Professional Photographer Uses Her Camera To Save Shelter Animals
TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A Colorado based photographer is spending her week in our area saving shelter pets with her camera.
Everyday, Nanette Martin works at her dream job.
She is founder of “Shelter Me” Photography, whose goal is to improve society’s perception of homeless pets using professional photography and education.
This week, Martin is donating her skills at the Tupelo Lee Humane Society. She is taking photos of every pet and gives the images to the shelter to be posted online.
Martin says how a pet is photographed can play a huge role in whether it’s adopted or not.
“Photographing an animal behind the bars, inside a cage, inside anything that shows restraint, especially a catch pole, those things can scare people away,” Martin said.
Instead, she says to get level with the animal, and don’t be shy.
“You got to be willing to make a nut out of yourself, just be silly, loud, be obnoxious, but also be quiet and sensitive when it needs it if you have a scared dog,” she said.
And she stresses eye contact.
“You got to do whatever it takes to get the animal to look into your lens, and that’s critical because the person looking at the picture is now looking into the eyes of the animal and when there’s going to be an emotional reaction to the animal, it is going to start through eye contact,” Martin said.
Martin shares her skills at workshops in each city she visits. Nellie Tyra is a professional photographer and says she learned a lot.
“Using the background and making the dog stand out, rather than having, usually I do the outdoor pictures here, but having the background in the set up will make such a big difference,” Tyra said.
Martin has photographed more than 10,000 shelter animals.
Nanette Martin will travel to Monroe, Louisiana next. Her work is sponsored by Purina.
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