Today we’d like to introduce you to John Heckel.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
After working in corporate sales for 10 years I felt worn down and unmotivated. I wanted to focus more on my quality of life but was having a very difficult time figuring out what I really wanted to career-wise. I had people tell me, “Find a job you enjoy doing and you’ll never work a day in your life.” That was easier said than done for me. I spent months trying to identify what work I could do that I would enjoy and wasn’t coming up with any ideas. I had just adopted my dog, Pizza, and was really enjoying spending the day with him, walking, playing, and taking pictures of him. After starting an Instagram for Pizzza as a place to post all my favorite pictures I had taken of him I noticed that I was gaining a lot of followers with each passing day. I decided to bring my camera to the dog park one day a few months ago and took some pictures of Pizza along with a few of his favorite dog-friends he plays with. I went home and sent some of the pictures I had taken of the other dogs to their owners and quickly received replies from them telling me how happy getting pictures of their dogs had made them and thanking me for taking the photos. At that moment, a light bulb went off in my head, “I really enjoy taking pictures of dogs, it makes people really happy when they receive the pictures….this is what I want to do as a career!” It felt so natural and so right immediately at that moment that I knew I had figured out what I was searching for. In the course of a weekend I built a website, ordered business cards and launched Puppy Pics Chicago. I’m now boarding dogs regularly through Rover.com in order to sharpen my pet photography skills, grow content for my website, and generate some word-of-mouth referrals for Puppy Pics Chicago. My goal in the coming months now that I have a lot of content for my website and social media is to wind down the dog boarding side of things and move full-time into just pet photography as I grow my client list. I never would have guessed that this was the path I would end up heading down, but I couldn’t be happier about where I’m heading!
Please tell us about your art.
My art is dog and pet photography. I use a Canon EOS T2i with mostly 35 and 55 mm lenses. I have set up a home photography studio where I take portrait shots of my clients’ dogs and also visit clients at their homes or local parks depending on the setting where they want the pictures of their dogs taken. My goal when photographing dogs is to bring their personalities out in the pictures by taking close-ups of their faces and getting strong eye contact. Dogs have such amazing personalities that are each truly unique and I want the photos I take to convey as much about who that dog is, what makes them happy, excited, nervous, etc. I know I’ve taken a good picture when I’m reviewing/editing it and can’t stop smiling as I look at it. Every aspect of my work, from playing with and photographing the dogs to reviewing and editing the pictures generates a tremendous amount of happiness in me. I never thought I’d be working this hard and truly loving every minute of it.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Identify people in your craft who have more experience than you and reach out to them for advice/wisdom/mentorship. I was fortunate to connect with a couple professional photographers right when I began Puppy Pics Chicago, one of whom is a nationally known pet photographer. The wisdom I gained from listening to them and taking to heart the advice they offered me has definitely helped me avoid mistakes early on that I surely would have made if I were less informed.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1626 N Honore St.
Chicago, IL 60622 - Website: www.puppypicschicago.com
- Phone: 3125093708
- Email: john@puppypicschicago.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/puppy_pics_chicago/
- Facebook: facebook.com/puppypicschicago/
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
