Online Exhibition

Holly Susan Demyan

Graphic Design

Junior

Upon entering this course I was looking forward to having an excuse to go to the shelters and cuddle with all the different critters big and small as well as learning more about my camera. As I look back on my experience I am appreciative of the new knowledge I gained from volunteering at the shelter. Knowledge on how to properly handle animals in a shelter and how often the animals fall susceptible to disease and in turn, euthanization. I struggle with resizing my photos and navigation through photoshop but this course has helped me gain more practice, preparing me for my upcoming design courses next semester. 

Although I learned a lot from about how to handle my camera and the animals I was not expecting to learn how frequent animal turn around is with in the government based shelters and that the SPCA is privately owned, hand picking animals from the government shelters. All of this new information has made me consider where to look for my next new addition and has given me the extra motivation to encourage my friends and family to adopt opposed to breeding.I think that our photography over these few weeks will have a great impact on the animals in the shelter. I would love to be able to come in every so often to photograph some the animals for their online photos. With out good online portraits, those seeking a new pet might not be drawn in to visit the animal at the shelter or if they are farther away from the specific shelter they do not want to make a trip for an animal they can barely see because the cage is blocking the face. 

This is Bingo. It was little blurry therefor he never made it to my final images files. I love the photo because it reminds me of how much fun I had playing with him. He was so happy that it was difficult to get a clear shot. So I gave up on the picture and just gave him lots of love. I think he could be a great example of how loving and appreciative shelter dogs are.

"The Cruelty in Cuteness"

Being an adoptive pet owner myself, I believe that animal overpopulation can be seen as a form of negligence from the pet owner. When animals are not fixed because the owner wants to keep them intact for future breeding purposes this could end in poor health for the pet and the pet can now still run off and with any other stray create a litter. More than likely at least one will end up in a shelter.

Little Aimo couldnt get enough of the camera

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The overpopulation of cats seems to be more prevalent than dogs simply because that is more of what we see on the streets. Dogs I feel like suffer over breeding due to owners trying to create pure breed puppies where cats are so independent that most owners don't really worry about them being outside and running off.

First picture of the experience: little practice kitten from day one.

Therefor the WCAS brings in baskets of kittens almost daily, and puppies tend to be a weekly or bi-weekly event! It is sad knowing that most of these animals will not be adopted. With there only being so much space a government funded shelter has to offer, the more kittens and puppies brought in, the quicker the older animals will be euthanized simply because the shelter has no room to give.

Not sure where Zachary Binx went but isn't he handsome!

I would imagine that this could be very frustrating for he long term volunteers that work hard to keep the animals safe and healthy but as soon as a group of young kids come in wanting to handle everything with out the proper gown and gloves disease can spread like wild fire and before you know it there are 30 cats being euthanized.
I think the society today does not really take notice to animal over population. Sure the usual individual will cringe when they see a cat laying on the side of the road and maybe get a little emotional when it is a dog on the road. But most are not informed of the bigger issue. Shelters now require your pet to be spayed or neutered upon leaving the shelter.

I love how Vincent teased the my camera

No animal shall have their "equipment" if they have walked through animal shelter doors. It is however still difficult for government funded shelter to keep up sometime.

St. Tibbs reminded me of a little grey fox

When I adopted Oz he had not been neutered and when I picked him up the shelter was so busy and hectic that they did not realize he still hadn't been fixed.

Its obvious why the shelter named this little guy Sylvester

If I was a negligent owner I would have lost Oz or let him run off and there is no telling what he would of gotten into. However, I called the shelter after wards and they fixed him for free when I brought him back. Without proper research I cant think of any better solution than to have your pets spayed and neutered. Men hate to have their male dogs fixed because they think they understand what the dog is going through, but in reality the animal will thank you in the long run because not being fixed, especially for male animals, can lead to many health issues in the future.

Lala Orange had such a beautiful color coat and eyes. Perfect for anyone looking for a sweet and loving girl

Getting your dog or cat fixed might help combat their overpopulation but the little animals suffer over breeding due to lack of knowledge about the species. Anytime a male ad female rodent are together past the age of two months they are capable of breeding. Then what was a cute little pet for your preteen is now multiplied by ten.

