We were lucky to catch up with Jess Kristen Peterson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jess Kristen, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
From a very early age, I knew I loved animals and wanted to work with pets, however I always had it in my mind to become a vet. From Kindergarten to Junior year of High School, I went through all of it with becoming a vet in mind. I eventually came to the realization however, that I just don’t have it in me to be able to handle seeing our beloved pets in physical pain and so maybe Vet School was not for me. This realization happened in Senior year of high school, which left me scrambling to figure out what else I could focus on and I landed on Cinema. I had always loved photography and movies and I ended up being accepted into the USC School of Cinema-Television into their Critical Studies program, where we would watch movies and critique them – their editing, their storytelling effectiveness, etc. By the time I graduated I had found a love for applying my new found knowledge towards documentary photojournalism – capturing events, weddings and other family gatherings through a visual narration.
In 2007, I wanted to photograph my first pet session. My pets had always been such a huge part of my heart and who I was. I was immediately hooked on the idea of preserving the deep bond people have with their pets. I knew from an early age, that the bonds we build with our pets were such important connections that many other people also had, but the only preservation at the time was in poor cell phone selfies. People would take beautiful family portraits, but their pets were always taken for granted at the time and so, I wanted to evolve the photography family sessions to mainly focus on the pet and the relationship it had with its owners from the pets perspective.
Unfortunately, as life will do, it took a turn on me when I least expected it and the next 10 years were spent in a mode of survival and obligation, instead of dreaming and pursuing my passions. During this time frame, I worked as an Assistant Controller, Hotel Revenue Manager, Office/Payroll/HR Manager and Full Charge Bookkeeper. While ultimately, I did not want to be any of these roles, there are times in life when we do what needs to be done, regardless of if we want to do it and under all of these various titles, each one taught me valuable lessons that allowed me to learn and understand how a business operates and ultimately how to operate my own business.
But by now I know, when you are meant to do something, it will keep knocking on your door. Within those years, I found I could never separate myself from photographing people or pets. Friends and family would ask me to photograph for them, I would ask friends and family if I could photograph for them – I just loved capturing moments too much to ever stop. It was simply a part of who I was and after relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 2016 with my husband, I ended up putting down my spreadsheets and picking up my camera once again.
In 2017, I had the opportunity to finally dive into my passion full time with the encouragement and support of my incredible husband and Fuzzy Butt was founded and in 2019 trademarked. I really wanted to focus my pet photography as a way to not only preserve our fuzzy friends and loving bond we share, but also as a vehicle to help support other pets in need. Starting out a business is hard and takes a lot of effort and energy. I spent almost 24/7 of my time focusing on building my brand, but I knew I could never do it alone and I needed to expand my reach. I’m a big believer of karma and good begetting good, so I reached out to a number of various rescues to offer my photography services for free, just to help with rescue pets who may need better images or new photo updated. I ended up volunteering for a local rescue about 40 mins from me, where I would come down to them once a week for about an hour or so and just take pictures of their pups who needed new photos. I’d give them a same day turn around – since I knew these pets needed to find homes ASAP and I didn’t want to delay on getting them back their images.
During this time, I made lots of friends in the rescue community and within 6 months, I had the idea to hold photoshoot fundraiser events with them and split the sitting fees 50/50 with them. The first of them was lovingly called Petal Puppies and held at an annual Tulip Festival. The very first Petal Puppies event only got about 50% filled up, but the response to the images and fun nature of the event was a huge hit and before long, every event we posted up sold out faster than the last – one even selling out within 2 hours! It felt so good to know something I had envisioned, created and spearheaded was not only working out and becoming something that everyone loved participating in, but that people were creating beautiful memories with their pets while also helping pets in need.
Portland has huge and an incredible pet loving community and the enthusiasm that people had in coming to our events to have their pets photographed year after year was something so very special and inspiring. Some of these events are now in their 7th year running and have been said they are some of my customers most favorite event that they look forward to all year long, it’s become a tradition for them! Now all of my mini session events are designed to donate a portion of every session fee towards the rescue of the customer’s choice. If they have no preference, I will choose for them – always focusing on non-kill, volunteer based shelters with good reputations. In the last 7 years, Fuzzy Butt has donated to Oregon Dog Rescue, Family Dogs New Life Shelter, Oregon Humane Society, Southwest Washington Humane Society, Maui Humane Society, Three Little Pitties, Rose City Rabbits, Kilham Bear Center and so many other rescues across the US. Every little bit makes a difference, and I am always so proud to use my abilities to help a cause very dear to my heart – helping animals in need.
