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.



Week 3 Photos

Hi everyone! My week 3 photos are ready to be viewed! Please follow the link and enjoy.  Week 3 starts with Margaret! Happy Memorial Day to all!

https://picasaweb.google.com/108564237120452087050/JPGs#

=)

Responsible Pet Ownership

This is James Lassinger from Raleigh, North Carolina
with Dakati, a 100 pound Red Huskey in Winchester, VA on May 26, 2011

Responsible pet ownership is an important topic to discuss or to contemplate when considering adopting a pet.  From my point of view, I believe responsible pet ownership entails have sufficient, safe, and monitored housing, care, and nurturing.  The animal should be regularly bathed and groomed, fed nutritious food, visit the vet regularly, be given an immense amount of love, and be provided with a safe and reliable home. 

When I spoke with Dawn a WCAS employee from Raleigh about what she believed responsible pet ownership includes she responded, “You must have enough time, space, and finances to care for a pet.”  She also explained that animals should remain active in order to stay healthy, which most parents neglect to focus on for their pets.  Dawn also noted that she sees irresponsible families come in and adopt a pet from the shelter that turn out not being able to care for the animal and return them too often. 

Lastly, I spoke with John from Roxboro, a shelter visitor about responsible pet ownership and he believes animals should be taken to the vet to get their shots and vaccinations, be played with several times day, fed regularly, and not be neglected at any time. 

Voluntarily Surrendered Animals

I struggle the most, emotionally, when I come across owner surrender sheets for the cats.  This is because those cats have lived their entire lives or the majority of their lives under a domestic roof. For the most part, these cats are surrendered due to medical or circumstantial displacement.  For example, 4 year old Marcy was surrendered because a family member was allergic to her. 

Marcy is a little over 4 years old and has been in the shelter since April 29^th, 2011.




Moxy is an 11 pound Domestic Short Hair, she has been in the shelter since May 5^th 2011.  Her previous parents surrendered her because they had too many pets to take care and did not have the finances to support her.



Waffles was also surrendered. He is a 10 year old Domestic Long Hair cat who is most comfortable in your lap.  Waffles loves to be loved and deserves every bit of it.  He also highly enjoys kitty toys.   He was surrendered because his owners were moving and stated they could not take him with them. 

Animal Turn Over

     Unfortunately, the last four or five days have been the hardest to tolerate at the shelter.  This is because it is currently kitten season and small kittens carry the most germs/ bacteria and have severely spread the epidemic called Pan Leuk throughout the cat rooms within the last week. This disease kills adult cats within a few days to a week and kills kitten within a day or two.  For the last five days I have observed that approximately sixteen cats, whom I’ve gotten to know very well, are no longer in their cages or are not part of our world anymore.

     Throughout my volunteering I have been able to maintain my emotions and be immune to the reality around me until I personally noticed a shelter employee physically remove four cats I had recently finished photographing.  After this occurrence I instantly became extremely aware of the amount of cats that were missing. 



     Overall, there were surprisingly about four to six new cats in each room.  I was previously informed that the shelter’s turn-over rate was 40% but I didn’t completely understand what that meant until I witnessed the process with my own eyes.  I assumed the public would adopt some of the cats instantly because most have wonderful personalities.  However, unless you visit the shelter daily, one would not learn their personalities unless they spent more than a few hours with each cat. 

This is Stephanie. She is an 8 year old Calico.  Her impoundment number is 53041.  She is a die-hard smush and a playful ball of fun.  She has most likely not been adopted because she is considered “old” to potential adoptive parents who may also think adopting her would not be worth it. 

Re-do! Re-do!

Last week I felt as though I took as many photos as I physically could in order to help the most cats in need.  However, at the same time I struggled to effectively photo-shop several pictures.  This is where I struggled with academic values and what I thought was ethically correct.  As a result I included one photo within my “21” collection in order to just get the picture of the cat out there.  In the end my decision did not necessarily help me academically. 

I took this photo of Daisy on May 14th, 2011.

Although the photo was not my best work, I do feel there are some strengths to it.  In my opinion, I feel the catch lights, camera angle, and the expression of the subject complement the photo nicely.  The catch lights in both eyes help supply life and a soul to the cat.  Catch lights grab the attention to peoples’ hearts and therefore may help the animal to get adopted more easily.  The angle of the camera captured the cat’s entire body from the tip of its longest whisker to the end of its tail.  Also, the angle of the camera helped portray the size and physique of the cat.  Lastly, the cat’s facial expression suits the critter perfectly.  It seems discontent, which it’s not, but curious and interested at the same time. 

On the other hand the photo has several areas of improvement.  These issues include exposure, depth of field, focus, and distractions.  The lack of exposure makes the photo appear dull ad grey and therefore unattractive.  Since I did not capture any shallow depth of field the photo looks flat and stagnate.   As you scan the cat’s face you may notice that it is also slightly out of focus within the eyes and head.   In the end, the surrounding objects or distractions bordering the cage removes the viewer’s attention away from the cat’s face, which negatively affects the critters potential for adoption.