"Overpopulation is not just for the big animals" says Curious

Chicago is beautiful and reminded me of my Fred-Weezy when he was a baby

So the only other concern I could say on the issue is that pet owners become well acquainted with the breed of animal and species so that they can better assist the new cuddly addition in their home.    

Streaker's first portrait was taken by Chris and about a week later he was on deposit and took this wonderful farewell portrait!

Volunteering Hopes

Although I have enjoyed my weekly visits to the shelter. It is unlikely the I will be able to continue volunteering.I will however still continue to visit the various shelters in the triangle to cuddle with the animals. I will take with me the knowledge I learned from volunteering about how important following the rules are at a shelter and continue to encourage my friends to adopt their pets.

Ducky

Collaborating for Healthier Happier Pets

Upon adopting my first pet I did not know how to properly care for him in certain aspects, me being only 18 years old. I propose to collaborate with volunteer and other WCA shelter workers to create informational videos for the new pet owner. Such as how to give a cat versus a dog their personal medications, flea medication, how to bathe a dog, even how to get rid of fleas on a cat! There can even be more simple instructions, such as how to trim your pets nails, teach them to sit, or walk on a leash. Anything that could help the new pet owner. I think by using short informational films such as these more people will be drawn not only to the site but it will act as a quick reference on how to care for the pet they adopted from WCAS.
I would be the artist working on the project or any volunteers at the shelter willing to video. I would imagine that some of the processes would have to be performed by one of the veterinarians, possibly. The taping would have to take place at scheduled times that the service would be necessary for the animal.Such as when the shelter is giving the animals nail trims or their flea medication. Which is included in the pet fee but the video for how to do it would be helpful for the owner in the future. After the videos are made I could upload them and add ending credits, recognizing the shelter and animal. Then I would email them to Amanda to upload to the website.
Below are videos I found via youtube.com:


How to Trim Your Cat's Claws with Dr. Christianne Schelling
Veternaran Christianne Schelling and Charlie the cat (id 00000)
http://youtu.be/5YLDQMvskH8
Uploaded to youtube.com by softpawsnailcaps

How to Trim Your Dog's Nails by Howcast.com
http://youtu.be/66Uhv6179bU
Uploaded to youtube.com by howcast

Positive Impacts

When sorting through the photos of the WCAS animal shelter there are more portraits of the animals that are brief snapshots taken as soon as they are brought into the shelter. I think that by individuals coming in to take portraits of the animals helps the animals get adopted quicker. Being the mother of three pets, two of them are shelter babies. Both times I have decided to find a pet I have surfed several sites and been more interested in the animals that had pictures that showed how beautiful they were as well as their personalities. 

WCAS online photo of Dean

Dean Photo by Holly Demyan

Above is a photo from last week's bunch of Dean. Dean is a 3 year old handsome young man that I had woken up from his sleep. I think that his new photo will show the prospective pet owner what beautiful green eyes he has, where before his eyes are closed.  His body language says that he is a mellow loving boy waiting for you to take him home so that he can continue his rest on your couch!
As an artist I find my creativity to be helpful when choosing what photo suites the animal best. What is the composition? Is it visually appealing? Is it balanced? After choosing what photo will enhance the animals features best we then are able to pick out the flaws such as lighting in certain areas or the sharpness of the image. Color correcting the eyes, burning , and dodging can be simple exercises but it is our responsibility as visual artists to be able to know whether or not the photo is becoming over exposed or not enough. This benefits us by allowing us to perfect our portraits of the animals, giving them a greater chance of being noticed on the web.

Bonnie's eyes were brightened and color corrected. Her head was brought a little more into focus by adjusting the forced depth of field. I also applied a shadow around the rims to add drama to her portrait.

Tangerine's eyes look as if they are a crinkled metalic blue-green foil. I brightened the eyes to bring this and made a creative decision to not color correct the eyes because the way they are really shows how many colors he actually has in them.

