Week Six, Day Two

My name is Jess Zottoli. I'm a rising senior and my major is psychology. I will be attending graduate school for Family and Marriage Counseling.

My interest in this course developed last semester in Photo I. I truly enjoy photography and always have. I'm the type of person who everyone else gets annoyed with for taking so many pictures. Photography captures the moment and freezes time forever; how can anyone not be excited by that? With my foundation of photography in high school, developed in college; I wanted to strength my editing skills by taking this class.

The most valuable part of this course for me was the online aspect. Living three and half hours away definitely put me at a disadvantage for summer class options. However, this class was my saving grace. It was convenient and the online aspect definitely strengthened the class. As students we were easily able to see our peers work through blogging and sharing of pictures on Picasa. Furthermore, the online aspect allowed for individuals, like me, to branch out and show what other shelters are doing. It allowed the class to compare and contrast the shelters.

I've never really grown up with pets; my family made Harley a part of our family a little over five years ago but since I've been in college I haven't gotten to be around him much. He's a great dog but since whenever I was little I've actually been afraid of dogs. This class was a bit challenging to me at first because of this fear and uncertainty of the animals. But, my blog title says it all "tutti i cani devono amare" (all dogs need love). I wasn't expecting to overcome my apprehension of dogs but this class was certainly a stepping stone. While volunteering, I actually got a great picture of one of the biggest dogs at the OBX SPCA. I took him out of his kennel and into a play area, let him run around for a few minutes then he sat for a great picture. Who would have known that this big dog just wanted to play? I've heard this a time or two (dogs just want to play) but it was proven to me in this photo session.

Photography has the potential to show masses of people the reality of what truly happens in an animal shelter. With this capability, pictures can educate and inform society about animal overpopulation.

This is LEO. He is the big doggie that not many want to come near. His before picture had his eyes closed and he was foaming at the mouth. I went to just search for his old picture and it can't be found because he was adopted. Congrats Leo, I hope your improved picture found you a home!