The Central California SPCA shelter receives a copious amount of animals that need forever homes on a daily basis. Our adoptions/rescue/foster team has been working diligently at advertising the animals we have available on social networking sites, such as Facebook, and our website. We have recently made improvements in the quality of pictures taken of available animals which have dramatically increased our number of our adoptions!
Last year we began taking photography workshops provided by the Shelter Art Foundation. The Shelter Art Foundation’s mission is to teach shelter staff and volunteers improve their photography skills to provide professional quality pictures of animals needing a forever home. According to the Shelter Art Foundation’s website “[the foundation] was created to help shelters improve their online effectiveness.”
The workshops begin with the basics of photography and advance increasingly according to the shelter’s individual need. They provide information for studio lit conditions, how to properly compose an image, and post-production editing skills. The Shelter Art Foundation also lends photography equipment to shelters until the shelter has the funds to buy their own equipment.
The Shelter Art Foundation was founded in 2010 by photographer Steve Sloop. Steve created this non-profit foundation after volunteering with his local SPCA shelter. He realized that their shelter’s staff and volunteers lacked the skills to produce beautiful images of their animals for online effectiveness. “Their pictures [the local shelter took] were like mug shots,” said Sloop.
Knowing he had photography and education skills, he began to teach the staff how to capture the perfect image of their animals. He expanded his foundation by finding other shelters with the same lack of skills. Today he gives workshops to nine shelters nationwide, of which the CCSPCA is delighted to be counted, and has taught over 100 staff and volunteers.
Steve graduated from a Los Angeles college with a Bachelor’s of Science in Education. He continued on to graduate and postgraduate school. Between his schooling, he had enlisted into the U.S. Air Force where he flew fighter planes. After finishing his education he flew as a private pilot. When he decided to retire, his wife insisted that he had “to do something with his time.” From that moment, he has dedicated his life to animal shelters. He currently resides with his wife and pets in Monterey County.
We want to thank Steve and the Shelter Art Foundation for helping us place even more of our animals in loving, forever homes just as quick as possible!
For more information about Shelter Art Foundation, please visit www.ShelterArtfoundation.org or www.facebook.com/ShelterArtFoundation.
And please enjoy some of the following great pictures just recently taken by our staff!
by Sasha Bell
