What's in it For You?

There are several benefits you can get by volunteering as a photographer for your local animal shelter. Besides the obviously rewarding experience of helping these animals find homes, working as a shelter photographer gives you many chances to really practice your photographic skills.

After photographing over 150 animals at the shelter, my photographic timing has greatly improved. I am now much better at watching an animal in the viewfinder and tripping the shutter when just the right pose presents itself. This has helped me in in other areas of photography such as portraiture (of both animals and people).

I've also gotten a lot of practice using my equipment and experimenting with different techniques to get the best pose. When photographing dogs outside, I've learned to work with the available light whether it is sunny, shady, or snowing and I've learned how to use fill-flash in these different conditions to improve my images. When photographing cats and other small animals inside, I've learned how to use my camera in manual mode and work with my flash to get the best indoor exposures.

We've learned a lot about photography, animals, and ourselves working at the shelter. Of course, these are three topics one can spend one's life learning about and we look forward to learning more about them through many more years of service at the shelter.

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