Pet Pictures with Santa

I am looking for a little help for my shelter here

Last year we did pet pictures with santa, it was a short notice thing with very little advertising but was a great success with only one complaint - we did not do it early enough that people could get the photos printed as part of their Christmas cards.

Yesterday was our first day this year and it didnt go as well as last year - we still made some profit as very little overhead, I am using my camera and we are printing photos using our photo printer so only paying for ink & paper.

How much would you pay for the following

• 4 x 6

• 5 x 7

• 8 x 10

(all printed while you wait)

• e-copy (high resolution, emailed same day)

and which would you choose?

Would you take your pets to have their photo taken?

One of the things that surprised me both last year and yesterday was the number of people who bring their cats. I did take Autumn last year but more because the shelter staff wanted to see her (and her finder was coming in with her dog) than actually getting her photo.

We dont have quite the same setup as the pet store pictures as we do ours in a separate room with people lining up outside the room and only the animal(s) having their photo taken in the room - so we are no longer chasing animals all around the petstore like we used to when we did them as part of the PetSmart charities program

I wish I could do that with Google.... but I would fear for Santas life...

Originally Posted by capt_jordi

I wish I could do that with Google.... but I would fear for Santas life...

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Same here with Trout!

I have no idea what the price range would even be for those pics as I have never done anything like that.

Maybe $2, $4 and $6? And I would probably get the midde one. But I wouldn't be able to have her photo taken outside of our home unfortunately. I think dogs would be way easier (for obvious reasons)

Yes, I was a little worried when I seen all the cat carriers coming in but thankfully, apart from Santa's cat they were all very well behaved!

I would charge more than that, particularly if you are a non-profit. Personally, I would go $5, $10 and $15, unless you are in a very poor part of town.

And another idea for you: give them the option of having the picture e-mailed to them rather than printing it. I know people that put their pets photos on Christmas cards and they would need the jpg file to do that. For that I would charge $5 - $10. It might be a little bit tricky to match the actual picture to their e-mail information, but you could figure that out.

When I volunteered at a shelter, they charged $10, but put the photo into a picture sleeve.

Originally Posted by Trouts mom

Same here with Trout!

I have no idea what the price range would even be for those pics as I have never done anything like that.

Maybe $2, $4 and $6? And I would probably get the midde one. But I wouldn't be able to have her photo taken outside of our home unfortunately. I think dogs would be way easier (for obvious reasons)

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I think I would go at least double that, because the people bringing their pets in will mostly likely want to support homeless animals (especially around Christmas). I'd go for the biggest one.

I'm just trying to picture Jamie getting his picture taken by a stranger.

We are charging $5, $7 and $12 and $5 for the emailed copy (with a print, $10 without)

I am sending them the efile while they are in the room to make sure its the correct photo

Maybe it was just quiet because Santa's helicopter landed yesterday at the mall - last year we did $5 for any size but the bigger ones get expensive on ink and most people just asked for the 4 x 6 yesterday so we worried that we could have priced them too high. Last year we did 600 prints in 2 1/2 days, if yesterday was anything to go by we wont be close to that.

People are economizing this year out of fear of unemployment, and maybe it's just not "Christmassy" enough yet. You might have better luck next weekend or the following.

I agree with Tricia that it just doesn't feel Christmassy yet, and people are definitely economizing in lots of ways.
I would expect to pay about $10 for a photo with a Christmas themed border or sleeve.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

I would charge more than that, particularly if you are a non-profit. Personally, I would go $5, $10 and $15, unless you are in a very poor part of town.

And another idea for you: give them the option of having the picture e-mailed to them rather than printing it. I know people that put their pets photos on Christmas cards and they would need the jpg file to do that. For that I would charge $5 - $10. It might be a little bit tricky to match the actual picture to their e-mail information, but you could figure that out.

When I volunteered at a shelter, they charged $10, but put the photo into a picture sleeve.

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I think it was just quiet yesterday with Santa's helicopter landing in the mall, we didnt even have time to open our bottles of water today!

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

I think it was just quiet yesterday with Santa's helicopter landing in the mall, we didnt even have time to open our bottles of water today!

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That's good news!!

We are doing pictures at Petco (our volunteers are going to be Santa & take pics). They charge $8.95. I have no idea what you get, though in term of size of pic.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

We are doing pictures at Petco (our volunteers are going to be Santa & take pics). They charge $8.95. I have no idea what you get, though in term of size of pic.

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We do that at PetSmart too, they charge $10.95 and we get around $5 a photo

Originally Posted by capt_jordi

I wish I could do that with Google.... but I would fear for Santas life...

Click to expand...

My girls would freak! Rusty does not like strangers and hates to be held. Dusty likes people sometimes, but on her own terms.

We actually had more cats than dogs, I think because we advertised it with the local cat fanciers association and our shelter has more cats than dogs so our volunteers tend to be cat people

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

we do ours in a separate room with people lining up outside the room and only the animal(s) having their photo taken in the room

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I would get it done in that type of setup. My cats would be fine instore, it's the other owners I don't trust to control their animals

Originally Posted by Momofmany

Personally, I would go $5, $10 and $15, unless you are in a very poor part of town.

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I would go with those prices, even a little higher.

How do you guys take your cats? with a harness? I do think Lucky can do it... I think she is the only one of my bunch...
Bugsy would be fine while there, but the trip is SO stressful for him that he usually pees himself, poor baby.
Hope has worked herself out of all harnesses I have tried

So - how do you take them, and how is the usual setup?

The majority of cats came in carriers, one or two on harnesses and one just in a towel in her arms