Leaving My Paw Print Behind

AnnMarie Valea, Meredith College Class of 2011

Major: Business Administration

Minors: Economics & Studio Art

     I was interested in this course because I have a passion for animals and photography. This course combined the two while directing a purpose for our community and contributing to my experiential academic learning at Meredith College.  I enrolled in this course wanting to use my artistic abilities to help animals. 



I was informed a few days ago from a shelter visitor, that
the image posted for Shadow made her come in
to see such a handsome cat.  This was hard proof that
my photography impacts the WCAS in the most positive way.

     The most valuable parts of this course for me were the following: learning how the ASPCA and WCAS were different and why; adopting my first pet due to the animal exposure within this course: a 2 year-old Siamese-mix cat that I have named Stella Blue; learning and applying the Adobe Photoshop CS5 software with my brand new Nikon DSLR 3100 camera and learning how to use photography to better our world. 

     I did not expect to learn the functionalities of the shelter.  For example,  I learned how many animal cycles occurred daily and why,  how to handle each animal, the importance of sterilization for the shelter, why other volunteers volunteer, I learned why the animals enter the shelter and where they come from the most, I learned my volunteering and photography impacted the shelter but most importantly directly affected dozens of animals.  Overall, I learned the ins and outs of animal overpopulation and how to prevent it.  These were all things I did not expect to learn throughout this course.

     Lastly, photography can most certainly impact animal overpopulation by portraying the causes and effects to our entire community in an educational, thoughtful, and strategic way.  Photography can be applied to the shelter’s website, flyers, posters, event planning, and to help exhibit several of the desperate animals who are in dire need of homes.

"Be The Change You Want To See In The World"- Mahatma Gandhi

This photograph portrays a lot of feeling.  I find it shows the cats want for help.

 

    

This image was taken on a camping
trip- on the highway- in West Virginia.



     Animal overpopulation is a serious issue throughout the United States.  Animal overpopulation occurs when there are more stray or domestic animals than humans within a given population.  As a result of volunteering at the Wake County Animal Shelter, I have learned within the United States, the animal to human ratio is so unequal that humans resort to euthanasia to help combat the issue.   Also, during the past six weeks I have observed that dozens of cats and dogs have been euthanized throughout my volunteering.  Considering how many animals were put down over a month and a half at the WCAS I am able to predict that every year millions of animals, specifically cats and dogs, are euthanized at shelters throughout the United States.  Shelter euthanasia must be one of the leading causes of death for both species of animals.

This is one of my most beautifully edited and exposed photos.

     Unfortunately, I feel our society does not view animal overpopulation as a serious and tragic issue.  To my knowledge, there are no laws or regulations concerning spaying or neutering your pets. Thankfully laws against animal abuse exist; however, animal overpopulation is certainly a form of animal abuse (or murder) in the long run.  The only ethically successful method I have witnessed to combat animal overpopulation is spaying and neutering.  The other immoral, ignorant methods I have seen are physically forced barriers between animals in order to prevent “accidental” mating and euthanasia.  Setting up forced barriers is a pathetic attempt, in my opinion, and highly unsuccessful because human parents eventually give up and allow their pet(s) to mate or cause a significant amount of frustration for their animal.  Although euthanasia is highly successful in fighting animal overpopulation- it is terribly unethical. 

                Overall I feel our society and country can do much better.  Establishing ethical and animal-safe mandates for spaying and neutering would legally help control animal overpopulation.  Also, spreading awareness about this issue would significantly help teach millions of citizens in the United States and perhaps make them care about it. Relying on chance, lack of knowledge, and the cheapest method are not effective methods to reduce animal overpopulation.



I highly enjoy the spherical symmetry in this photo.



This photo of Maria and her baby proves how animals are desperate for food, safety, and shelter.

After photographing Streaker I planned a theme for my
 images-capture the most strikingly beautiful eyes.

Stephanie's eyes add to my collection.



I had reached a high peak for my
Photoshopping skills by the time I edited
this photo and I feel it resembles what I have learned.



