Rescue adoption portraits. If you follow my social media accounts, you will often notice photos with a tag of an animal rescue. Those portraits are taken for the sole purpose of finding a forever home for the pet. They are invaluable in my opinion. It immediately describes the pet and gives you a visual look into their souls. I have personally seen dogs that have not been adopted in months suddenly get some updated photos and people become interested. This is wonderful news. I love hearing from the rescue volunteers, they saw your photos and called to schedule a meet and greet. 

Describe your dog to me, well he has a cute bushy tail and floppy ears. It's extremely hard to describe a dog. They all look unique to me and have interesting characteristics. A nice clean photo of an adoptable animal does wonders for that pet and their chances of getting adopted. Blurry, non professional photos are often overlooked. A professional photo with composition and nice color helps to bring attention. 

Over the years of volunteering for various dog rescues, I have personally photographed hundreds of pets in the Las Vegas area. The photos have helped bring awareness to the adoptable pet and sped up the process of finding a forever home. 

The majority of the adoptable animals arrive to the shelter and they are dirty, scared, and not in the best shape for a portrait at that time. They often are on a slip lead tied to the wall so that they can snap an intake photo, probably at the worst possible time for the photo to be taken. The caretaker is also trying to move as many pets thru intake as possible. That number could be in the hundreds, daily. 

There was a day at the shelter that I photographed over 70 dogs in a two hour window of time. This was important as the photos were immediately used to the benefit of the adoptable dogs. When volunteering with rescues, it's best to work as quickly as possible to get as many portraits as you can.  My extensive work with animals helps me to quickly photograph pets in changing outdoor environments.

Rescue Pet photography is extremely rewarding. I often get to meet these wonderful animals and they have only ever showed me love and affection. If I have more time with the pets, I often get to hear the rescue stories. I have personally photographed dogs that have been found running the streets for days. Dogs who have been put on the kill list given hours to live and then rescued, and those dogs seem to know that they were saved. The look of love on the face of a rescued animal is great, they know that they were in a bad place and now it's going to be all better! 

Another great qualities of photographing rescues is that I am able to try a few new methods. I will often bring different photography tools and backgrounds. The ability to try various things helps keep my pet photography evolving and unique. 

You will notice a link on my website to Animal Rescues, those rescues are some of my favorite in town. Bark Gallery has a few portrait fundraisers for the rescues listed at various times throughout the year. 

Bark Gallery- Rick VIerkandt

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