Things are tough these days, so when I was looking for a new charity to work with this year - there were so many to choose from! But I started reflecting on how my life has changed after adopting our dog Ginger from the East Bay SPCA eight months ago, and it made me realize that a pet adds so much happiness to your life that even in these challenging economic times, a pet is well worth the investment. I have several EXCITING events in the planning stages with this wonderful organization, but to start out I spent part of a day photographing some very deserving animals to hopefully improve their chances of finding good homes. All of the dogs were involved in a cool program called TLC (Teaching Love and Compassion) which matches up kids in a local middle school with the dogs to train and love - but not necessarily adopt. Now they are graduating and wanted to have a good photo to give to their new friends. I worked with one of their awesome dog trainers, Ellen, and photographed all seven of the TLC dogs as well as one wonderful older cat in need of a loving home. All of the dogs had to have their leashes on for the photos - but natural light pet photography along with some tasty treats still made for some engaging images.
All of these dogs were great fun to work with and spend time with - they are each such characters and will make great pets for the right match. To find out more about their ages, breeds and personalities, you can contact the SPCA in Oakland to go meet these animals to see if you are a good fit. All of them except pow wow were available for adoption as of yesterday. For the record - if anyone brings Nicholas any where near my thirteen year daughter - the dog will never make it out of her arms again. He is a little teddy bear in a dog form! Although she would love to adopt any and all of these dogs if she could - which is why she will not be my assistant any time soon for this project!
(TIP - Click on any of the images to see it larger)