This cat had to most uniquely colored eyes.



This is the cat I have adopted as a result from taking this course. 
She was previously known as Xena in the shelter.  I have re-named
her Stella Blue.  I pick her up on Monday.



 



Official Volunteer

This photo was taken of me on June 9th, 2011 by a WCAS employee.  I am cuddling a cat named Thomas in order to familiarize him with me and my scent.

I will absolutely continue to volunteer for the Wake County Animal Shelter after this course is over.  I have officially been a volunteer for the center for over a month now since I filled out all of the paper work at the beginning of the course.  I believe the shelter can never have enough volunteers and that it is important to give back to our community whenever possible. Both of these factors play a significant role in my decision to continue volunteering.  Also, I have highly enjoyed being part of the shelter and learning how it functions.  As a result of volunteering I am more aware and consider myself to be more ethical in terms of animal treatment and care.  The WCAS is an amazing establishment, I am proud to be affiliated with them.

Get To Know Your Pet!

    

     After thinking about my collaboration idea a little more I have decided a composed graphic poster would not benefit the shelter enough.  Step 1: Today, I concluded that a video clip of the individual animals would expose their personalities better than a written description and would aid any photographs attached to the critters biography.  My new proposed collaboration includes a 30 second video of the individual animals which will be located on the critters’ name and file on the Wake County Animal Shelter’s website.  In order for this to work, I would need to contact the shelter’s web designer or technology support team.  I have received great feedback from shelter visitors who have explained the enhanced photos our class has taken, enticed them to come in and meet the animal as a result of viewing their posted images online.  I believe the most realistic time to commence this plan would be right after our class ends.  The video clips would show the animals’ personal behavior, sounds, size and personality.  The video clips would be user friendly and extremely convenient to shelter visitors.  Step 2 and 3 would involve putting this idea into motion by contacting and setting up a meeting with the shelter’s website designer or go-to technology support team at the center- perhaps an individual who knows more about video editing than I.  However, my DLSR camera is absolutely capable of recording excellent video footage which would be of the same quality as my photographs. 

Both videos were taken from YouTube.  The video titled "Cheese" was copied on Sunday June 12th, 2011, which was recorded by the YouTube user 'lore1958' on December 24th 2006. Here is the URL link to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3SYBH_YU-k&feature=related.  The video titled "The Two Talking Cats" was copied on Sunday June 12th, 2011, which was recorded by the YouTube user "TheCatsPyjaaaamas" on June 28th, 2007.  Here is the URL link to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3U0udLH974.

Got Photography?

     Photography impacts Wake County Animal Shelter by significantly improving the images of homeless creatures which helps them find families and organizes the shelter’s web photos which promotes the center simultaneously.  The most direct effect photography has on the shelter is it enhances the animals’ photos that are listed on WCAS’s government website.  Most of the animals’ images are extremely unattractive and gloomy.  This decreases the chance the animals have to get adopted.  Photography depletes this issue because potential adoptive parents view warm and beautiful photos of the shelter’s animals instead which is more representative of their demeanor.  Photography helps paint visual pictures of the animals, without it the shelter’s website would remain very “hospitalized”.  In addition to adoptive benefits, photography has also helped WCAS to organize their critters and their website in a more professional manor.  Listing the name and impoundment numbers with the images of the critters makes them more accessible to the shelter’s staff.  Also, the website is welcoming and vibrant- photography helps to maintain this virtual atmosphere. 

This is Tioga, Amanda's favorite kitten.  She had asked me
to photograph him because she felt it was necessary to show
his cuteness to the public.  Amanda explained to me everyone
thought he was a mean kitten because he was so scared
the first day he was in the shelter.  Amanda asked me
to capture his true self. I find this image helps the shelter
because Amanda believes our work reflects the shelters
role in society and had the confidence in me to portary this
purr-fectly cute kitten as he is.