I didn’t have a specific plan when I started out. If I did, it probably wouldn’t have taken me so long to find myself, but life takes the path its meant to take. I have never been more fulfilled or happy in my life than I am right now in doing the work I am been doing and I am doing as a Pet Photographer. I know without a doubt in my heart that I have absolutely found my life’s purpose.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
One of the main aspects I focus on in my pet photography business is not only capturing a beautiful image of the pet, but also making sure I capture the personality of the pet. As pet photography grows in popularity, among customers and photographers, there has been an explosion of pet photos and pet photographers out there. Photographing a pet is already skill in itself to accomplish. Many times, the subject is restless, won’t sit still, bouncing off the walls or hiding under a bed. Just getting the subject where you want is a task in itself, but it is even harder to capture their silent (and sometimes not-so-silent) personalities. For me, pets are love and love is warm. They bring happiness, companionship, joy, laughter and unless its a specifically designed image where the pet is purposefully positioned to look regal or noble, I always aim to bring out the essence of who they are in each session.
Play is a huge part of this process. I highly encourage my clients to play with their pets during our session. Even if the client doesn’t want any photos of themself and only of the pet, the pure act of interacting together has a magical effect on the pet. A dog sitting and looking off with a closed mouth, will quickly turn into a happy face, tongue out and smiley eyes the moment their owner touches them or holds them and it’s that very connection is ultimately the source of everything I aim to preserve.
Fuzzy Butt currently offers 3 kinds of photo sessions for clients. There of course are the Mini Events, which occur at specific times of the year and around specific holidays or themes, they are limited in number, limited in length of time and a great way for people to test out having a photo session with their pet if they aren’t sure about how their pet may do. There is also the typical Private Sessions which are very much a typical Pet Photo Session focusing on the pet and the bond between them and their owners. And finally, there is my latest pursuit of creating Fantasy Sessions, where we build off a fairytale theme to create some fun, unique and magical moments. This one has to be my most favorite session kind at this time because they allow us to get so creative and make for some really unexpected and beautiful results!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three most important qualities, skills or areas of knowledge that have been most impactful to me in my journey have been adaptability, patience and communication.
Adaptability – Nothing in life is guaranteed and many times, if something can go wrong it will. Every single time I have tried to pre-plan a session or shot list, inevitably it gets tossed out the window during the process. In my line of work, you have to be willing to let go of ideas you bring to the table and understand that not every session will be perfect, not every subject will be easy to work with and not every day will be the weather you want – but that still doesn’t mean I can deliver any less. For example, my sessions are held outdoors in the Pacific Northwest, so rain is a common occurrence. Being flexible with rescheduling due to weather is very important to me. My clients spend a lot of money to get the best images of their pets, but if its a cold, wet day and the dog is not comfortable with being wet or doesn’t have the coat to not look good in the rain, then we will push the session. It’s not worth it to me to sacrifice my clients investment or the pets experience by forcing them to work in the rain.
Patience – This one is huge. In a world where time is a crafted illusion, you better know pets are on their own schedule. It’s not uncommon to have my clients perform a set of actions 3-4-5 times before I get the shot I want. The first 2 times through is a learning process for the pet and their owner. Once we have them go through motions a couples times, then everyone gets used to the idea and into the routine of what we are trying to accomplish. They all loosen up, they start having fun with it. Even something as simple as walking back and forth away from and towards the camera, the first few times, the dog will be sniffing the ground, learning its surroundings and just not sure what is going on. But after a few times, they understand “oh! this is what we are doing! We are walking from here to there!” and they start to look up, maybe even start to prance or trot with pride because they understand the assignment. You can’t get to this point if you are impatiently pushing through your session to get your shots and get your clients out the door. You have to want to spend time with them and thankfully when working with dogs, I’m in no rush to force them to do anything. We get the best of them when they are natural and happy and sometimes this takes a little bit to get to, but we always get there.