I think by collaborating with AIGA the shelter would benefit greatly by their creative ideas for ways to better advertise the animals. By using other forms of media such as fliers and newsletters the animals are getting their beautiful portraits out there for everyone to see. Maybe someone who didn't think about going to the shelter to find their child a small animal but just so happened to see the flier at the local gas station. Soon Mother and child are taking home little critters like 5 year old Daisy to offer her a better home than maybe her previous owner could afford.

Daisy Bunny

By having an entire association with a wide range of creative ideas assist in the promotion of these little guys it is possible that more people will think twice about finding an expensive pure breed, and instead help out a homeless animal. Or at least be more knowledgeable of these pets behind bars such as Apple Dumplin. A sweet little girl with lots of unknown personality!

Apple Dumplin couldn't stop rubbing on her, the floor, and my hand! What a loving little girl!

Practice and Experience

The most valuable information I have obtained from this course is forced depth of field. I found it very useful throughout the rest of the course. I enjoyed the online lectures where Dr. Johnstone was able to show us step by step on the computer with her voice. I have had other online courses that only used a book and blackboard and they were not nearly as informative as this class has been. I took the course hoping to continue practicing with photoshopp during the summer and to learn more about the shelter and its practices. By continuing to practice in photoshopp over the summer I hope that it will help me out in the long run with my future classes. I have become quicker with my tools and navigation of the program. Knowing what size photos are appropriate for the web will help me in the future as I continue to modify and build my fathers website for his own business.
By having other students post to my blogs I have taken healthy criticism and tried to apply it with each new portrait. Ive enjoyed going into the shelter these last couple weeks to see many of our animals adopted and their pictures improved! I do wish I would of had more time to spend at the shelter. However, I am glad I was able to take the course this summer it has been a great experience.

Melinda; with information and the extra practiced I have dodged Melinda's eyes and burned the pupils. Then going back in I brought back out her catch lights. Before her pupils had too much reflection from the camera that they seemed gray or blurry so by darkening them a little I feel like it makes her beautiful two tone irises really pop! Also, I burned around her neck in certain places so that her head would not blend into her body so much.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 4

Here are my photos from this week.

https://picasaweb.google.com/115349954098816350467/WCAS_6_2_2011#

Also I noticed I did not share my link from last weeks group of photos.

https://picasaweb.google.com/115349954098816350467/WCAS_5_27_11#

Trying New Things

Today I was accompanied by a good friend of mine who is looking into to adopting a Pitbull or Pitt mix. I showed him through the dog rooms and he was stunned by how many diverse breeds and ages. He had only ever been to the SPCA with me. With his help I was able to tackle my first portrait of a small puppy named Lala Orange.

Lala Orange with a little color balance

Lala Orange was so sweet and up under my feet when I would try to capture her so I had to have my friend hold her for me. This photo was only color corrected. I had a little bit of difficulty selecting her front paws up and inverting them, so that I could force the depth of field. However, I still find it to be a successful puppy portrait because I was able to bring out her green eyes and she is looking right at the camera.

Lala Orange with forced depth of field

Although she is not looking at the camera in this photo I find it the most successful of the two. I used forced depth of field, selecting her entire body as the inverse. I wanted her belly and paws to stay in focus because I think it helps show how soft and puppy like she still is. I color corrected her eyes and brought out the catch lights. I was so happy to be able to get a photo of a canine today with some help. I find it works a lot better when you have someone to help you out.

Lots of Love Can Come in Small Packages

I have tried working with the dogs but find it very difficult not because they are so much harder to handle but because I hate to look into their faces, and once one pup is up they are all up and barking "come play with me!" As soon as I went into the first dog kennel I had to make a loop, get rid of my pup-eronni, and get the heck out of there. It was so over whelming for me I decided to shift my attention to the new small animals WCAS  has recently acquired.
There are two new female guinea pigs and three large male rats. Being a former Guinea pig owner I of course ended up favoring little miss Ice Cream and Curious. Holding the two again brought back tender memories of my two girls I had in high school.

