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!