Letting the Shelter Animals Shine

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I'm a firm believer of getting the shelter dogs out of their confinement and capturing their true spirit. You can't rightfully judge an animal for their behavior in a kennel. You have to get them away from the noise of the other dogs and bond with them. You will be amazed at the difference in their behavior.  I have displayed a few examples below.

TOMMY & TEDDY

REDD

ZEUS

MICKEY & MINNIE

ROXIE

BERNIE

While intake photos are needed and get the sympathetic "Awwww, poor baby" response from the public, I believe photos of the animal outside the kennel environment draws more attention and ultimately results in an adoption in a lot of cases.

 

R E L A T E D

  1. HeARTs Speak - Creating a World Where No Shelter Animal Goes Unseen
  2. League City Animal Shelter
  3. Webster Animal Shelter
  4. Nassau Bay Animal Shelter
  5. Bayou Animal Services

Special Olympics - Gulf Coast

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Back in May, I had the honor of helping to photograph a Special Olympics event at Sam Vitanza Stadium in Dickinson. It was a wonderful experience! To see the joy on those kid's faces is an experience by itself.

There were many groups from around the Dickinson area participating. Here is the host team...the Dickinson Gators.

Below is a slide show of the rest of the photos I took at this awesome event!

 

A long jump sequence!

This is an experience I'll likely never forget and I recommend that every photographer work an event like this at least once.

 

Rein's Story

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I had been meaning to write up a story about Rein, an amazing dog that was left in a crate outside the locked gates of the League City Animal Shelter over a year ago. Time kept escaping me.

My friend and long-time LCAS volunteer Cheryl Scott composed a wonderful write-up about Rein and his story...so I'm sharing her words about this awesome boy.

REIN - Long Road Home - by Cheryl Scott

Rein's LCAS story began by being dumped in a kennel outside the locked gates at the Shelter on February 3, 2015.

 

His Petfinder photos were taken by Volunteer Photographer Rhonda Tipton (Tipton Creative) on February 11, 2015. I assisted Rhonda that day and fell in love with Rein.

Sadly, that young boy was at the Shelter being loved by many Volunteers for soooo long!

Thanks to Taam Dodd, one of the dog trainers at Bayside Bed & Biscuit in Kemah, who came to the Shelter in August 2016 and worked with Rein many times; Taam even attended an off-site event with Rein and made a great collage of him to promote his adoption!

Another person to thank who worked with Rein at the Shelter was Volunteer Ralph Kliza. However, Rein's biggest break came when Volunteers Jaime Marshik & Charlie Marshik took him to the Taste of Texas Beer & Wine Festival on Nasa Rd. 1 on November 7, 2015 where, thankfully, Volunteer Amy Losh met Rein (see photo). She took Rein home that night for the first of many trips to her house and she also took him to the Petco adoption events. Amy did a ton of marketing for Rein and also made a terrific collage. Amy runs a Dalmatian rescue group and is the sole reason Rein was accepted for free training at Starmark Academy in Hutto, TX.

He arrived at Starmark on February 14, 2016 and was there until May 11, 2016. His trainer there was Shelby White and as of June 1, 2016 she is the very happy owner of REIN.

He was homeless for 1 year and 4 months!! Thanks to Bayside Bed & Biscuit and Camp Bow Wow for complimentary boarding of Rein upon his return from training until he was Adopted.

 

Thanks to all who loved and cared for him. Rein took a piece of my heart with him to his furever home on June 1st and I will never forget him!

An awesome story by Cheryl Scott....about an awesome dog! Happy Tails to Rein!

 

 

 

Friday Finds - 06.03.16

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Some things I ran across in the past week that were interesting, helpful or maybe even life-changing to me. If any of it helps you...all the better. 

The Dog Days of Chasing Storms With My Best Friend - Now this is one of the coolest articles EVER...IMO. Makes me want to pick up my girls and go storm chasing!

I'm working on writing better bios for the animals I photograph. Here are a couple of articles that have helped me. 

  1. Pet profiles: How to Write Animal Bios...
  2. 5 Tips for Writing An Effective Pet Bio

Working on re-teaching myself some coding...ran across this nifty little online compiler that includes many languages. REPL.IT is a cool way to play around with all the different languages and their syntax.

I leave you with one of my favorite images from the week. Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Finds - 05.27.16

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Some things I ran across in the past week that were interesting, helpful or maybe even life-changing to me. If any of it helps you...all the better. 

5 Smoothie Mistakes That Make You Gain Weight - This one was a good read for me since I have started having a smoothie for breakfast each morning.

10 Ways To Cultivate A Positive Mindset And Change Your Life - I'm always interested in advice on how to stay positive. 

How To Focus Attention With A Refined Vignette Effect - An effect to play around with. 

I love to get inspiration from others, so here are a couple of sources

  1. Resource Travel's Top 10 Travel Photos of the Week
  2. Heart-Melting Dog Portraits By Alicja Zmyslowska

I leave you with one of my favorite images from the week. Have a wonderful weekend!

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