     My artistic skills enhance these impacts because I am able to expose the sparkling life from every photo.  I have developed a skill set vast enough to apply my Photoshop techniques in different ways.  For example, I have had many successes in creating an image of what the public might assume to be a feral stray cat based on the shelter’s website into a welcoming, wonderful, house cat.  I have used my editing skills to properly show the feelings and personalities of the animals.  My skills also help maintain the professionalism of the shelter’s website.  As a government funded institution the shelter must up keep their professional environment.  Therefore, my abilities are applied to create photographs using unique complex methods and techniques.

      Art can be but is not limited to painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, architecture, computer/digital design/graphics.  I believe all forms of art can help the shelter, by engaging the surrounding community in compassionate projects which will teach them more about the shelter and its purpose at the same time.  However, I believe computer design or digital graphics may be most beneficial to the shelter in order to keep the shelter up to date with modern society.  Perhaps creating billboards, signs, or propaganda will help expose WCAS to our society.  I can imagine working with a graphic computer scientist. I am not sure who I would physically merge with now but I can consider digital design to create professional shelter posters.

Set Out Runnin But I Take My Time

     I have learned several technological, ethical, and societal skills from this course.  I apply all three of these types of skills to my life on a consistent basis.  My academic and professional life revolves around technology, I consider myself to be an ethically-sound individual, and I constantly strive to contribute to our community.  As a result I have found this course to be significantly valuable to me.

     Primarily, the technological skills I have acquired include learning how to use the Adobe Photoshop CS5 software program, a DLSR camera, and how to use/update an online blog.  So far, I have already used my Photoshop techniques to edit photos for my summer internship to help promote our product.  I recently purchased a DSLR camera for this course specifically and I find the purchase a long term investment in which I will be able to use the camera for many years to come.  The camera is extremely high-tech and has many modes and functions in which I now understand how and when to use them.  Lastly, learning how to blog has been an incredibly fun experience.  I was unaware how easy and exciting blogging can be because my blogs focus on three of my passions: photography, animals, and giving back to the community. 

     Secondly, I have become more ethically aware as a result from learning how Wake County Animal Shelter functions.  I learned that several animals are admitted to the shelter daily due to negligence, irresponsibility, lack of motivation to care for a pet, financial circumstances, location displacement, and natural reasons.  Most importantly, I have learned that massive surpluses of animals are 100% preventable and curable by spaying & neutering your pet. Also, after reading several characteristic cards about some animals at the shelter I now have a better understanding of what taking care and adopting a pet means.

     Lastly, my societal skills have improved simply because I have submitted several volunteering hours at WCAS where I have contributed to the lives of many wonderful animals.  I notice our work as a class certainly helps the animals at the shelter and WCAS directly.  We improve the futures for dozens of animals and support the hard work from all of WCAS’s employees.  Although our course ends in just a week or so I plan to remain a WCAS paparazzi volunteer. 

     Overall, I find the online format of the course to be helpful yet debilitating at times. The online format allows us as students to manage our work at a personal time, location, and pace.  I highly enjoy this sense of freedom, especially because art is all about individuality and mostly-non structured compared to regimented general education courses.  On the other hand, the online spectrum completely prevents valuable and essential insight.  Artist desire regular feedback on their work and the online aspect prevents necessary verbal communication. 



As a result from this class, I was able to create this photograph using
my 'Photoshopping' and camera techniques in order to help promote a Festival.

 

This is what the image looked liked before I learned all my newly acquired skills.



Enriched Learning



This is Salem.  In order to capture this
photo I had to use my active shutter
speed mode.  Therefore, the photo
was flat without any depth of field.  I used
both the forced depth of field technique and
the sharpening technique to bring this image
to its best quality of life. 



    For the week I found both the forced depth of field technique and the sharpen technique to be the most valuable skills.  This is because depth of field within a photograph is highly critical in order to portray a photo of high quality because it gives the picture greater character and focuses the image at a particular part within the photo.  In the same light, the sharpening technique is also vital to quality photographs because it makes the picture clearer for the viewer to see. 