Curious giving me little kisses before our photo shoot

 This is a photo a had to get of me and Curious. They were both so patient and not skittish at all for how young they are. It can be very difficult trying to capture a good portrait of these babies without another volunteer helping with handling. However, I couldn't of asked for better subjects! I held them each against my chest so they would get comfortable with my smell and body temperature. Then I would hold Ice Cream

Ice Cream

 or Curious

Curious

In my left palm holding them out far enough that they were still balanced and I could rotate them to get the angles I wanted. Knowing how guinea pigs love to jump I had to make sure they didn't just decide to spring out of my palm at any given moment. But again they did not seem to be too afraid of me and were very cooperative with the camera.

Ice Cream

Do not let their size fool you these ladies are only 4 months old and seem to be sisters!

Single Felines Seeking New Homes...

A couple weeks ago I read through one of Christina's blogs. She mentioned one of the shelter volunteers introducing her to Streaker, a loving female cat. When walking through the cat rooms I noticed that Streaker had been put on deposit along with about 5 other cats awaiting their new owners. Sadly I was not able to find any of the cats I had taken photos of previously with adoption tags but there were a lot missing, such as Zachary Binx. It makes me wonder if that is because they fell vulnerable to the leukemia out break or because (hopefully) they were adopted during my time away from the shelter.

Streaker

 

 

Streaker here is a sweet little girl who has been recently adopted after calling the WCAS home for about 3 months. Hopefully she will have plenty of bed space and toys to play with at her new home very soon.

Responsibility is Key

After being a pet owner for the past 3 years I think a responsible pet owner is one that can balance caring for their pet with their own life. They cannot be selfish with their time because they realize their pet needs them for things they cannot do themselves like letting them go outside to pee or changing the litter box. Although it can be less maintenance to self feed the animals it is bad for them so a good pet owner should have a schedule with their pet for meal and treat time. Most important of all is that the owner is willing to take the animal to the veterinarian when it develops a new need or is due for their yearly exam. Pets are time and money and a younger volunteer agreed, when I asked her what qualities she thought were found in a good pet owner. She elaborated more on the funding that it takes to care for a pet, especially a dog. She said that a lot of the visitors that end up adopting do not take the time to marinate  on the idea of exactly how much work this living thing is going to take for at least the next 5-10 years. I speak to Angela a lot when I am visiting the cat room and she says it drives her crazy when all of these young girls come in thinking “oh I’m just going to pick out a little kitten or puppy” and they never think (because they have never had to) how much that new pet is going to drain from their lives especially if they plan to go to classes and care for themselves. For my photo of a responsible pet owner I decided to choose the shelter house cat, Zack. Originally I was going to choose my friend’s cats as my subject but when I was on my way out I saw him…he was laying in what seemed to be his own cloud of pillows in the hall cleaning himself. I just couldn’t help it I had to bother him for a snap shot.

Surrenders

Most pet owners surrender their pets because they are moving and cannot bring the animal along or because the owner just did not know how to care for the pet. I feel like pet owners are more willing to surrender cats over a dog. Whether it is a cat or a dog that was previously owned they both get used to and love the owner that fed and cared for them. I imagine they think they did something wrong and are probably so confused and scared being around all of the different personalities in the neighboring cages. A couple of cats that caught my attention this week were Morgan, Smokey, Strawberry, and Nala. This week I brought a little feather cat toy and they ate it up!

Strawberry
2y Female
53385

Strawberry especially, it was very difficult trying to get her to sit down on all fours. You could tell she was a very playful and loving kitty, exposing her belly to me and purring when I picked her up. Strawberry’s  owners brought her to the WCAS because she did not get along with the other pet.  Understanding that she is 2 years old, this is more than likely not her first experience in a shelter.

At the shelter Angela introduced me to Morgan.

Morgan
3y1mo Female
#51108

Morgan was unwillingly surrendered by her owner who could no longer afford her because of emergency health problems with her senior cat (15 years old). Her information sheet says she loves toys, attention, and gets along well with other cats! It was very hard for me to walk away from her once we were acquainted. Not only is she beautiful but I know my Fred-Weezy would love her. Both Nala and Smokey were brought in because their previous owners were moving and could not bring the cats with them.



Nala
1y Female
#32888



Nala rivaled Strawberry in her playfulness but at least sat still long enough for me to photograph her.

