:: giving back | washington dc pet photographer ::

As you may have already guessed, my biz name and logo are inspired by my 3 hilarious children and 2 obstinate beagles. I am not kidding when I refer to my household as "The Circus."

As a lifelong pet lover and owner, I am always thinking of ways I could give back to the pet adoption community. For a few years, I worked with B.R.E.W (Beagle Rescue Education and Welfare) as a home-check volunteer. After the children arrived, I found it hard to commit a big chunk of time to the cause.

Now that the children are a little older, I am again ready to volunteer my services to help the homeless pets in our local shelters. However, instead of serving as a home-check volunteer or foster parent, I've asked the Washington Animal Rescue League if I could take *free* professional headshots of their animals for their website and print material. My goal is to really showcase the available animals' true personalities and inherent beauty. Once the pet is adopted, I will then give the new parent(s) high-resolution digital negatives of the new members of the family as a keepsake.

While WARL is essentially still a shelter, it has several facilities improvements that make it quite cozy and homey for the animals: 1) the floor of each individual pen is heated and easily washed. 2) the glass ceiling over each glass-enclosed pen has a cascading waterfall that serves as a white noise machine that dampens noises. In addition, the staff and volunteers at WARL are phenomenal -- incredibly caring and conscientious.

Thank you, WARL for giving me this incredible opportunity -- I cannot wait to get started!

If you'd like to learn more about the Washington Animal Rescue League, or volunteer in any capacity, please visit their website. For more photos of the animals at WARL, please visit my Facebook page.

Pitbull X puppy - 8 weeks old. Sooo sweet!

WARL staff member cuddling with a chihuahua who was used for breeding in a puppy mill.

"Miss Moffett" from Baltimore - so affectionate and waiting for her adoption papers to go through.

Beautiful kitty inside the glass-enclosed pen.

Another pitbull X puppy - he and his brother used my camera strap as an enrichment toy.

Lantry, a 3-year-old hound X who reminds me so much of my hounds. He has been there for a while, but is sweet as can be. He is VERY well behaved and gentle, kudos to the trainers of WARL.