• an exercise buddy?
• a best friend and confidant for your child?
• a dog you can train with to learn animal-assisted therapy?
• a partner in agility competitions?
• a constant companion for your favorite senior citizen?
• a fuzzy face to greet you after a hard day at work?

You may recall Missy, the emaciated beagle who had

hundreds

I wanted to share with you my wonderful experience as a result of my adoption of my Miniature Poodle, Lulu. I adopted her from Paws 4 You Rescue a year ago.

I am celebrating the anniversary of Lulu's adoption with a donation to Paws and I encourage all of you who have been

blessed with your four-legged family member to do the same. When I adopted Lulu, I already had my other baby (my female toy poodle Faye) who was 12 years old. Faye seemed tired and bored before Lulu came into our lives and I thought some canine company would help her.  

I thought long and hard about it because I feared that Faye would feel jealous and displaced. I felt guilty that I was now going to have to divide my love between them. What I discovered, however, is that I had plenty of love to go around for both of them. The adjustment period only lasted a couple of weeks. Faye has transformed. She no longer sleeps all day. When Lulu gets up and goes to the door, so does Faye. When Lulu wants a treat, so does Faye, when Lulu plays with her purple bone, Faye plays with her own toy.  

Faye is the perfect dog. She is kind and gentle. She doesn't bark or jump on furniture. Lulu is mischievous, she barks and although she is almost 7 years old, she wants to play all of the time. Then there are moments that she stares at me with these deep, dark eyes where you can see the kindness of her soul.  I feel blessed that I am able to give Lulu a home and that I was able to give Faye a companion. She has brought laughter, joy, excitement and love into our lives.

Thank you, Anastasia 

You don't need to be a professional photographer or even have professional gear to take a great photo! Just a few simple things to keep in mind will help your photos turn out consistently better. Number one -- Turn. Off. Your. Flash!
Flashes on almost all cameras (phones included) are directly above the lens. When your subject is looking at the lens, they're also looking directly at the flash, and we've all seen the glowing yellow and red eyes on both pets and people when that flash goes off. So if your camera has capabilities of turning that off, please please do.

Now that your flash is off, you'll need some other light source to illuminate your subject. And you'll need a lot of it. So number two -- don't take your foster photos at night. Even with lamps on, there's not enough light to get a nice image that shows their features and makes people jump to adopt! I know we're all busy and nighttime is when you're usually home with them, but I encourage you to wait until you have a couple minutes during the day. Maybe before you head to work, when they're looking longingly up at you for breakfast, or when you get home and they're happy to see you.

Which leads us into number three -- use the sun! Even though it's daytime, you need to get your subject as close to the light as possible, and that means taking them outside. If you're fostering a cat, or it's raining outside, or you just like the cozy look of a dog curled up on a chair, you can use window light. But first let's talk about outside. Not all light is created equal, and there's a couple rules to follow to get a nice image outside. The ideal place to take your foster photo, if you can, is in what's called "open shade." That basically means to find patch of grass that's shaded from the bright sun by a nice, big, solid shadow. That could be from a building or a fence, or some trees (but be sure to look at tree shade and make sure it's not dappled with sunlight). They're in the shade, you're in the shade, and whatever is directly behind them is in the shade (maybe have the house behind them). You should get an evenly lit photo with nice bright eyes. These photos work well when the dog is looking up at you, and with lighter-colored dogs. Just make sure there's nothing super bright behind them, or you'll get an underexposed blur of a dog. Alternatively, you can shoot in full sun. This works particularly well with black dogs. Just keep an eye out for shadows.... make sure your shadow isn't falling on the dog, make sure his face isn't half-shadowed, etc. If it is, just move around a bit until you can see the sun illuminating his entire face. You can shoot these any time of day that's convenient for you, but the ideal times are in the early morning or early evening, when the sun isn't so harsh. I don't recommend shooting white dogs in full sun, try to keep them in the shade. If you're really lucky, you'll have an overcast day with no harsh sun or dark shadows, and then you can shoot wherever you please! 

Let's go back indoors for a minute. You need to get your fosters as close to a window or patio door as possible. This is especially important for black pets..... their fur soaks up the light, so you need even more of it. Don't shoot toward the window, keep yourself and your camera between the window and the animal. You can be off to the side, you can be up against the window, you can be looking down at them on the floor. Don't be afraid to move furniture! Most people have furniture facing away from windows, toward the tv or center of the room. Spin that chair around so the dog on the seat is facing the window. Move your couch a few feet away from the window and shoot the cat up on the back of the couch. You don't need a big, bright house with lots of giant windows.... you can do just fine even if you only have one small window.  

Remember to try to get a few different shots of your foster, rather than all of them looking up at you from the ground. Get down on their level. Get farther away so you can see their full body, then get closer to get a nice face shot. Adopters want to envision this animal in their lives, in their homes..... show them having fun, chewing on a bone, playing with a toy. The more expression and personality you can capture, the more likely someone will take interest, and you can move onto your next foster!

You can find Sarah Beth (and her great blog) at SarahBethPhotography.com, but only if you live in Minnesota can you hire her!