Smokey
5y Male
#51933

Smokey had been raised from a kitten for five years with his family and brought to the shelter in late April. He is so soft and mellow I wanted to take him home on the spot.

Animal Turn Over

When collecting a head count for day 2 blogger, I accidentally counted through all four cat rooms and received a number of approximately 40 news cats. More shocking than that this week was the number of empty cages I decided to count. A volunteer informed me that there had been an outbreak of feline leukemia earlier this week and they were forced to euthanize over 30 cats because the disease spread so quickly. Even a set of adopted kittens had to be called back, tested, and euthanized. It really puts a lot into perspective about how important it is to follow all dress guidelines so that we do not assist in these outbreaks. I became nervous after a while when a group of teenagers strolled in and wanted to take the cats out of the cages and play with them. It wasn’t long after I had asked two girls to put on gloves and gown that the cat next door to the kitten they were just handling proceeded to get sick. About an hour later a whole box of kittens (5) were assigned a temporary cage. Then when I was leaving the shelter there were three animals waiting in line to be vaccinated and replaced in their designated rooms. Cats especially are so overpopulated and they all have the potential to be loved. It is hard to grasp that such a sweet girl like Chole here could be the next because of her age and the demand for more cages and fast.

Meet Diana a social photogenic orange tabby that has been at the WCAS since May 9^th. There could be a couple reasons why Diana has not found a home including that she is a orange tabby and most tabbys tend to be looked over for a tuxedo or calico. Another could be because her online photo does not show how much personality she really has. 

Improvements

Theo
1 yr
Male Grey-Tabby
#53053

 Theo is a hefty young man that tends to keep to himself it seems. He was not too interested in me or the opening of his cage door. He just kept dosing off and every once in a while would give me one of these looks that you see above. I'm concerned that I might have dodged his catch lights too much that they might of dulled his soft green eyes. I believe the strength in the portrait is how white his whiskers are and the brightness in the tips of his ears help them perk up a bit. I cannot remember if I took a long time working with this little guy but I do wish I could of caught him in a more regal pose. He also seems to be giving me a little evil eye or maybe it is just lazy because he was so sleepy. The white on his chest I feel like could of been brightened a bit more but I also do not want to make the photo have a fake direction of light. Would anyone have any suggestions on how I might could tackle that issue in the future?

Oh Mr. Zachary Binx

This is my online album link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/115349954098816350467/WCAS_5_22_11#



I have enjoyed visiting the animals so far and hope to increase my hours next week. After volunteering a couple times this week t is still hard to tell where these babies might have come from. Most I would assume to be strays, un fixed and ran wild, but a majority of these animals always seem to be surrendered. A lot of owners have the pet and then have to move somewhere that does not allow the pet or they get a job that does not give them the time they need to devote to caring for these animals. It is so sad and breaks my heart that these guys were once cuddling on a couch or foot of a bed and are now confined to a somewhat small crate prison.

Zachary Binx is a smooth operator with a lot of love. When I first went to capture him he was a bit busy but once I came back I was so glad I gave him another chance. He was laying in the back of his cage up on his shelf like a little gentleman. And with just a little change in exposure and added catch lights the result was fantastic. I hope it finds him a home very soon.

Metadata

Metadata is essentially information about your photos such as tags, namespace, fields, etc. It can be very helpful to anyone searching to add order to their photo albums. It is a partner for making the most of your images and helps you sort and find, control authorized uses, and pinpoints them on a map to make them look their best. Metadata is to provide information about your photographs ranging from the date the picture was made and what camera was used, to what kinds of concepts the photo helps illustrate. It also helps to record image adjustments in the dark room. Tags refer to some specific property of an image file and can be attached with key words to later identify them easier. This can make it easier for me by putting everything into a sorted category which can be key in large libraries. A namespace describes the field and may limit the type of entry that can be entered. For example we are instructed to label our albums “WCAS_mo_day_yr,” a namespace can make certain field only allow this format. A collection of namespaces is called a schema which can be published by anyone. I feel like the most useful part of metadata for me in this course is knowing how to properly tag in a field as well as knowing what EXIF, XMP, and IPTC means will also help me log my photos properly.

