What good my photgraphs are doing for the shelter!

    The Wake County Animal shelter is a very busy place that takes in a lot of animals each day, so the shelter doesn't have the time to take cute and sweet pictures of the animals. The shelter takes the animal's picture as it comes in to the shelter and these pictures don't always turn out to be the best picture of the animal. The animal is usually very scared and it can been seen in the picture or the lighting is a bad, or its just a bad angle; but that's where my class and I come in! We help the shelter out by volunteering to take pictures of the animals for the shelter's website and posting these pictures on our blogs or any social media site. My class and I edit these photos and then send them to the shelter for them to use how ever they would like too. Also the one on one time we are spending with the animals is good for the shelter and the animals because there are so many animals not all of them get as much attention as the shelter wishes it could give them so my class and I spending time with these animals helps the animal get interaction and relationships with humans.
    While looking at the site I went to look at the available animals to see how their pictures looked and some of them weren't so bad but then others didn't show the animal's features, personality, or capture the sweetness of the animal. So I made a list of the animals that needed their pictures redone and have made it my goal to retake their pictures so the animal has a good picture on the site and a better chance at getting adopted from that. I am going to the shelter tomorrow and will start finding animals on my list and take their pictures. One animal that stood out the most to me was a dog who's ID number is 69999 she has no name is a female and has been at the shelter for 29 days. This dog has no photograph on the site at all! I want to take this dog's picture at my next visit and make sure her picture gets put up right away so she has a fair chance to get adopted just like the rest of the animals! I can't wait to photograph her tomorrow! 
    I still haven't found animal 69999 but I am not giving up on her. I was inspired by the image of Shadow ID#69779. His image on the website doesn't do this sweet cat justice.In this image his back is to you and he looks so scared. Also it is a dark grungy image, his eye aren't bright and inviting, and he really isn't the focus. To fix this image the photographer could have had the cat facing them and focused more on his face. f they would have used photoshop they could have used the dodge tool to play up the catch lights in his eyes and brighten them. Also use the vignette tool to darken the edges so more of the focus is on his face. 

Wake County Animal Shelter http://services.wakegov.com/adoptiongallery/May 20, 2012

    When I went to the shelter I found him and re-did his photo; I made sure I got him facing the camera and I used photoshop to edit his picture. In photoshop I used the dodge tool to brighten his eyes and play up the catch light in his eyes, I checked the levels, I fixed the color balance, and I cropped the image to focus more on his cute face. Last I used the vignette tool to darken the edges. I think I was successful in getting the image I wanted other than it is a little blurry. 

Sshadow ID#69779