way. However, the last year I did the santa photo's, Petsmart upgraded to a crappy point and shoot camera. You would set everyone up, snap a few shots, repeat this a few times then swap the SD card with a new one, someone else would pop the SD card into a crappy printer, print it and hand it to the customer. We never even got to see the finished photo's. We had to get through the line of people quickly so you couldn't take a whole lot of time with each person. The store I was at never let us bring our own equipment. The director of the store said it would be a liability if we had lights, cords and tripods out so we couldn't use anything "professional".

Now days I believe it is a little different. I've heard that the Santa Photo's are done by the rescue groups that are located inside Petsmart not by Petmart. So everything including Santa is provided by the rescue groups. I don't know if that's going to make any difference in the photography part of it though.

Anyways, Hope you have fun! I'm sure you will! You will have to update this thread and let us know how it went.

Crazy Dog wrote in post #15353871
I've done these Santa Shoots in the past for many years. However, I have not done them the last two years so I may not be "up to date" on everything.

I don't know how it is in other towns but in my town we did not just have dogs show up, we had many different types of pets. But that's part of the fun, you get to meet a large variety of pets! In all the years I've done these I've met many different types of dogs, cats, rabbits, many other small furry critters, snakes, lizards, reptiles, pot-bellied pigs, ferrets, horses (YES horses!), parrots, birds, and exotic pets too! I've even met a serval cat, pet skunks, pet sloth, pet kangroo, pet monkey, and many others! So if your squeamish of such pets you may not have fun. LOL!

Anyways, as far as the photo's go..... well let me just say Petsmart is not set up for professional photography. We always had to use the crappy cardboard backdrop that Petsmart supplied us with and a chair for Santa to sit on. We were lucky if we could get a bench or other props. We also had to use Petsmarts crappy Polaroid camera that they supplied us with. We used it for years! Even though it was way past it's time. LOL! We could only take one photo of each customer. You would set everyone up, snap the shot, the camera would spit out the photo, you would give it to the customer and they would be on there way. However, the last year I did the santa photo's, Petsmart upgraded to a crappy point and shoot camera. You would set everyone up, snap a few shots, repeat this a few times then swap the SD card with a new one, someone else would pop the SD card into a crappy printer, print it and hand it to the customer. We never even got to see the finished photo's. We had to get through the line of people quickly so you couldn't take a whole lot of time with each person. The store I was at never let us bring our own equipment. The director of the store said it would be a liability if we had lights, cords and tripods out so we couldn't use anything "professional".

Now days I believe it is a little different. I've heard that the Santa Photo's are done by the rescue groups that are located inside Petsmart not by Petmart. So everything including Santa is provided by the rescue groups. I don't know if that's going to make any difference in the photography part of it though.

Anyways, Hope you have fun! I'm sure you will! You will have to update this thread and let us know how it went.

The petsmart here in Evansville is no different, crappy lighting unkind to a photographer who is told to just bring their camera. They didn't want flash or any of that stuff plus being that I was paid, I wasn't going to put a lot of effort into it, just do my best to capture memorable looks and moments with good/great lighting, I'd say the black dogs were difficult with no flash but the owners were just pleased with the outcomes of the photos. I will say the woman in charge was a bit annoying, when the owners were picking out the photo they liked best, she would disagree and go to another one, the owners were thinking more funny and memorable while she was thinking of Santa's hat, or other minor things. The photographer before me had seen guinea pigs, a pot bellied pig and I think a cat, but all I saw was dogs. The only thing that I regret is that I completely forgot to hand out my card to owners, though I am not sure that would have been acceptable. It wasn't bad for a first time, but next year I will be more ready if I choose to do it again.