This is Minnie, a hefty gal with lots of energy. I used the motion/sport adjustment on my DSLR to capture her quickly. She kept wanting to play and jump out of her top story cage so this was almost my only way of capturing her pretty little face. I think this photo captures her beauty and especially those big bright eyes of hers. Her body is not in the composition with respects to her figure (haha).

Before and After Chicago

I introduce to you Chicago:

She was such a wonderful subject. I assume this was taken when she was first brought in almost over a month ago! She is very friendly and such a cutie. Unfortunately her previous photo does not show how curious and precious this little beauty is. The blue hand is more in focus it seems than the face of Chicago. There is a glare from the flash in the far back right that is distracting my eyes. Chicago's eyes are milky looking from being drowned out by the flash and it therefore does not show her bright green eyes. The blanket and cat toy are a bit distracting to the background along side such a little kitten.

Chicago

Spayed Female

Domestic Short Hair Orange Tabby

Age: 8mo Wt: 5.25lbs

Shelter Since 4/26/11

#51712

In this photo I have brightened the exposure of the entire composition and added dodge layers to the ears eyes and tip of the nose. The catch lights are a little whiter but over all the raw photo was already pretty good. But it helps having such a good model. I hope this will improve her adoptability from her original online and kennel photo. It makes her seem more open and willingness to be held and cuddled. She seems to be saying "that's right I am the one you want."

The Power of a Good Portrait

When spending another few hours with the felines the other day I was drawn ultimately to the fat cats that had obviously once had owners. I hate to see animals that were once house pets go into a shelter. I feel like all they think about is "what did I do momma?" Other than that I feel obligated to try accomplishing the impossible in getting good portraits of the shyest little cats and kittens. many wont come from the backs of their cages and one shy girl kept playing games with me when I would open her cage door, she went into her cabinet and when I would open her cabinet she would then return to her cage and this continued for a good 5-10 minutes and I just had to give up, I was working up too much of a sweat and getting a little impatient.
This is Moxy

Moxy

ID 52252
4yrs 10.9lbs
Domestic Short Hair mix, Tortoiseshell 

Moxy has been in the shelter since the beginning of March due to abandonment followed by a surrender to the shelter. He is shy and not fond of dogs but loves to be rubbed on. He is so handsome and elegant. Although this photo has a good depth of field I still wanted to portray him as the little prince he really is. The exposure of the photo is OK but seems to have hit a bright spot on the left side of the cage that kind of drowns out his pretty coloring. The catch likes are predominant making him look less cuddly and more mischievous, he can also seem a little frightened even though he is not curled back into a corner.

In this photo I have brightened Moxy's eyes and edges of his ears. The fronts of his paws are lightened as well as the highlights on the bridge and tip of his nose. I lightened the background to try and bring him forward a little in the composition. His eyes glow with subtle catch lights and his pose makes him look proud. He is a very independent kitty with a touch of mischief. I feel like the photo brings out his personality to make him more adoptable to his perfect owner.

The Cost of Cuteness

There are several shelters in North Carolina and at least one in every county. Each have their own set costs for adopting your pet and for very good reason. According to a WCAS worker "there must be a fee to adopt or even reclaim a cat dog or small animal, because if we just let the animal go for free we have no clue whether or not that new pet owner is going to have the funds to take care of the animal, including taking the animal for all of its vaccinations." This volunteer chooses to remain anonymous but I completely agree. The fee at the Wake County Shelter is $95 to adopt a dog and $45 to adopt a cat. This fee includes FIV testing for cats as well as de-worming and all vaccinations/shots. The animal is not allowed to leave the shelter without being neutered/spayed due to over breeding and owners letting their pets run wild. If the animal did not have to be spayed/neutered by the shelter the fee drops to $15 for cat and $45 for a dog. Even if the animal entered the shelter as an un fixed stray and its rightful owner comes to pick it up even that same day, the owner pays a fee which includes the animal being spayed/neutered. Prices my vary due to the animals specific needs while in the shelter. In the past some dogs and cats were over $100 to adopt but according to WCAS lower prices intise the public to come in and at least look around. If an individual would like to foster to adopt the fee is $200 which is then refunded when the pet is formerly fixed and adopted.