    On the other hand, the forced depth of field technique allows the photographer to positively and physically manipulate their photo in a technical sense.  For example, I have previously taken a photo with the active shutter speed mode which typically depletes or avoids depth of field within a picture.  Therefore, this new technique allows me to use the active shutter speed in order to capture a great photo and then I can go back to the image later and photo-shop it to its highest quality.

    Next, the sharpening technique simply enhances photos

beautifully, miraculously, and subtly.  After

editing photos, the sharpening technique allows me to

bring my pictures to life at the discretion to

the viewer.  Hence why this skill is a beautiful tool that is

necessary to make specific photos sparkle and shine.

The Other End of the Spectrum

     I normally photograph cats and kittens.  Over the last month or so I have become exceptionally accustomed to photographing cats because I have learned strategic techniques to capture catch lights, facial expressions, up close photo ranges, full body images, enhancing camera angles, and feline behavior.  However, this week I challenged myself to photograph at least one dog and one small critter, in this case, a guinea pig.  While attempting to capture these different animals I learned very quickly that photographing these animals was going to be very challenging. 
   

This is Dakota. She is a 2 year-old Siberian Husky.

   I initiated my photo adventure in the dog room.  Immediately, I thought to myself how I did not know any of the dogs within the shelter in terms or their personalities, kennel locations, and behaviors.  As an animal lover I know basic doggie behavior and can recognize various feelings by analyzing their ears, faces, and tails.  Unfortunately, I am not used to doggie voices, tones, and sounds. As a result, I remained hesitant to enter most of the dog kennels and only entered the cages with younger/smaller dogs or puppies.  My first challenge was getting the dogs to stay still and/or to stop jumping.  I was concerned I was not strong enough to protect myself or my camera if the dogs’ power dominated my own.   Next I learned the lighting within the dog room was darker and more artificial than the cat room.  Lastly, I felt as though being inside the dog kennel restricted my abilities to maneuver around in order to use great camera angles for my photos. 


Curious, the 4 month old guinea pig is always oh so curious.



     Next, I entered the small critter room where a couple of plump rats and cute guinea pigs cohabitated.  Inconveniently, I am deathly afraid of rats whether domestic or wild and therefore I stayed away from the rat cage. Instead I focused my attention on the guinea pigs neighboring the rats.  My first challenge was tackling the cage in order to open space to take a good photo without startling the critters.  Secondly, guinea pigs move and they move fast.  Thirdly, small critters also do not respond to calls or human sounds of nurturing like cats/dogs do, so this made it difficult to intrigue to small animals to look at the camera while capturing their catch lights. 

   

    Overall, I became acquainted with a female Husky named Dakota and a female guinea pig named Curious.  I learned photographing dogs would be most beneficial with a partner and outdoors in order to ensure a quality photo.  Also, carrying or bribing to doggies with a treat would help direct their attention toward my camera instead of my body movements.  For the smaller critters having an open space or cage would help increase my abilities to capture a good photo and having a partner/visitor/shelter volunteer would help control the guinea pigs’ movement. 



Home Sweet Home



    Since it is kitten time at the WCAS, the adoption rate for older or adult cats has declined.  Fortunately, 2 cats, one older kitten and one baby kitten have all found homes within the last  two weeks.  This is very good news considering the shelter experienced a severe Pan Leuk epidemic over the last couple of weeks which wiped out a solid majority of healthy kittens and cats.  The epidemic also prevented dozens of families from adopting.  The lucky winners this week are the following: Diana who has been in the shelter since May 9^th, 2011; Chicago who has been a friendly feline inhabitant since April 26^th, 2011; Lucy- one of the older kittens has been located at the shelter since May 24^th, 2011 and little baby Leonardo who has also only been at the shelter since May 24^th, 2011.  They have all been photographed and are shown in chronological order.  One important fact I must note is that WCAS makes it a priority to release their critters to suitable, loving families.  Please admire.





This is Diana, she is a 2 year-old short hair mix.





This is WCAS's most windy kitty Chicago. She is an 8 month old explorer!





Lucy! I'm Home!







Oh Leonardo! He is an adorable 3 month old heart breaker.