Often I hear about volunteer photographers who get “turned away” from their local shelters because the shelter staff believes that their photos are already good enough. I always encourage these photographers to ask for a 60 day trial — just to prove how much difference it will make in speeding up adoptions. Sometimes the shelter staff is not even willing to do a trial. At this point, the photographer doesn’t have a lot to lose — so they might as well throw a few “before and after” shots on the table and hope that these dramatic visuals do the trick.

Here is an example from my friends at the Dallas Fort Worth Dachshund Rescue Foundation. We photographed this little girl at our workshop this last weekend and the rescue group was shocked when they put the two photos side by side. You can do this!