Thankfully, I naturally have a very calming personality and I was raised on a farm with many kinds of animals. I’ve known since I was a child that each animal has a heart and soul. Pets who are usually very stand off-ish warm up quickly to me and I have been told on a number of occasions from various clients with dogs, cats, even horses – that they are surprised and impressed with the speed of their pet’s comfort. “Wow! They usually don’t like anyone right away” is a phrase I’ve heard many times. Scared dogs from a rescue who typically will bark non-stop at new strangers have barked one time at me and then pressed themselves against my leg as my new best friend. While I never do or could expect this to happen, I’m always so grateful when it does and a pet feels comfortable around me because I know that’s when we are going to get the most from them out of a session.
Communication – This one is not only important for the session with the pet and client, but also before the session and afterwards. How you interact with your clients greatly impacts your business. I am not a robot, nor do I wish to be seen as one. Have you ever reached out to call help center and the person on the other end of the line makes you feel like just a number or reads you a script that they’ve said many times? It’s a horribly annoying feeling and one I refuse to adopt into my business. My clients all know they can reach out to me for any reason, before or after the session, and I will be there for them to help them however I can. Sometimes, I get weird or inconvenient requests that initially make me tilt my head like a German Shepherd being asked “do you wanna…” Even if the request or question comes across as anything less than understandable, I will do my best to accommodate them or explain to them why it may not be possible. Telling someone no and having them still be happy is a definite skill. Sometimes its about finding a middle ground or offering a consolation, but there is never a reason any of my clients ever need to leave a conversation with me feeling mad, bad, offended or angry. They all know I have their best interest at heart and will work to give the best results.
Communication with the pets is also a big part of my work. Recognizing the importance of communication with our pets, I wanted to further my own education and understanding of how they learn and so I am currently in the process of becoming a Certified Dog Trainer, as well as passionately learning more about Animal Behavior in general. I feel that these skills are invaluable to further my understanding and communication with each one of my fuzzy clients, which will only ultimately benefit the images we capture together. I want to know how to not only make my people clients happy and comfortable, but also how to make their pets – my real client at hand – happy, comfortable and willing to express themselves.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
Becoming overwhelmed is natural and human, especially when running a business that centers on the chaotic nature of pets. Self-care is so very important and something I’m only recently starting to adopt into my process. I’m naturally a workaholic. It’s very easy for me to sit at my computer first thing in the morning at 6am and find myself still working at 9pm at night. While this gets me ahead in my editing, it puts me way behind in my mental and emotional equilibrium.
In the beginning, I was so excited and grateful to all my clients who worked with me that I would want to get them their images ASAP and put everything in my life aside to accomplish this, which is not healthy or sustainable. Burnout is a real result of this type of mentality and as a self-employed person, burnout is something I need to protect myself against. Taking an extra few days to edit photos will not make or break anyone of my clients, but may make or break me. Getting away from the computer, walking in nature, going to a yoga class, even cleaning the house, all helps me to stand up, get some movement into my body and clear my head.
In painting, sometimes you need to step back from the work and view it from afar to get a clearer picture of what you are doing. The same thing happens in photography. Its important to step away from the monitor to keep a balanced visual sense of what you are editing. There’s a funny little TikTok video going around that says “When I go to look at the photos I edited yesterday” and then shows Joe Pesci wandering around saying “WTF is this sh*t”. It’s funny because its so true! We can easily become blind to what we see when we don’t allow ourselves step away and find our balance. I have far less of these kinds of moments when I allow myself to take some extra time and just enjoy the process.
If you ever feel like you can’t take the time you need for yourself, that’s the first sign that you probably need to take some time for yourself. Even 5 minutes can make a huge difference. Stand up, stretch, go toss a ball with your dog or play with your kid. Allow yourself time to simply exist, live and be. Take a minute to absorb the world around you. No one is going to give you this time if you don’t set it aside for yourself. Find something that brings you happiness and do it every single day. This is your obligation to yourself. Like drinking water, we need to appreciate and value the opportunities we can take that bring us happiness and peace of mind. These moments are little easter eggs of joy that are all around us to find if we only put in the effort to do so. They may be small, they may be short lived, but so is every individual heart beat and like every heart beat, we need each and every one to keep us going.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fuzzybuttpetphotos.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fuzzybuttpetphotos/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fuzzybuttpetphotos
Image Credits
Personal Photo by Kaori Stewart
All Additional Photos by Jess Kristen | Fuzzy Butt Pet Photos
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