Week Three, Day One

This is Bobby (impoundment number A12834576). He was difficult to photograph because he didn't want to sit still. He was very active and playful. A strength of the photo is the Bobby's expression...it's very goofy and represents his personality. Another strength is the catch-lights are shown in Bobby's eyes. Also, the cropping is effective for making the focus be about the dog. Bobby looking at the camera is a strength as well.

Now for the areas of improvement. The bars of the gate being in the background are a definite need for improvement. The pictures are supposed to capture the animal's personality and make them look cute. However, with the bars in the background this reinforces the feeling of guilt of how the animal is in the pound. Another area of improvement are the catch-lights and uneven lighting. The eye on the left side is much brighter than the right. It would improve the picture to have both eyes exposed to the same amount of light. This is a challenge for me due to the kennel areas being small and narrow. Contributing to the catch-lights being unbalanced is the uneven lighting. To solve this problem, I would need to be able to take each animal out of his/her kennel.

To compensate for the uneven lights in the dog kennels, this week whenever I went to the animal shelter, I photographed more of the cats. The indoor lighting was more even and balanced. Also, whenever I did photograph a dog; I asked to take him out of the kennel area on a leech, this kind of worked. This technique took a very long time (a good twenty minutes for a not so great picture). The dog was just very excited to get out of the kennel and he knew how to get out of his collar, which he did twice. That's correct; he got off the leech twice. Luckily I was in a decent sized room and was able to get him back on the leech easily. So next week, I will try again... :)