China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Pampering pets
Professionals find new career opportunities as they specialize their jobs to cater to apples of owners’ eyes. Zhang Yangfei reports.
With the Chinese New Year fast approaching, Pianpian Photography Studio in Beijing is fully booked up on a daily basis, with customers queuing up for Lunar New Year themed photos featuring lanterns, red envelopes and blessings.
But the subject of the photographs are not the customers themselves, rather their pets are the stars of the show.
Pet photography has become a trend in recent years, with specialist studios springing up in big cities across the country. On Dazhong Dianping, a popular consumer review platform, more than 900 studios can be found when searching for “pet photography” in Beijing.
Shi Ruyi, founder of Pianpian Photography Studio, said the industry has exploded since 2018 owing to the rapid growth of pet ownership in China. According to a 2021 white paper released by iResearch Consulting Group in May last year, the market value of China’s pet industry reached around 300 billion yuan ($31.5 billion) in 2020.
The white paper says the industry will continue to maintain steady growth over the next three years, with the growth rate expected to average 14.2 percent and, by 2023, the market size will reach 445.6 billion yuan.
The booming pet industry has given rise to many trendy pet-related services that are becoming more varied and specific, and pet photography is one of them.
Shi and her husband Chong Bin, a photographer, set up their studio in 2014 and Shi said their services were rarely known to the public at that time. As an animal lover who has rescued stray cats and dogs for many years, Shi originally launched the studio to take beautiful photos of stray animals so that it would be easier for them to find a new home.
“When we started off seven years ago, the pet photography industry was basically nonexistent. The public did not know about pet photography. They might know photography for weddings and children, but they didn’t know pets could also enjoy this service,” she said.
In the first few years, the studio wasn’t profitable. Both Shi and Chong had other full-time jobs: Shi was an architect and Chong was a photographer for another company.
“We were working to financially support our studio,” Chong said.
“We weren’t doing the pet photography for money. We were doing this, one, to help stray animals, and two, as a pastime. It was a difficult time, but to help stray animals, we had to keep the studio running,” he added.
Since the end of 2017 the studio has seen an increase in bookings. Finding that she could no longer look after the studio while working full time, coupled with her pregnancy, Shi resigned from her job and shifted her focus onto the studio. Chong also quit his job at that time.
As of the end of 2021, the studio has photographed for nearly 2,000 pet “families”, taking over 80,000 pictures. The subjects have ranged from cats and dogs to rats, parrots, minks, rabbits and a 125-kilogram pig. The studio has accumulated many regular customers who come to take a set of photos on special occasions.
Shi has a client who comes and takes group photos of their pets and child every year, with the same background and same poses from since the child was born to document their growth. During the New Year holiday, the family photo packages are the bestseller.
Shi and Chong said they didn’t expect their studio to receive such good feedback and popularity. “My initial intention was simple — just to take good pictures of strays so I could find them homes. Then more and more of our friends began to keep pets,” Shi said, adding that the number of young couples with multiple pets is also increasing.
Chong said the popularity of the business today is the result of an improved economy and a changing concept. “Now people treat pets as part of the family. They are willing to spend more money on their pets. What we promote is family-style photography. We welcome people to bring the entire family here, especially those with children and pets. Documenting them growing up together is a very heartwarming thing,” he said.
To Chong, photographing pets is much more difficult than photographing people or landscapes, because animals are smaller, shorter and always on the run. Usually when the session begins, Shi needs to guide the animals by feeding or playing with them and Chong comes to capture the best expressions. Since different animals react differently to the process, sometimes a shoot can last two to three hours.
Shi said one time she fainted from low blood sugar after shooting a 40-kg English sheepdog, because he kept running away and she had to keep dragging him back to the setting.
“To be honest, photographing pets is quite tiring. But when we show the pictures to the owners and they exclaim ‘wow that looks great’ and have that look of heartfelt love for their pets, that’s when we’re the happiest,” she added.
Pet detective
Many owners see their pets as their “children”, and if they go missing they will do anything they can to find their beloved pets. This need has given rise to the profession of “pet detective” who uses high-tech equipment and trained search techniques to help owners find their runaway animals.
Liu Wei, 34, is a professional pet detective. He and his team members wander around the streets at night, searching the bushes with flashlights, infrared cameras and life detectors. To find a missing pet, it’s very common that they will walk tens of thousands of steps a day.
Liu was one of the earliest in China to enter the pet detective business. In 2012, he came across an article from overseas about pet detectives. As an animal lover and a fan of detective reasoning, the article sparked his interest in pursuing this job.
At that time, this profession was very uncommon and little known, so Liu’s career choice wasn’t understood by his family. “They found it incomprehensible and didn’t believe how someone would want to spend money to find an animal,” he said.
Liu encountered difficulties in the early days. He posted his services on many social networking platforms and online forums but only received one or two cases a month. He had no previous experience and, as there were very few people doing this job in the country, he had no one to turn to.
His first case was to find a cat, and the only equipment he had was a flashlight.
“I scoured the neighborhood and managed to find the cat in the bushes behind the owner’s home, but the biggest problem was I didn’t know how to catch him. I had no experience or tools back then. I didn’t know much about this job. I was still exploring,” he said.
After his first try, Liu began to do lots of research on the habits of cats and dogs and every time after a search, he summarized where he would improve and what equipment he could use.
However, the low volume of requests and the low income as a result prompted Liu to consider quitting. “But I still received phone calls from owners who had lost their pets. They cried and told me their stories with their pets and what their pets meant to them. It was very touching so I felt I should keep going,” he said.
A turning point came in 2018 with the rise of short video platforms. That year, Liu started an account on Douyin, posting videos of his work and it soon garnered popularity. He now has over 100,000 followers on the social media platform and an increasing number of people have approached him for help.
Consequently, the average number of requests for his services has reached around 30 a month, sometimes more than 40.
In addition to the help from social media, Liu said the growth was also the result of a shift in people’s perception toward pets.
“People’s living standards have improved and they treat their pets as their family members, not just a pet,” he said.
The cost of hiring a pet detective is not cheap, ranging from a few thousand to more than 10,000 yuan depending on the area, but owners still want to find their pets at all costs. Liu said some owners are not well off but their pets mean a significant amount to them.
“Some people have been through a lot in their lives and their pets have accompanied them the whole time. To these people, their pets are a kind of spiritual support so they are willing to pay any money to find the animals,” he said.
Liu has traveled to more than 20 cities across the country, searched for nearly 3,000 pets and recovered more than 1,000. Besides cats and dogs, Liu has also looked for birds, lizards, hamsters, hedgehogs and turtles.
During his searches Liu has also found and rescued some stray dogs and cats. Liu plans to find a larger site to take in more strays and start a pet day care and boarding business.
Liu now has a team of 15 people. The number of people who want to engage in this business is also rising, and for new members, Liu trains them how to use relevant equipment and in basic knowledge about pets.
“What I require from these people most importantly is compassion and a sense of responsibility, and then a certain level of thinking ability, to be able to analyze and have logic,” he added.
“It is not a pet that we’re looking for, but a family member. That is the greatest value of being a pet detective.”