Also I am not sure where to get my photos professionally printed so they can't be copied. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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First let others know what levels you are in then they will suggest, next what is your budget, next there are various ways of water marking your pictures so that they can't be copied.

Depends On Your Budget... when you say ' professional ' , that would mean you would have a pretty tasteful budget ( at least 5,000$, and at most around 30,000$ ), and that's for body only.. ' professional ' cameras are very expensive, but by all means, if you have the money, you should get it so that you can express yourself best... but, if you don't want to spend that much money at once you can get a nikon D60, which is only around 650$, and that comes with a VR lens, you can learn with that, and get some more lenses, that way, if you get a Nikon professional camera, you could use those lenses, that wouldn't be another investment, you know ? however, if you have the money right know, the Hasselblad series of professional cameras is best, but if 30,000$ isn't what you want to spend, you can get the d3, which is from nikon. oh, and when it comes to printing, walmart is good, that doesn't really matter ( with my experience )

any , just use an SLR camera , with telefone len's and lights and reflectors also.. for printing , go to a photo lab , look up professional photo labs

You will need a 35 mm slr or a Dslr. The Canon Rebel k2 is around $200.00 ( thats film) This photo was taken with the k2. http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6042407 Dslr the cannon rebel xt is now about $400.00 These photos were taken with the xt http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=7261861 http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=7202432 You always take a chance that your photos are going to be copied, but a copyright statement at the bottom left of the photo and that will deter that.

Nikon and Canon are your top two brands out there, everyone has their personal preferences. Which one for you depends on your price range as well.

Canon 5D - full sensor image quality - very pricey though. Digital is a good start - more expensive to start with, but the cost of developing film is then removed - and critically important - you can see if the pooch is posed properly with digital!! I've been a Canon fan for many years - the 450D is a great camera to start with, and the 40D is excellent for enthusiasts who want more. If you buy an SLR then you can change the lenses and customise your equipment - so wider angle for landscapes and telephoto for action / sport. An SLR also offers the option to upgrade the camera body if you decide that you want a better camera - while still keeping the lenses and other accessories that can be used with another camera from the same manufacturer. If you buy digital you'll need a good pc or laptop onto which you upload your pictures for "post-processing" - simple cropping right through to complex manipulation of the image. You can get a good photo printer to print your own or take the finished images to a local lab for printing. You need a business plan first - how many people will want their pooch photographed? How much practice have you had? How easy is it to get a cat to pose?? And the crap .......... literally ............. you'll end up throwing out props and background material on a regular basis!!! You'll also need tripods, flashes (plural), remote triggers for flash/lights, the lighting, backgrounds, props, light reflectors, etc. etc. that are of high enough quality to attract the people that are prepared to spend for Spot to be immortalised on film! A high tech studio with a wipe-clean surface!!!!!!!

The best camera is one that takes pictures. Anything else really wouldn't work well for you.

Check out your local camera store which offers rental camera equipment. Select the appropriate camera format according to their advice and rent the equipment to fill a particular assignment. It's okay to lease, but do not buy camera equipment because camera technology change everyday and you don't want to end up owning a bunch of outdated camera equipment. In order to prevent possible stealing of your photographic images, use private labs and if necessary, ask them to sign an acknowledgement that they will not make or exploit any of your photos without your written permission. Again, so much for using large-scale drugstore or department store film processing facilities. Ultimately, the complete solution to picture stealing is to process your own negatives and generate prints yourself in a lab you set up. Good luck!