Meet Lauren Blyskal

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Blyskal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.

Lauren, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

As a pet photographer, creativity is essential to capturing images people will love of their animals. I think part of how I keep my creativity alive is looking for the personality of an animal in a photoshoot. Seeing their character come alive helps to inspire me to look at things from different perspectives and build on how I can showcase their little quirks amongst all the variations of different locations, poses, angles, and full body shots vs capturing tiny details. Working with different people and animals each day gives so much variety and I’m always able to learn new things with each encounter.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’ve had a life-long obsession with all things dogs and realizing that I could help save more of them by showcasing them for adoption with photos ignited a spark of passion for creating their portraits. This progressed into also offering portraits for clients with their own dogs and has now expanded to include cats, horses and other small animals. I love being able to balance my work with rescues with client sessions that help me further support pets in need. With outdoor client photoshoots, we get to have a fun experience, exploring a local park and I can focus on not only the pet, but also the special connection and bond and turn all of those images into artwork for the home. For studio-style shots, the pet gets to be the star of the show, posing on paper backdrops with professional lighting in the comfort of their own homes. In addition to digital packages, I offer a variety of wall art options, coffee-table-book style albums and keepsakes. It’s incredible getting to watch people see the images captured of their beloved pet and then see that artwork come to life in their homes.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three of the most impactful qualities and skills on my journey as a pet photographer have to be having a genuine love of animals, patience, and a desire to always keep learning.

Having that love for animals gives my time working with them a sense of fun, wonder and purpose. It allows me to find that purpose in my day even when things don’t go as planned.

Patience is key when working with animals. They’re not always going to understand what you want and the most important thing about any photoshoot is that they’re having a good time and enjoying the experience. Sometimes it’s just about waiting them out to get comfortable in a situation or figuring out what treat, word, toy, etc. will grab their attention in just the right way. I always impress upon their owners, I want them to have fun, and that’s what’s most important. When everyone is relaxed and having a ball (pun intended) it’ll show in the final images.

A desire to keep learning can manifest in so many ways. It’s taking a new class, just trying something new in a session, and not being afraid to fail because you have the knowledge that even if something doesn’t work, you learned from it and can pivot and try again. Technology is constantly evolving both within photography and professional editing software and allows for so much creativity.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

My ideal clients are people who see their pets as part of their family. They want to honor that bond in lasting imagery of their pets and enjoy a fun experience making those memories. If you’ve ever introduced your pet as your furbaby, celebrated their birthdays, planned trips around them, related to not being able to move because they’re sleeping on you, and laughed at funny memes about how animals make everything better while stuck there till they wake up…you’re my people.

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