This is my little guy that I adopted from the Durham shelter. Although the shelter accidentally gave him to me still un-fixed I have recently called them to schedule an appointment, and with no questions asked the front desk set me up to bring him in with in the next week. It is so important to have these animals fixed not only because of over breeding but because it can cause many health problems in the future. Oz is a surrender with high separation anxiety. He was so miserable when I saw him in his cage shaking. As soon as I took him out he was so playful with his tail waiving straight up like a "happy flag." He was also un-groomed in both his online photo and when I went to visit him. I had no idea he was such a cutie pie. Regardless of having my cat, Fred-Weezy, for two years prior to adopting Oz, it became very relevant that raising a dog is a lot more difficult than taking care of a cat. After adopting Oz in February I knew what it was like to go from simple carefree cat owner to some what of a stressed single mother over night. Having a dog is a completely different experience than owning a cat. I am happy about my adoption but it was a very difficult transition especially in the middle of the semester. I am relieved that Ozzy and I are now in a routine but I do regret making such a quick decision just to get him out of a cage.
Fred-Weezy (pictured below)

Critter Introductions

In the Shelter on Wednesday I entered what felt like a hectic office setting with small offices and a welcoming committee named Zack. It was very bright from the fluorescent lighting and a little over whelming with all of the guidelines and room changes due to disease outbreaks. The cat room was not so bad you could not hear the barking dogs too bad. The dogs rooms on the other hand were very noisy with nervous and frightened dogs of all breeds and sizes. I'm sure they all have different personalities which they can sense from each other much like humans so I can imagine how anxious they all must be. I smelt cleaning products in some kennels which wasn't too strong for me but might be over powering to some of our canine friends. kneeling own to the animals level seems to make them feel a little more comfortable some you could tell had been abused in one way or the other. But imagine being shuffled around room to room with giants walking and pulling you around. Couldn't be a comfortable situation for anyone.

Although I was able to capture several pictures of the kitties after orientation I still thought I would choose this photo as my best because I feel like it represents what Dr. Johnstone had mentioned about the sad commercials using frail puppies, dogs behind bars, and one eyed cats to try and quilt people into adopting/fostering homeless animal. It was very unfortunate that we couldn't stick our hands in and pet them all. I could imagine that being very sad and traumatising for the animals as well. I look forward to giving them some love.

Day 2 with Jeffry

I have a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera. The pros of my camera tend to out weigh the cons, it has a better high ISO quality and can automatically control the depth of field. It tends to take sharper photos because the lens is highly sensitive. It can be difficult to operate and very bulky compared to the compact point and shoot. Most of the time a DSLR will run the consumer anywhere from 100 to thousands of dollars. The file size also tends to be a lot larger and needs resizing when transfered to a computer. When using the DSLR flash is better left off because it will capture the brightest elements of the composition and make them brighter drowing out the subject matter.

Jeffry - This is photo of Jeffry the three legger. It is very difficult capturing the character of a black dog because light is absorbed in their coat. With the DSLR I was able to capture his big brown eyes with catch lights. He is smiling with great depth of field with the subject in focus and its surrounding are blurred.

Tails Wagging for a New Experience

Holly Susan Demyan
Graphic Design and Studio Art (Minor)
This will be my second year attending Meredith and my forth year of college courses. Hope that taking this course will contribute to my major by expanding my knowledge of the web and it's graphics. I look forward to spendig time at the shelter and assisting in finding cuddly babies (the animals) a forever home. I like to think of myslef as a young activist when it comes to helping animals that had gone astray or dropped off because of over breeding or their owner just couldnt handle taking care of another being. I hope to learn more about the shelters themselves as well as how to choose my composition when photographing animals as well as knowing the guidlines for images on the web. This course will overlap my CS course Web Design which I am also currently taking. I have taken one online course prior to this semester and it proved to be difficult. I hope to stay ahead in my volunteer hours. I would like to collect my photots in the begginig of the week so that i can work on photoshopping the other half. Really excitied for some criter interaction!