Arizona Animal Welfare League: Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The camera has been used to take better photos of animals and the knowledge obtained at the seminar is going to be shared at our workshop scheduled for 8/11. Additionally, our long time cat photographer has worked with me to change the settings on her camera and is now producing outstanding cat photos (she had awesome ones to begin with and now they are even better).

We are still working on developing a standardized process for photos and have a drafted version sent to management for review. Outside of this, the photographers are sharing ideas and helping each other with the knowledge learned. In fact, one was surprised to know that a cat photo was done in a room full of cats and distracting backgrounds. When I explained about the apertures and settings they asked for some advice. Of course it was shared since we are all in this together and now I have other volunteer photographers asking me for help.

How many pets did this grant help?

I cannot put a number on it because the photo is just one factor getting the public to come to the shelter but we do know that a good photo makes a world of difference.

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

We try to rotate our photos periodically, but Chelsey is one dog who we expect to help. Chelsey started at our shelter a couple of years ago. After sometime, she was adopted and living a wonderful life. Not long ago, her family fell on hard times and Chelsey found herself back at the shelter. While it is sad that she has returned, she is well loved and gets plenty of attention from everyone. Since she is a big girl, it will take a special family to adopt her but we know it will happen. The attached photo is from a fourth of July photo session at the shelter. We chose the unique characters for her name because it fits her personality well.